Sevendroog Castle, an 18th century naval battle and a plan for its preservation

Sevendroog Castle in 1909

Now Sevendroog Castles was another one of those places I just took for granted when growing up.  

You walked up through the woods, walked around it, vaguely pondered on its history and then walked back down to Well Hall Road.

This was not helped by the fact that you never seemed to be able get inside which made me wonder why it had been built at all.

But of course such monuments have a purpose and had I bothered to read the inscription I would have known that 'Severndroog Castle was built by the widow of Sir William James, a commander in the East India Company, to celebrate his naval exploits, in particular the capture in 1755 of the island fortress of Severndroog off the Malabar Coast of India.”

Now over forty-five years on I can appreciate both why it was built and the building itself.  And I am indebted to Darrell Sprugeon’s excellent description of the place in his book on Eltham*

“A tall triangular battlemented tower with hexagonal turrets, surrounded by trees in Castle Wood; and extraordinary Gothic folly, it was built to a design of Richard Jupp in 1784. 

The original main entrance is on the south-west face; the other original entrance doors are blocked, with only the fanlights remaining; the small doors under the turrets were added later.  

At the time the castle was just north of the grounds of the James mansion of Park Farm Place, Eltham.

Sevendroog Castle 2006

From one of the turrets there are some of the finest views anywhere in London, unrestricted in all directions except to the north east.  The main room on the first floor has a fine ornamental plaster ceiling.”

I can’t say I have been back many times since I left home in 1969 but whenever I do I have wondered on its fate, and am pleased that there is a group of people who are serious about its preservation.

The Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust was formed in 2003 and has worked ever since for the  restoration of this “dramatic eighteenth-century gothic tower built by a heartbroken widow in a clearing, high on a hill, in an ancient bluebell wood within seven miles of Charing Cross, London. ...... designed in the gothic style by architect Richard Jupp. Severndroog is a nationally-listed Grade II* building presently on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register."**

*Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000

** The Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, http://severndroogcastle.org.uk/

Pictures; the castle in 1909, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm and the castle today by Veghead, 2006, Wikipedia Commons