Caister Castle, Norfolk

Sir George Howland Beaumont (Dunmow 1753 – Coleorton 1827). Oil painting on canvas, Caister Castle, Norfolk, 1785 by Sir George Howland Beaumont (Dunmow 1753 – Coleorton 1827), signed and dated GHB 1785. A view of the 15th century Caister Castle with its tower and moat, there are two swans swimming in the moat to the left. Caister Castle: [Ordnance Survey Guide to Castles in Britain, ed. P. Furtado, Hamlyn, 1988, p.155] . Caister-on-sea, Norfolk Caister is a spectacular ruin, with a single round tower rising some 90 foot above the River Bure and an accompanying stair turret almost 100 foot high. The builder was Sir John Fastolf, who, is known to have been the original of Shakespeare’s fat, comically cowardly knight, Sir John Falstaff. In reality Fastolf was a tough character who made his fortune in the French wars and built Caister out of the proceeds. It was one of the earliest English brick castles, built between 1432 and 1435, and was even more unusual in being defended by an elaborate system of moats; as a travelled man, Fastolf may have been influenced by the contemporary German Wasserburg (water-castle). The main castle at Caister consisted of a rectangular building around a courtyard; it had gatehouses in the east and west walls, and the tall, slender tower in the west corner. There was a forecourt to the east of the main block; its equivalent on the west side which had access to a canal linked to the Bure, has been replaced by later buildings. In 1469 the Duke of Norfolk claimed Caister and successfully laid siege to it - supported (according to the Pastons) by 3,000 men against their 30. The Pastons later regained Caister and lived there until 1599. It is now mainly ruinous, but it is still possible to climb the great tower, and the hall has been converted into a well-known motor museum. Label on frame 'Sir George H. Beaumont, 1753-1827, Caister Castle'. Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (Accredited Museum)