Castles – East

‘Build Date’ refers to the oldest surviving significant elements In column 1; CM ≡ Cambridgeshire, E ≡ Essex, L ≡ Lincolnshire, NF ≡ Norfolk, SF ≡ Suffolk

Build Occupation CM Castle Location Configuration Current Remains Date Status

1 Buckden Towers TL 193 677 Fortified house 15th C Occupied Tower, gatehouse, entire 2 Burwell TL 587 661 Enclosure? 1144 Empty, never completed Earthworks 3 Cambridge TL 446 593 Motte & bailey 1068 Empty, 17th C then 19th C Motte earthwork 4 Kirtling Towers TL 685 575 Fortified house 15/16th C Demolished, 1801 Gatehouse now a house 5 Longthorpe TL 163 984 Tower & hall 13th C Occupied Tower, hall entire E 1 Colchester TL 999 253 Keep & bailey c1075 Museum Keep, restored 2 Great Canfield TL 594 179 Motte & bailey 11th C Empty, wooden only Earthworks 3 Hadleigh TQ 810 861 Enclosure Early-13th C Empty, late-16th C Fragmentary ruins 4 Hedingham TL 787 358 Keep & bailey Mid-12th C Empty, 17th C Keep entire, bridge 5 Pleshey TL 665 145 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Empty, 15th C Earthworks, bridge 6 Saffron Walden TL 540 397 Motte & bailey 1140 Empty, never completed Ruined keep L 1 Bolingbroke TF 349 650 Enclosure Early-12th C Empty, 17th C Low ruins 2 Bytham SK 991 185 Enclosure + keep Early 13th C Empty, 16th C Earthworks only 3 Grimsthorpe TF 044 227 Quadrangular 14th C Occupied, remodelled One original tower 4 Hussey TF 333 436 Tower Mid-15th C Empty, sleighted 16th C Roofless but near full height 5 Lincoln SK 975 719 Enclosure + keep 11th C Occupied Older parts ruined 6 Rochfort TF 351 444 Tower c1460 Empty, early 19th C Roofless, full height 7 Sleaford TF 065 455 Enclosure c1130 Empty, 16th C Earthworks, tower fragment 8 Somerton SK 954 588 Quadrangular 1280s Occupied? but at risk One tower + ruins 9 South Kyme TF 168 496 Tower + hall Mid-14th C Empty, 18th C? Tower unroofed, moat 10 Tatershall TF 576 211 Tower Mid-15th C Occupied, restored 20th C Tower entire + moat, ruins 11 Torksey SK 836 788 Manor house c1560 Empty, 17th C West front ruin NF 1 Baconsthorpe TG 111 382 Enclosure 1450s Empty after 1920s Ruined gatehouses, etc. 2 Caister TG 504 123 Enclosure 1430s Empty, 16th C Mix of high and low ruins 3 Castle Acre TF 819 151 Motte & bailey 1080s Empty after 15th C Low ruins, earthworks 4 Castle Rising TF 666 246 Keep, ramparts 1140 Empty after 15th C Shell of keep, earthworks 5 Claxton TG 334 037 Enclosure c1350 Empty, after 16th C Ruined curtain wall, turrets 6 Mileham TF 916 193 Motte & bailey c1100 Empty after 1300 Keep fragments, earthworks 7 New Buckenham TM 072 926 Motte & bailey 1140s Empty after 17th C Keep low ruin, earthworks 8 North Elmham TF 988 217 Converted chapel Late-14th C Empty after 15th C Low ruins, earthworks 9 Norwich TG 232 085 Keep & baileys 1120s Prison, now museum Keep entire, little else 10 Oxburgh TF 743 103 Fortified house 1480s Occupied Entire but modified 11 Thetford TL 875 828 Motte & bailey 1070s Destroyed 1173 Earthworks 12 Weeting TL 777 891 Moated House c1180 Empty from late-14th C Ruins of varying height SF 1 Bungay TM 337 896 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Empty from 15th C Ruined gatehouse, keep 2 Burgh TG 475 046 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Empty Roman walls, motte traces

Occupation SF Castle Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status 3 Clare TL 771 452 Motte & bailey 1070s Empty after 16th C Fragment of keep, motte 4 Eye TM 147 737 Motte & bailey Late-1060s Empty after 1400 Bits of curtain wall, motte 5 Framlingham TM 287 637 Enclosure 1189 Poorhouse after 1700 Curtain wall almost entire 6 Little Wenham TM 082 391 Fortified house c1275 Empty after 18th C Solar block 7 Meltingham TM 360 887 Fortified house 1340s Empty after 16th C Gatehouse, curtain walls 8 Orford TM 419 498 Keep & bailey 1173 Occupied Keep almost entire 9 Wingfield TF 065 455 Enclosure 1380s Occupied Gatehouse, towers, wall

Notes:

1. A total of 43 castles have been identified in the East of England, the 5 counties of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. My selection philosophy has been to include the great majority of those I have already visited and such others as I think interesting; I have tended to exclude those which have benefitted from a modern reconstruction which could be described as a rebuild. Survival of masonry in coherent form is usually a prerequisite. There are remains of many more castles in the counties concerned, which I do not consider because they depart from these criteria. So, my gazetteer is best regarded as a sample, albeit quite a large one, and the tentative conclusions I draw need to be seen in that light.

