What is recorded here

Cooling Castle rose in 1381 after a French raid scarred Kent, filling eight acres with stone walls, corner towers and water moats fed by springs. The defences mixed gun loopholes, ditches and a shell keep, while the sea may have washed around the outer works at high tide. Abandoned after 1554, the castle now survives as a scheduled monument beside Cooling, its moats still marking the shape of a fortress built to answer violence with water and stone.

The National Heritage List for England records Cooling Castle and its associated landscaped setting as a scheduled monument. The saved point comes from the centre supplied by the official record. Listing does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Built by the powerful Boleyn family in the late 15th century, Cooling Castle is best remembered as the childhood home of George Boleyn, the brother of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. Its importance lies in its historical association with the Tudor court and its well-preserved moated manor house, which reflects the lifestyle of the early 16th-century gentry.

The historic-place record does not grant public access. Check current conditions and ownership before entering land or a building.