Images: Reconstruction view of Kenilworth castle, ca. 1540, by S. Conlin for English Heritage (photo from site by C.A. Stanford); Kenilworth keep on mound; hall ruins, hall from Elizabethan reconstruction garden, hall from John of Gaunt wing; view of castle from tiltyard causeway (photos by C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1509
Kenilworth was a former medieval defensive structure converted, by the fifteenth century, into a prestige residence. Its gardens included an elaborate timber entertainment structure known as the “Pleasaunce,” originally built by Henry V. Henry VIII’s craftsmen reused its timbers to create a fashionable banqueting hall in the castle’s outer court, a triangular, walled enclosure. It has since been demolished, but its foundations may survive buried beneath the surface.
The castle was further embellished in Elizabethan times, but after the Civil War was no longer part of the Crown properties. Today its site is maintained by English Heritage, and is open to the public.