Cooling Castle

Cooling Castle
Cooling Castle
Cooling, Kent, England
	Outer gatehouse of Cooling Castle
	Cooling Castle
Coordinates	51°27′20″N 0°31′23″E / 51.455441°N 0.523084°E
Type	Quadrangular castle
Height	12 metres (39 ft) (gatehouse), up to 9 metres (30 ft) (walls)
Site information
Owner	Private owners
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Built	1380s
Built by	John Cobham
In use	1380s-c.1554
Materials	Kentish ragstone, flint, chalk rubble
Events	Wyatt's rebellion
Scheduled monument
Official name	Cooling Castle and its associated landscaped setting
Designated	25 January 1946
Reference no.	1009018
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Cooling Castle Gatehouse
Designated	21 November 1966
Reference no.	1085770
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Inner Ward to Cooling Castle
Designated	21 November 1966
Reference no.	1085771

Cooling Castle is a 14th-century quadrangular castle in the village of Cooling, Kent on the Hoo Peninsula about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Rochester. It was built in the 1380s by the Cobham family, the local lords of the manor, to guard the area against French raids into the Thames Estuary. The castle has an unusual layout, comprising two walled wards of unequal size next to each other, surrounded by moats and ditches. It was the earliest English castle designed for the use of gunpowder weapons by its defenders.

Despite this distinction, the use of gunpowder weapons against the castle proved devastating. It was captured after only eight hours when Sir Thomas Wyatt besieged it in January 1554 during his unsuccessful rebellion against Queen Mary. His attack badly damaged the castle, and it was subsequently abandoned and allowed to fall into disrepair. A farmhouse and outbuildings were constructed among the ruins a century later. Today the farmhouse is the home of the musician Jools Holland, while the nearby barn is used as a wedding venue.