The castle had a motte-and-bailey design and was located on the south side of the old Anglo-Saxon city, cutting into the grounds of Worcester Cathedral.

At Worcester that role was passed down through the local Beauchamp family on a hereditary basis, giving them permanent control of the castle and considerable power within the city.

[3] The castle was defensively well situated on the eastern bank of the River Severn in the south-west corner of the borough, taking advantage of the old burh walls and ditches.

It is unclear whether the cemetery was still in use at that time, but the desecration resulted in Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, with extensive interests in Worcester, complaining about the seizure of the land and formally cursing Urse.

[6] Worcester remained a royal castle, but within a few years the post of sheriff and that of constable became hereditary in the Beauchamp family, the successors to Urse d'Abetot.

[3][nb 2] Civil war broke out again in England in 1215 between forces loyal to King John and rebel barons, supported in due course by Prince Louis of France.

[9] A panel met to agree exactly how the land should be divided, concluding that the division should run straight across the bailey; the far side was returned to the cathedral, making the remainder of the castle unusable from a military perspective.

[3] The sheriffs of Worcestershire continued to control the castle as constables, and the property passed along hereditary lines from the Beauchamps to the Earls of Warwick until Richard Neville, also known as the "Kingmaker", died during the Wars of the Roses in 1471.

The victorious Edward IV divided up the various estates that Neville had owned and gave the castle to his son, severing the link between Worcester and the earldom of Warwick.

[3] The castle's walls were quarried for stone, the motte was used to keep animals on and only the sheriff's county gaol remained intact.

In particular he complained about the castle's underground dungeon, accessed down a flight of 26 steps; the room was circular, 18 feet (5.5 m) across, and guarded by an iron grill.

[25] Worcester conducted extensive work after the report at a cost of £3,431 (£364,000 at 2009 prices), and by 1788 the prison had 18 new cells for men and two for women, in addition to the dungeon and the sick-rooms.

[27] The prison was known to suffer from outbreaks of gaol fever (Typhus), which claimed the life of a local doctor who visited the facility.