Qualla: Donnington Castle https://qualla.com/donnington-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:21 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Donnington Castle https://qualla.com/donnington-castle Donnington Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/donnington-castle/ Photo credit The Dewdrops, CC BY-SA 2.0. Only the gatehouse survives. Two round towers flanking a pointed arch, built of flint and stone in 1386, standing on a hilltop north of Newbury in Berkshire with nothing behind them but grass and earthworks and sky. Everything else -- the curtain walls, the courtyard buildings, the apartments where Tudor monarchs stayed -- was demolished by order of Parliament in 1646, punishment for the castle's stubborn refusal to surrender during twenty months of Civil War siege. That twin-towered gatehouse, somehow, they left standing.

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Image: The Dewdrops | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/gcph-donnington-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Donnington Castle: The Poet's Granddaughter https://qualla.com/donnington-castle/ Photo credit TudorTulok, CC BY-SA 4.0. Donnington Castle was built by Sir Richard Abberbury the Elder under a licence granted by Richard II in 1386. The Abberbury family had held the manor since 1292, but it was the castle's second owner who gave it a literary connection that endures. In 1398, Abberbury sold Donningto...

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Image: TudorTulok | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/gcph-donnington-castle-the-poets-granddaughter.mp3 0:06 2 full Donnington Castle: The First Woman Keeper https://qualla.com/donnington-castle/ Photo credit Walter Money; Whiteman and Bass Photo-Lithography, High Holborn, London, Public domain. In 1590, Elizabeth I granted keepership of Donnington Castle to Elizabeth Cooke, Lady Russell -- making her the first woman to hold such a title in England. Lady Russell was one of the formidably educated Cooke sisters, fluent in Latin and Greek, a woman whose intellectual accomp...

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Image: Walter Money; Whiteman and Bass Photo-Lithography, High Holborn, London | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/gcph-donnington-castle-the-first-woman-keeper.mp3 0:06 3 full Donnington Castle: The Siege That Refused to End https://qualla.com/donnington-castle/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. After the First Battle of Newbury in September 1643, Royalist forces seized Donnington Castle and placed it under the command of Sir John Boys. The garrison quickly transformed the medieval fortress into a modern defensive position, constructing star-shaped earthworks around the ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/gcph-donnington-castle-the-siege-that-refused-to-end.mp3 0:06 4 full Donnington Castle: What Remains https://qualla.com/donnington-castle/ Photo credit JThomas, CC BY-SA 2.0. The gatehouse that Parliament spared is now a scheduled monument under the care of English Heritage, and it remains one of the most evocative medieval ruins in southern England. The twin towers frame nothing but open ground where the castle once stood, but the quality of the four...

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Image: JThomas | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/h/donnington-castle-wp/gcph-donnington-castle-what-remains.mp3 0:06 5 full