Wisbech Castle - a Catholic prison

Ancient castles are often associated with fairytales, royalty and romance. But many of Britain’s fortresses also mask a bloody past. Wisbech Castle is no exception.

A motte and bailey castle was built in Wisbech by William the Conqueror in 1072 to fortify Wisbech against Saxon rebels, led by Hereward the Wake. It was used to imprison Catholics and other dissidents in Elizabethan times. Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, two of the masterminds behind the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, were among those held in the dungeons. During the Civil War the castle was fortified to prevent royalists from invading the Eastern Counties.

William the Conqueror and the Normans

Wisbech Castle has undergone numerous transformations through the ages. It was first built as a fort in 1072, during the reign of William the Conqueror, to protect the Normans from a possible invasion by Hereward the Wake and his team of Saxon rebels.

The original castle was sited in Wisbech town centre, behind where the Crescent and Market Street are now situated.

It was a motte and bailey castle, probably built from wood and situated on a small mound with a keep at the top.

It was surrounded by a high wall and 40ft wide moat. A drawbridge was situated to the West. [Fortified England]

The Norman castle was badly damaged by flooding in 1236. Two centuries later it was rebuilt from stone.

Medieval times

During the Middle Ages, Wisbech Castle was used as a prison.

In 1315 Richard Lambert, of Lynn was illegally jailed in the castle. He was “so inhumanely gnawed by toads and other venomous vermin that his life was despaired of”. [British History Online]

Other prisoners kept in the castle included John de Dromore of Scotland in 1297, Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, in 1314 and John de Wilton in 1350. The latter was rescued by his wife and son, who assaulted the Bishop’s bailiff, threatened the constable and besieged the castle. Following the attack a garrison was installed. [Fortified England]

However, this did not prevent prisoners from escaping in 1360, when “many evildoers escaped to Walsoken and took sanctuary in the church there, from which they were rescued by other felons”. [British History Online]

A Catholic prison

In Elizabethan times Wisbech Castle gained notoriety for becoming a prison used to hold Catholics and other dissidents.

Some 33 English Catholics, mostly priests, were imprisoned inside the castle during the late Sixteenth Century. A group of them, known as the “Wisbech Stirs”, spent much of their incarceration quarrelling about theological matters. [Catholic Encyclopedia]

In 1572 the Privy Council consulted the Bishop of Ely on the suitability of sending Catholic inmates from jails around England to Wisbech Castle. Eight years later the castle was ordered to receive Catholics, derogatively referred to as “Papists”. [British History Online]

They included Lincoln Bishop Thomas Watson, who was held and died at the castle in 1587, and John Frecklingham, the last Abbot of Westminster, who also died at Wisbech two years later. [Fortified England]

Catholic prisoners were called “recusants”, a term used for anyone refusing to conform to the Church of England.

In 1598 Jesuit priest Christopher Holywood was arrested on his way to Ireland and incarcerated in the Gatehouse Prison, the Tower of London and Wisbech Castle. [Catholic Encyclopedia]

The first Catholics to be jailed at Wisbech faced strict discipline. They were kept in solitary confinement except for mealtimes and half an hour’s exercise each day. Later the regime was relaxed. “Servants were allowed to be kept, visitors to be admitted, friends to send in food. Priests were allowed to go into the town.” [British History Online]

In 1598 a number of prisoners were moved to the Tower of London. Four years later 36 inmates, mostly priests, were relocated to Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. [Fortified England]

The Gunpowder Plot

The castle’s most infamous inmates include Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, two of the masterminds behind the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament.

The pair were imprisoned at the castle during the late Sixteenth Century. Since 1588, Catesby had been “an object of suspicion” by Elizabeth I. When the Spanish Armada approached English shores that year, it was judged “expedient… to commit [him] to safe custody in Wisbech Castle”. [Watson]

Catesby and Tresham were among a group of Catholics plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder on November 5, 1605. Catesby was the ringleader, although Guy Fawkes is more commonly associated with the Gunpowder Plot. The other major conspirators were Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy, John Wright and Robert Keyes.

The group’s plan to kill James I and overthrow Protestant rule was foiled after an anonymous letter was sent to Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, warning him not to attend Parliament on November 5. As a result the cellars of Parliament were searched on November 4 and Fawkes was caught red-handed with the gunpowder.

Fawkes and some of his accomplices were taken to the Tower of London and “probably subjected to extensive torture, which formed part of the punishment for treason at the time”. [UK Parliament]

After being convicted of high treason they were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.

Other members of the group, including Catesby, hid in Holbeche House in Staffordshire but were tracked down by army troops. They refused to surrender and were killed by gunfire. [Spartacus Educational] 

The Civil War

During the English Civil War, from 1642 to 1651, the castle was held by Parliament. It was put into a “state of defence” in 1643, with £11 12s. 6d. spent on ironwork to reinforce the castle drawbridge. Other fortifications were built around the town to “prevent the Royalists of South Lincolnshire from penetrating into the Eastern Counties”. [British History Online]

The castle was destroyed by its new owner, John Thurloe, Secretary of State to the Protectorate and a strong supporter of Oliver Cromwell. Thurloe, who later became MP for Ely, built a new house on the site of the old castle.

Possibly designed by Peter Mills, the architect behind Thorpe Hall in Peterborough, the house became known as Thurloe’s Mansion. [Wisbech Official Guide]

Throughout the Civil War most of Wisbech sided with Parliament and Cromwell, although there were a few royalists, including John Fisher, who was fined £80 after the war for “having been in arms against the Parliament”. Two others, Edward Buckworth and Thomas Wragg, were pardoned. [British History Online] 

From prison to museum

In 1969 Wisbech Castle was gifted to Cambridgeshire Education Authority by Mrs Gordon Fendick.

The site has been transformed into a museum, specialising in teaching school groups about Victorian and Edwardian history.

The museum is located at Museum Square, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 1EH. For more information contact 1945 584 406. 

Sources

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