Alton Castle

The hill above the Churnet Valley had been fortified in wood since Saxon times before Bertram III de Verdun raised a stone castle there in the 12th century, set on a rocky precipice overlooking the river. Historical documents record the place under several spellings — Alton, Alverton, Aulton. A gatehouse was added in the early 14th century, and the castle was substantially rebuilt again in the 15th century, before later being damaged during the Civil War.

From 1442 the castle belonged to the Earls of Shrewsbury, who from the start of the 19th century made their home at nearby Alton Towers. By the mid-19th century the old castle stood mostly in ruins.

John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, commissioned the Catholic architect Augustus Pugin — already at work for him on Alton Towers — to raise a new Gothic castle on the site, and most of the medieval ruins were demolished to make way for it. Pugin designed the building to look like a medieval castle built in Germany by English crusaders of the Knights of the Teutonic Order. On the surrounding hill the Earl also had Pugin build a further complex — a hospital, guildhall and presbytery dedicated to St John the Baptist — which served as a church and almshouse caring for the parish poor, and doubled as a school for local poor children.

Why the Earl chose to rebuild the castle at all is unclear. He may have intended it for his cousin and eventual successor, Bertram Talbot, or as a dower house for his own wife, should she outlive him. Late in the building's construction he raised the idea that it might instead become a home for priests — an idea Pugin was, in his own words, "vehemently against".

The Sisters of Mercy took over part of the site in 1855, converting the presbytery into their convent, though the castle itself remained a private residence until 1919, when the Sisters bought it outright for £3,500 to extend their boarding school. The school closed in 1989 and the castle stood empty until the Archdiocese of Birmingham bought it in 1995, reopening it in September 1996 as a Catholic youth retreat centre.

More than 8,000 children now visit each year, mostly with schools but also through youth groups and charities working with disabled children; some have faced disadvantages including disability, and many come from inner-city areas of the West Midlands. Their stays include mountain biking, trekking, archery, rock-climbing and outdoor survival skills. The castle has been a Grade I listed building since 1967, and a scheduled monument since 1962.