Tamworth Castle is one of England's best preserved motte and bailey castles, with roots extending to Anglo-Saxon times when Mercian kings held a palace on the site beginning in 781. Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, rebuilt and fortified the location in 913 with an earthen defensive structure. Following the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror granted the castle to his steward Robert le Despenser, who built the motte and bailey in the 1080s. The Marmion family held the castle for six generations and rebuilt it in stone; the shell keep wall and tower date to 1170-1190. A museum since 1899, Tamworth Castle preserves nearly 1,000 years of history spanning Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Tudor and Victorian eras.
