Coventry Castle

What remains of Coventry Castle with Caesar's Tower. St Mary's Hall was evidently built with stones from the old Castle. Caesar's Tower had to be partly rebuilt after the Blitz. Cov Telegraph photo

Helen, do we know why it's known as Caesar's Tower?

I'm afraid I don't know. I don't know why Warwick and Kenilworth Castles have a Caesar's Tower either. Maybe it was a way of giving a tower a mighty name to give it gravitas and history?

Seems you may have hit the nail on the head, Helen F, if we note what is written about Warwick Castle: "Standing at an impressive 44.8m tall, this is the tallest tower at the castle, and comprises of three storeys, excluding the Gaol. It was built on the orders of Thomas de Beauchamp in the 14th century and is a great example of military architecture."

A link that may be useful: Caesars Tower Coventry

I wonder if the name Caesars tower was taken from the example of a large tower at Warwick Castle of that name. The building may be contemporaneous to the one at Warwick or if earlier perhaps colloquially named after it and the name stuck.

Apols if this has been shared before - a snippet of the Red Ditch discovery dig in 1974.

Thanks Neil. They're obviously digging the ditch near the Broad Gate. I've got the archaeology report somewhere. There are several digs of the 'Red Ditch' and I'm not sure that they're all the same defensive structure. I believe that the biggest/deepest was the one that cut through Greyfriars Lane, Much Park Street and Little Park Street. It could be pre Norman and extend from the river near the Ram Bridge to at least the Mermaid on Gosford Street where another ditch kicked north to the river. I think that a secondary ditch ran round what was to become the castle although it may have already been a defended town before the Normans arrived. The southern ditch may have been merged with the larger ditch.

argon, The castles were built by the Normans, had Norman towers. To me, the name Caesar's was advertising of recent years, sleep in these chambers where royalty has slept, it will cost you more, but that's what you want. There's no sign of it before the Victorians as far as I can find. Helen, Tradition says that in the bygone ages, an underground passage ran from a cellar under the Greyfriars Monastery, Much Park Street, beneath the city wall and ditch, extending to the Monastery of St Anne at the Charterhouse - but no such passage existed. An archway and drain running into the town ditch was there at one time.

Hi Kaga, I don't know how far back the name goes but the tower was very old even by the 1800s. It is deemed to be part of the original castle but since they don't truly know where that was, they can't be sure what role the tower played. It does look like it was connected to an outer wall that was to become the south wall of the kitchen. The armoury originally had a door that took you out onto the wall. The South Prospect of the city from 1734 (?) Shows a much taller tower with at least 1 additional storey and probably 2 with a crenelated top. In Dr Troughton's time (low to mid 1800s) the lowest room was the 'Prisoners Cell' with nothing in it. The middle level was the 'Treasure Chamber' full of chests, books and papers. The top room was 'Queen Mary's Chamber' also with very little in it.

Thank you, Helen, that's good to know. Seems they were built to a similar pattern.

Castles are fascinating, Kaga. Coventry's is more of a mystery than most since it has vanished with barely a trace.

Helen, good morning, I know I'm surrounded by castles, from Hastings to Arundel, they were the beginning for this country's castles. The 1066 walk has a lot of brochure information, and a beautiful walk alongside the river most of the way. the rest is across the battlefields at Battle. The last time I went to Arundel they still had plenty of armour suits of the day, but if you're over 5'8", you can't get in them. Helen, I doubt you have a book of the building of the Coventry castle, in the era, I think they are 19th-20th century time, books that have been distorted over the years. Coventry had a red sea (pond) in Greyfriars park in the 20th century, and that's where I think the red ditch came from, and the Caesar's Tower, I can find no trace of either in any history books. By the way the Red Sea is blueish/green, it is the algae in the water that sometimes makes it look red, and the evaporation causes the salt, which had a strange sensation to be in.

Good morning to you too Kaga. I'm slowly ticking off the castles as I travel but I have to go a fair distance. I did visit many as a kid but I wasn't really paying attention. There's no specific book on Coventry castle but it is mentioned in many books with varying degrees of detail and fact. I've delved into a fair bit of the archaeology including Shelton's early work and some of the most recent digs. There are lots of snippets but it's hard to join up the dots. The Red Ditch was a very deep ditch (deeper than the city wall ditches) that has been found in several places (so not a pond). As a boundary it can be seen in the early maps, especially running through Little and Much Park Streets. It was the early town ditch but not part of the inner castle. They've found other ditches within the town ditch that are probably part of the castle including one at the back of St Mary's Hall and one under what was the chapel on the corner of Bayley Lane and Hay Lane. Other potential features can be seen on the earliest maps, eg a circular parish boundary that looks a lot like a castle motte. There are even more ditches that relate to the walled city that are sometimes dubbed as the Red Ditch but I think that they're separate. There is a list of historic finds and myths of ditches and tunnels and some of them look like they might be part of the Red Ditch or they may be later drainage. Many of them also match up with known features on the maps. Even the oldest cellars look like they use early ditches as a starter. With the wealth of information that can now be pulled together, we know more than the old book authors but we still don't know much about the castle.

Helen. How we do differ about old Cov? To me the ditches were there a long time before they had buildings. They criss-crossed the hills from the beginning of time. The rains came first, the buildings built alongside the ditches and from the hill it sloped every which way. Now if this ditch was as wide and deep as this topic makes out then it is wider and deeper than the Sherbourne, almost navigable, and if it circled the castle, like a moat, then surely it would have hindered Broadgate's hay wagons. Not in history books. Such was the might of these little brooks, collectively they flooded Spon End, Burges and Hales Street, and all round the Swanswell, and trebled the force of the river. That's why the Victorians called it 'The Severn'.