Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire - Design - The Great Tower

The Great Tower

The separate doorways to the basement and ground floor (parlour) of the tower hint that they were intended to provide communal accommodation, while the three great upper rooms were an independent private suite. The design was extremely simple, with four floors, slightly increasing in size at each level by reductions in wall thickness. The fireplaces indicate that the rooms were not intended to be subdivided, but kept as one great room at each level. One of the four corner turrets contains the staircase, but the other three provided extra accommodation rooms at each level.

The Basement was a place for storing spices and other items for the kitchens. It is believed that during the Civil War it was used as a prison.

The ground floor was the Parlour and it was here that local tenants would come to pay their rent. Today, the Parlour is licensed for civil wedding ceremonies for up to 90 guests.

The first floor of the private suite was the Hall, which would have been used to entertain and wine and dine guests.

The middle floor was the Audience Chamber, and only the finest of guests would have been admitted here. A brick vaulted corridor led to a small waiting room, before the great hall of the Audience Chamber, which today houses beautiful Flemish tapestries bought by Lord Curzon.

The top floor would have been the Private Chamber, where the Lord would have retired for the night.

Above this, are the roof gallery and battlements, which provide good views across the Lincolnshire landscape, as far as Boston to the south, and Lincoln to the north. It is not possible today to access the turrets.

The brick foundations to the south of the great tower, projecting into the moat, mark the site of the fifteenth century kitchens.

Today, the old guardhouse is the gift shop, and the grounds are home to a number of peacocks.