In Keep and Donjon: the Medieval Castle page 2

Beautiful examples of "tower-houses" are found in Northumberland itself at Langley (before 1365), Belsay (?1371), Chipchase (late fourteenth century) and Hexham; whilst what is virtually a "tower-house " was built at the very beginning of the fifteenth century on the former "motte" at Wark-worth. The plan of this is unique: a rectangular block, with slightly chamfered angles, on each face of which is a boldly projecting wing that ends in a semi-octagon. Other good examples of ordinary "tower-houses" are Dacre (1307), in Cumberland, and Harewood (1366) and Hellifield Peel (c. 1440), in Yorkshire. The great brick tower at Tattershall, with four storeys and a basement, retains, as almost its solitary warlike feature, a complete line of machicolation round its top. There remains one remarkable type of stronghold, though itself of little interest, which affords the latest manifestation of castle building in England. These are the curious blockhouses, formed normally of a big, low, central drum, with a number of smaller round it, that were erected by Henry VIII in 1535, in view of expected French invasion, along the whole south shore of England, from Falmouth to Deal. So great was the importance that the king attached to them, that he rode along the coast to hasten their completion. Camber, on the marsh between Win-chelsea and Rye, is a good ruined example; while St. Mawes, at the mouth of the Fal, is one of the most elaborate and perfect.

Two at least rank in history. In Hurst, on its strange spit of sand and pebbles at the entrance to the Solent, Charles I was imprisoned for nearly three weeks on his abrupt removal by the Army from the Isle of Wight to Windsor in 1648. In San-down, now dismantled, and a little north of Deal, Colonel Hutchinson, the regicide, was confined till his death in 1664. With this long line of Tudor block-houses the tale of castle building comes to a close. It is true, existing English castles were furbished up and garrisoned, mostly to serve the king, during the course of the Civil War. But the Parliamentary policy of slighting was ruthlessly pursued, and reduced them to ruins.