COOLING CASTLE

Kent

Licence to crenellate Cooling Castle was given to Sir John de Cobham in 1380, the previous year both the French and Spanish had sailed up the Thames and pillaged this part of Kent, so it's purpose was without a doubt defensive.  It is odd, then, that the Gatehouse faces away from the Thames!  The Castle seems to have been completed within five years, and a little plaque was put onto the Gatehouse which reads, somewhat sycophantically:

Knouwyth that beth and schul be
That I am mad in help of the cuntre
In knowying of whyche thyng
Thys is chartre and wytnessyng

Although this may have been added by a later Lord Cobham, in 1554, to please Queen Mary.

1554 was also Cooling Castle's greatest hour.  Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington Castle led a rebellion against Queen Mary's proposed marriage to Philip of Spain.  Wyatt, who was Lord Cobham's brother-in-law, laid siege to the Castle after the Battle of Strood.  The Castle only stood the siege for six hours, before Cobham surrendered.  This may have been why Cobham possibly erected the plaque, but it didn't stop Mary imprisoning his sons.

Cooling Castle was never reoccupied and for many years remained in private hands.  In 1998 it went up for sale and Rochester-upon-Medway Council proposed to buy it.  In 1999 the Council allowed it to be sold into private hands - the Inner Ward is now on private land whilst the outer ward and the Gatehouse are attached to Cooling Castle Barns where Andrew and Jacqui were married.

The Gatehouse is right next to the road though and easily visible - in fact, it is impossible to miss!

Andrew and Jacqui were married here in 2006.

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2019