More information : The castle of Folkestone is mentioned in a charter of c.1137, and
Hasted says that it was the main seat of the barony, and that in
his day it had all been destroyed by erosion, except for a small
length of ancient wall on the east side of its bail or precinct.
Leland, earlier, noted that one side of a place called Castle-yard
(hard upon the shore and close to the parish church) was dyked and
had within it the ruins of a nunnery (really the first Benedictine
priory - see TR 23 NW 17), the whole being under erosion.
`The Bail', (a name now applying to an area on the edge of the cliff
at TR 231 359) evidently commemorates the site, which would have been
further to the south-east, somewhere near TR 2315 3590.
There appears to be no real evidence for Hasted's claim that Eadbald
of Kent (616-640) built a castle at Folkestone and that there had
been an earlier Saxon stonghold there, nor indeed for any castle there before Norman times. (1-4)
TR 230359. The removal of the primary church from the `castello de
Folkestan' to the new site `extra castellum' is mentioned in 1137 (a).This may refer to the build-up Bayle site immediately east of the parish church (TR 230359) on a sharp headland overlooking the harbour. (5)
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