Kirby Muxloe Castle

Kirby Muxloe Castle is the place that you do not want to miss during your stay in Leicester. The fortified, abandoned manor house known historically as Kirby Castle is located in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire. The castle was built in 1480 on the site of an earlier manor house by William, Lord Hastings. William enjoyed great success during the Wars of the Roses and was a favourite of King Edward IV. Work advanced quickly until 1483, when Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had just taken the crown, had William put to death. After he passed away, his wife momentarily carried on the building, but she eventually stopped, leaving the castle substantially unfinished. A portion of the castle was occupied for a while before it started to break apart in the 17th century. The site was taken up by the Commissioners of Work in 1912, who repaired the brickwork and conducted an archaeological study. The castle is in English Heritage's care today and is accessible to tourists.

The castle was rectangular in shape, measuring 245 by 175 feet (75 by 53 m) across. It would have included a courtyard in the middle and four corner towers, three side towers, and a massive gatehouse. All of these structures were defended by a moat of water. Only the gatehouse and the west tower remain from these structures today, both partially intact. They are built in a fashionable late 15th-century style with ornate stone and brickwork, and their walls have numerous symbols carved into them using darker bricks. Although historians are unsure whether these defences were meant to be functional or symbolic, these two structures were built with twelve gunports for early gunpowder weaponry. The castle is a "spectacular example of a late mediaeval quadrangular castle of the highest class," according to the government organisation Historic England.

The chamberlain of the royal household and a favourite of Edward IV, William, Lord Hastings, constructed Kirby Muxloe Castle. During the Wars of the Roses, William amassed enormous holdings throughout the Midlands, much of it taken from his adversaries. Sir Leonard, William's father, had kept his seat at Kirby Muxloe, but in 1462 William transferred his own seat to the manor of Ashby de la Zouch. Edward gave William permission in 1474 to crenellate (fortify) four of his manors and create deer parks all around them. Among them was Kirby Muxloe, whose transformation into a castle and surrounding 2,000-acre park was approved by the King (810 ha).

As the steward of Lord Hastings and the project's secretary of works, Roger Bowlott oversaw construction on Kirby Muxloe Castle beginning in October 1480. The majority of the old manor house was preserved throughout construction and likely remained occupied as the new castle was constructed around it. Antony Yzebrond of Flanders built a workshop that can produce up to 100,000 bricks each week. A garden was built next to the castle, and a brook was redirected to feed the new moat. Early in 1481, work picked up, with master mason John Cowper in charge of overseeing the stonework. The work moved along quickly, and at its busiest, the facility had more than 40 personnel employed. It is unknown exactly how much of the castle was built, though by 1483 the ground floor of the gatehouse and at least one corner tower had been placed.