Walmer Castle (England)

Walmer Castle was begun by Henry VIII in 1539 as part of a system of fortifications around the coast of southern Britain which also included nearby Deal and Sandown Castles. It was first garrisoned in 1540. During the Civil War, all three castles were in the hands of the Parliamentarians and were later used to protect shipping during the Dutch Wars in the 1650s and 1660s. By the end of the C17 the castles had become obsolete as fortresses and in 1708 Walmer Castle became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The first occupant, the Duke of Dorset, altered and extended the Castle while William Pitt, appointed Lord Warden in 1792, extended the grounds by leasing more land to the north and west. From 1803 until Pitt's death in 1806, his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope lived at Walmer and assisted with improvements to the grounds. The Duke of Wellington stayed regularly at Walmer during his tenure as Lord Warden between 1829 and 1853, lending the Castle to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for a month in 1842. The last major alterations to the Castle were carried out by the second Earl Granville, Lord Warden from 1865 to 1891, who commissioned George Devey to extend the accommodation and restored and developed Pitt's work in the grounds. Walmer Castle was transferred from the War Office to the Ministry of Works in 1905 and opened to the public shortly afterwards. The most significant recent addition to the grounds is the garden created in 1997 by Penelope Hobhouse, as a gift from English Heritage to commemorate the ninety-fifth birthday of the then Lord Warden, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Both the Castle and the grounds are now (2003) managed by English Heritage.