Fascinating historic weapons have been discovered at Kenilworth Castle

A historic discovery has been made to spark the imagination – eight 13th century catapult shots found outside the walls of Kenilworth Castle. The perfectly preserved shots, weighing from just 1kg to 125kg, are said to have been fired during the 1266 siege of Warwickshire Castle during the English Civil War.

English Heritage revealed the discovery on Tuesday 11 June, made during works to improve accessibility at the tourist attraction. Will Wyeth, of English Heritage, said: “We could immediately link these finds to the 1266 siege because of similar finds recovered during an archaeological dig at Kenilworth Castle in the 1960s.

“However, it’s not every day that we are lucky enough to come across historical relics like this by accident. Imagine the surprise of the working team when they unearthed these impressive nearly 800-year-old stone projectiles. These would have caused some serious damage thrown. from the war machines’.

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Kenilworth Castle was besieged for 172 days in 1266, a military contest considered one of the most important of Henry III’s reign. It came amid the king’s conflict with rebel nobles, during which the monarch tried to retake the castle by force. He used weapons including 60,000 crossbow bolts and nine siege engines, including catapults, to try to breach the castle’s 14-foot-thick walls.

Finally he fell to those inside who were suffering from hunger and disease and surrendered. Work is underway at the site for four months to make the pathways more user-friendly and disabled-friendly, funded by a grant from the FCC Communities Foundation. Warwickshire Archeology was commissioned to record any discoveries made during this time.

Dr Cathy Coutts, from the organisation, said: “Once the project contractors found one catapult, our archaeologist on site managed to uncover seven more. Because these fires were found close to where they would have fallen, we were able to extrapolate where the siege camps might have been, which was interesting to consider.”

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