The Castle from which the village of Elmley Castle gets its name was built by Roger d'Abitot, lord of the manor, in 1086 on a hill, an outcrop of Bredon Hill overlooking the village, since known as Castle Hill.
Following Roger's death the castle passed to his brother, Ursa d'Abitot who was the Sheriff of Worcester. Ursa left his castle at Worcester and came to live in Elmley, and so the village entered the high point of its career. For a few years it became the administrative centre of the County of Worcestershire.
Then Ursa died and the manor and castle passed to his daughter, Emmaline. She had married into the Beauchamp family and so Elmley became one of the manors owned by her husband, William Beauchamp. For some time it remained just that, but in 1135, at the start of the civil war following the accession of Stephen to the throne, the Beauchamps moved to Elmley. They supported Matilda in the war and it was wise to move out of an area sympathetic to Stephen. Despite this early wrong footing, the Beauchamps prospered and so did the castle at Elmley. However, in 1269 William Beauchamp having inherited the the Earldom of Warwick together with its castle, moved to Warwick and Elmley reverted to being just one of his many manors.
The castle at Elmley was abandoned and quickly fell into disrepair. Meanwhile changes were taking place in court. Edward I died in 1307 and his son, Edward II came to the throne. This again caused turmoil in the country and the threat of civil war. There were many problems during his reign. One of them was due to him being a homosexual. This in itself did not worry the barons too much, but his excessive generosity to his favourites caused wide dissension.
The first and most outrageous favourite was Piers Gaveston. He upset the barons so much that they forced the king to send him into exile. After a while he felt it safe to come back to England but was captured by the Earl of Warwick and executed on Blacklow Hill just outside Warwick on 19th June 1312. One writer suggests that Piers was held in the castle at Elmley before being taken to Warwick. Two years later the Earl of Warwick died and rumour has it that he was poisoned by one of Gaveston's friends.
The death of Gaveston meant that for a while things returned to normal, but before long the King had another favourite. His name was Hugh Despenser. Now the unrest started again. Not only did Hugh wallow in the King's generosity, but so did his father, also called Hugh; a sort of royal father in law. This time the King meant to be prepared and he arranged to fortify some of his castles so that if civil war broke out he would be ready.
One of the castles he owned was Elmley Castle and in 1315 he sent commissioners to examine it and report back. Their report was not good. They detailed the dereliction of the castle and valued it at six shillings and eightpence. The King was not impressed and sent fresh commissioners to examine it again. They reported back that in their opinion it was worthless. Despite this, in 1317, the King arranged for the castle to be fully refurbished and that twenty fencibles be engaged to defend it.
Fencibles were soldiers whose duty was limited to defending a particular location, usually a castle. This might not seem a large force, but in the early fourteenth century castles were still fairly hard to capture. Furthermore, there would be many men employed on other duties in the castle: blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, etc. and they would be trained by the fencibles so that they too could help defend the castle when besieged.
Once the castle was functional Hugh Despenser senior was put in charge of it. Tensions in the kingdom continued to rise and early in 1321, under pressure from those barons who were still loyal to him, the king agreed to the exile of both the Despensers. The Sheriff of Worcester was ordered to to occupy Elmley Castle and this he did without opposition. While there he made an inventory of everything in the castle. Having impressed on the fencibles and other occupants where their loyalties now lay the Sheriff returned to Worcester.
The hope that banishing the Despensers would secure peace proved ill founded. In May 1321, following a pre-arranged plan, the rebels, headed by the Earl of Lancaster, struck simultaneously at the King's fortified castles. One of the rebel leaders was Humphrey de Bohum, Earl of Hereford. He was given the task of taking Elmley Castle. The castle's moment of destiny had arrived.
Humphrey de Bohum marched with his force through Upton and Pershore to Elmley and demanded the castle's surrender. The defenders refused, the gates remained closed and they prepared for a seige. In those days there was far more woodland surrounding the castle and de Bohum's men withdrew in to the wood and spent the day chopping timber. Come nightfall the timber was piled against the gate and set alight. By dawn the gates were consumed by fire and the rebels charged in and took the castle. A chronicler tells us that 'many were slaughtered'. Just how many and who they were; attacker or defender; soldier or civilian, we are not told. What is clear is that on the only occasion that the castle at Elmley was called on to fulfill its function as a defendable stronghold, it failed. The Battle of Elmley was over.
Despite the rebel's sucess at Elmley the uprising as a whole did not succeed. Most of the rebels were defeated and surrendered to the King and were pardoned. Only the Earl of Lancaster fought on with his forces and he was defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge in March 1322 and later executed.
Elmley Castle remained in the King's hands. The fencibles were disbanded, but a constable was appointed to keep the castle in good repair. The records show that for many years this was done, but with the coming of the Tudors repairs were halted and the castle fell into its final decline.
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