Tutbury Castle

Tutbury Castle is a largely ruined medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. People who have stayed in the castle include Eleanor of Aquitaine and Mary, Queen of Scots, who was a prisoner here.

Early history

Tutbury Castle became the headquarters of Henry de Ferrers and was the centre of the wapentake of Appletree, which included Duffield Frith. With his wife Bertha, he endowed Tutbury Priory with two manors in about 1080. It would seem that Tutbury at that time was a dependency of the Norman abbey of St Pierre‑sur‑Dives.

The castle was destroyed by Prince Edward in 1264 after the rebellion of Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby. In 1269, after a further rebellion the lands were given to Edmund Crouchback and have remained part of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Apart from the 12th century chapel the ruins date from the 14th and 15th centuries when the castle was rebuilt.

In 1999 Lesley Smith became the Curator of the Castle, which she leases from the Duchy of Lancaster.

Tutbury

Coordinates: 52°51′14″N 1°41′10″W / 52.854°N 1.686°W / 52.854; -1.686

Tutbury is a large village and civil parish of about 3,076 residents in the English county of Staffordshire.

It is surrounded by the agricultural countryside of both Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The site has been inhabited for over 3,000 years, with Iron Age defensive ditches encircling the main defensive hill, upon which now stand ruins of a Norman castle. These ditches can be seen most clearly at the Park pale and at the top of the steep hills behind Park Lane.

The name Tutbury probably derives from a Scandinavian settler and subsequent chief of the hill-fort, Totta, bury being a corruption of burh the Anglo-Saxon name for 'fortified place'. It is 5 miles north of Burton upon Trent and 20 miles south of the Peak District.

Quarries near Tutbury once produced alabaster which was used in the carving of Nottingham Alabaster.

Until 2006, Tutbury Crystal, a manufacturer of high-quality cut glass products, was based in the village. However production was transferred to Stoke-on-Trent as the existing factory was very old and was thought to be too small for the modern company's requirements. The old factory was demolished and flats are built on the site, but a factory shop still operates in the village. Despite this, the tourism trade survives thanks to the long and distinguished history of the Norman Priory Church and medieval Tutbury Castle where Mary, Queen of Scots, was once imprisoned.