Our Blog - August 2025 - England trip - Tonbridge and the Tonbridge Castle

Tonbridge Castle started out as a Norman Motte and Bailey castle in the 11th century, after the Norman Conquest. Supposedly 50,000 tons of dirt were moved to build the Motte. In 1088, the castle rebelled against King William II. That wasn't a good move, since the castle fell and both the castle and the town of Tonbridge were burned to the ground in 1088. The wooden castle was replaced shortly thereafter with a stone keep, and then reinforced in the 13th century with a stone wall around the town. The twin-towered gatehouse was completed in 1260. You can see the defensive arrow-slits on each of the 3 stories above ground (there is a basement level with storerooms) and there was also a portcullis in the entry door.

This large lawn (where Lucy played ball with another puppy) was the original bailey. From here, you can see the path going up the side of the Motte with the fortification wall on the right.

We walked up to the top of the Motte, which is where the original wooden stronghold would have been. That was replaced by a stone castle, the remaining walls are seen here. Looking down, you can see the bailey/lawn and the gatehouse on the left.

This is an interesting look from the Motte, looking across the fortification wall between it and the gatehouse. You can see the doorway and the walkway that would have allowed people to move from the gatehouse to the stone castle.

We didn't spend much time in the rest of the town, but it is actually a nice little town. Just across the river from the castle, we saw this piece of abstract art that I thought looked like a Salvador Dali piece. But after a bit of research, it is actually called "On the Map" by a sculpture named Ev Meynell. The sculpture was created to commemorate the millennium and is a representation of the Medway River running through Tonbridge, the lower section being the parks, and the upper section being the industrial estate. It is placed where these two sections come together.

There are lots of nice houses and buildings, and the newer buildings fit in nicely with the older ones.

We stopped for lunch and got a birds-eye view of the delivery of some kegs. I don't know if they do this anywhere else but I found it quite interesting how they just toss the keg out of the truck onto the cushion and then it rolls across the sidewalk.