The exact date of the construction of Plymouth Castle is veiled in the mists of time, different authorities have dated it anywhere between 1220 and 1420, one thing we do know however is that it existed and that its four towers gave us the basis of our civic crest, first recorded in 1439.
Whether that curious little structure at the foot of Lambhay Street is a part of the original castle or not, we do not know for sure, we do know though that the castle stood in that general area between Lambhay Street and Castle Street, looking down on Sutton Pool.
Superseded by the new Hoe Fort in the 1590s and then the Citadel in the 1660s the Castle was gradually broken up and its stonework used in the building of the numerous little courts and buildings that sprang up around here in the years that followed. Today there are only a few small reminders of that ancient stonework in the area but the name is preserved not only in Castle Street but also in what is undoubtedly one of the narrowest occupied thoroughfares in the city today Castle Dyke Lane.
