Sandown Castle, Isle of Wight (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Sandham Castle; Sandumffort

In the civil parish of Sandown.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Isle of Wight.
1974 county of Isle of Wight.
Medieval County of Hampshire, Isle of Wight.

OS Map Grid Reference: SZ605846
Latitude 50.65669° Longitude -1.14691°

Sandown Castle, Isle of Wight has been described as a certain Artillery Fort.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The first Sandown Castle was built between 1537 and 1540 and formed part of the defence scheme of the southern seaboard. It was of the usual Tudor form with a rear building and a gun platform towards the sea and was erected on land now overflowed by the sea; it had a landing-stage, as in 1618 timber was supplied for mending the pier and planking the platform. As it was built too near the shore, the sea began to encroach and undermine its walls, which by the beginning of the 17th century had got into a ruinous state. In 1627 Charles I promised to have it repaired, but nothing was done till 1631, when it was taken down by Sir John Oglander, and a new fort built nearer Yaverland to the north (VCH)

Although nothing remains of the castle, its possible foundations can be seen at low tide. Plans and accounts of the castle have survived which provide a good indication of the castle's form. It consisted of a square keep with a curtain wall with two bastions on the landward side and a semi-circular bastion on the seaward which would have supported the main guns. One of the landward bastions was square and the other was angled and was one of the earliest examples of this Italianate style of defences to be used in England. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 461937.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  Island Eye
  h2g2: Tudor Castles on and around the Isle of Wight, UK
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- Harrington, Peter, 2007, The Castles of Henry VIII (Oxford: Osprey)
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 67
  Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p. 47
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 109
  Barron, W.G., 1985, The Castles of Hampshire and Isle of Wight (Paul Cave) p. 42
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 195
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 550-555
  Page, Wm (ed), 1912, VCH Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Vol. 5 p. 157 online transcription
  Adams, W.H.D., 1884, Isle of Wight: its History, Topography and Antiquities (London : T. Nelson and Sons) p. 200 online copy
  Worsley, Richard, 1781, The History of the Isle of Wight (London) p. xc-xci (inventory 1547)
Periodical Articles
- Kenyon, J.R., 1983, 'The state of the fortifications in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 1623' Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol. 39 p. 137-143 esp. 139-140
  Kenyon, J.R., 1979, 'An aspect of the 1559 survey of the Isle of Wight: The State of all the Queenes maties Fortresses and Castelles' Post-Medieval Archaeology Vol. 13 p. 61-77 esp. 65-67
  Jones, J.D., 1968, 'The Building of a Fort at Sandown, Isle of Wight, 1632-1639' Proceedings of the Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society Vol. 6.3 p. 166-188
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Gairdner, J. and Brodie, R.H. (eds), 1905, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII Vol. 20.1 p. 632 no. 1275 online copy
  A Survey of the Isle of Wight with plans of fortifications, 20 Nov 1559 (D(W)1778/III/0/1, Staffordshire Record Office) online view of plan
  B.M. Harleian MS. 1326 (Survey of 1623) British Library collection information
  E178/4470 (Survey of 1 James I) The National Archives reference
  SP14/34/29i (Survey of 1608) The National Archives reference
  SP16/29/66i (Survey of 1636) The National Archives reference
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Celia Fiennes, 1888, Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press) Vision of Britain online transcription
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 1750, A Plan of Sandham Fort in the Isle of Wight (British Library) British Library online Gallery (confused caption - plan of C17 fort)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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