Bookable
From burh to Norman castle
An Anglo-Saxon burh was established at Warwick in 914, with defences begun by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. In 1068 William the Conqueror built a motte-and-bailey castle on the site, above a bend in the River Avon, and in the 12th century the wooden castle was rebuilt in stone.


Towers of the Earls of Warwick
Between 1330 and 1360, under Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the castle gained Caesar’s Tower, Guy’s Tower and a new gatehouse. In 1469 Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick remembered as the Kingmaker, held King Edward IV prisoner here.
A country house and a visitor attraction
In 1604 James I granted the castle to Fulke Greville, who made it a country house, and the Greville family owned it until 1978. A fire in December 1871 destroyed the Great Hall, which was restored in the years that followed. The Tussauds Group bought the castle in 1978, and Merlin Entertainments has run it since 2007.


