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Cooling Castle

Castles in KentGrade I listed buildings in KentHistory of KentMedwayRuins in Kent
Tourist attractions in KentUse British English from June 2016
Cooling Castle gatehouse
Cooling Castle gatehouse

Cooling Castle is a 14th-century quadrangular castle in the village of Cooling, Kent on the Hoo Peninsula about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Rochester. It was built in the 1380s by the Cobham family, the local lords of the manor, to guard the area against French raids into the Thames Estuary. The castle has an unusual layout, comprising two walled wards of unequal size next to each other, surrounded by moats and ditches. It was the earliest English castle designed for the use of gunpowder weapons by its defenders. Despite this distinction, the use of gunpowder weapons against the castle proved devastating. It was captured after only eight hours when Sir Thomas Wyatt besieged it in January 1554 during his unsuccessful rebellion against Queen Mary. His attack badly damaged the castle, and it was subsequently abandoned and allowed to fall into disrepair. A farmhouse and outbuildings were constructed among the ruins a century later. Today the farmhouse is the home of the musician Jools Holland, while the nearby barn is used as a wedding venue.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cooling Castle (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.455441 ° E 0.523084 °
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Address

Cooling Castle

Cooling Road
ME3 8DT , Cooling
England, United Kingdom
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Cooling Castle gatehouse
Cooling Castle gatehouse
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