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Wisbech Castle

1963 , Wisbech (Cambridgeshire)

Cat no. 2977

An Anglia Television report on the history of Wisbech Castle.

Views of the current Wisbech Castle open a report which traces the history of the castle and profiles its current occupants, as an Anglia correspondent speaks to Mr. T. Gordon Fendick, current owner of the castle and Chief Education Officer for the Isle of Ely. Fendick discusses the history of the castle site, from its origins as a strategic timber structure built by the Normans, to its brick reconstruction by Tudor Bishop John Morton (later Cardinal), and later improvements by Bishop John Alcock. Used as a prison for large periods, Fendick displays the honeycomb of prison tunnels built beneath the castle, before discussing the third building built on the site, a mansion built for Oliver Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe. Returned to the Bishop of Ely after the Restoration of 1660, Thurloe's Mansion was bought in the 1790s by an eccentric local man, Joseph Medworth, who demolished the mansion and built the current Regency Villa. Inside, Fendick shows off decorations retained from Thurloe's Mansion, a stained-glass window supposedly taken from the Tudor Palace and one of his collection of grandfather clocks. In the drawing room, the correspondent is introduced to Mrs Fendick, who sits beside the Cromwellian fireplace and discusses some of their antiques and their attraction for visitors, before the film concludes with more views of the castle.

Featured Buildings

Architecture; Wisbech Castle

Keywords

Castles

Manifestations

Wisbech Castle

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