Tamworth Castle

Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle, overlooking the confluence of the River Anker and the River Tame, in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle site was originally on the edge of Warwickshire, while most of the town belonged to Staffordshire.The site served as a residence of the Mercian kings in Anglo Saxon times, but fell into disuse during the Viking invasions. Refortified by the Normans and later enlarged, the building is today one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castles in England.HistoryWhen Tamworth became the chief residence of Offa, ruler of the expanding Mercian kingdom, he built a palace there from which various charters were issued sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first dating from 781. Little trace of its former glory survived the Viking attack in 874 that left the town "for nearly forty years a mass of blackened ruins". Then in 913 Tamworth was rebuilt by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who newly fortified the town with an earthen burh. This, however, did little to defend the place when it was again sacked by the Danes in 943.