2. To-date, I have visited 41 of the 43 castles on my list.

3. There are 16 motte and bailey types, all built by the mid-12th century, there are 11 enclosure castles in which the castle buildings are part of the outer defences, usually but not exclusively built after the late-12th century. There are 5 fortified houses, and 5 towers which may be adjacent to other buildings but are not heavily protected by enclosure walls.

4. Castle building took place during the 11th to the 15th centuries, but many were built shortly after the Norman Conquest. Things calmed down early in East Anglia, and strongholds were only deemed necessary by the most powerful magnates.

5. The desertion and decay of castles began early, though sometimes it was because the castle had been wrecked by royal edict after a rebellion; in general the movement in pursuit of more comfortable living arrangements was well underway by the 16th century, though some castles were reprieved on conversion to other purposes, as prisons for example. The Civil War was not a major factor in this region, though a few castles which had survived were sleighted. 11 castles are still occupied, but some of the most prominent like Colchester and Norwich, are museums rather than residences.

CM1. Buckden Towers formerly known as Buckden Palace was a fortified house owned by the Bishops of Lincoln, in a village of that name, 8km south-west of Huntingdon. There was a mansion occupying the area indicated for the hall and great chamber from the early-13th century. The surviving buildings, as indicated in black on the schematic were built towards the end of the 15th century, and comprise a tower of dimensions, 15 X 7.5m, with octagonal corner turrets, a length of curtain wall, and an embattled gatehouse facing west, all built in brick; the site was moated. There was also a rebuilt house with great hall and private chambers, but only footings survive. Catherine of Aragon was sequestered here for a period in 1533, after the annulment of her marriage to King Henry VIII. Although the site was not well defended, steps were taken to render it unprotected in the 1630s, far-sighted perhaps with Civil War looming, but the buildings inside still suffered damage in the period. It was patched up, but a new house was built in 1872, at the location shown. It is now used by an order called the Claretians. The photograph is taken from gardens to the north, and shows the top of the gatehouse on the left, and the great tower on the right.

CM2. Burwell Castle is on the south side of a small town of that name which is 6km north-west of Newmarket. It was conceived by King Stephen during the Anarchy, along with other similar castles as a means of confining Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex who had turned against the King and was carrying out raids from a base at Ely. In 1144, de Mandeville attacked the partly built castle but was killed in the attempt, which had the effect of ending his campaign. With its purpose achieved, there was no incentive to finish the castle, so the rather overgrown earthworks, together with footings of a curtain wall and gatehouse, now below ground, are the sole remains. It is thought that the site was reoccupied in the 14th century when its owner, the Abbot of Ramsay, had a grange built there. As is often the case with such sites, it is difficult to see the whole picture on the ground, which is of a near-rectangular platform of dimensions 95 X 50m, raised above a ditch once fed with water from a nearby stream, but now dry, as shown in the photograph of the south-east reach.

CM3. Cambridge Castle is north-west of the centre of the city, near the left bank of the River Cam. It was a motte and bailey founded shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1068. It can be assumed that it had masonry elements by the end of the next century, and King Edward I strengthened it greatly at the end of the 13th century, in particular erecting a round keep on the motte, and curtain walls, flanking towers, a twin-towered gatehouse, and moats as protection. However decay set in soon afterwards, and by the late 16th century it was a ruin. The bailey was refurbished as a fort in the early years of the Civil War, but the new defences were short-lived, although a barracks built then together with the medieval gatehouse survived as gaols, until the 19th century. Now all that remains is the motte, probably somewhat diminished, shown in the photograph.

CM4. Kirtling Towers is a fortified mansion, 7½km south-west of Newmarket. Kirtling castle was first documented in 1219. It had an encircling ditch and palisade in 1310, but by the early 15th century the buildings included a hall, kitchen, and chapel. In 1424 a new hall was built inside the moat for the earl of Warwick with a parlour, solar, and two chambers at its east end, and a pantry, buttery, and passage leading to the kitchen. Edward North's construction of a new and much larger house began in 1537, and the main part of the house, including a gallery and a lodging, was complete and gardens had been laid out by 1556, though whether older structures were incorporated is unclear. Additions were made and by 1660, it was the largest country house in Cambridgeshire, but by 1735 the house was in disorder. It was reduced in size and made habitable for Lord and Lady Elibank in 1748, but fell into disuse after their deaths and was demolished in 1801, except for the free- standing 3-storey gatehouse, built mainly of red brick. It has high octagonal turrets at the corners, and battlemented roofs; above the south gateway is a double-height oriel window. In the early 1830s the gatehouse, renamed Kirtling Tower, was converted to residential use; it was extended to the rear and a red-brick east wing in Tudor style was added in 1872, and the Norths used it until the 1940s when it was leased.

CM5. Longthorpe Tower is on the west side of Peterborough, north of the River Nene. The oldest surviving part of the building is the Great Chamber which was built between 1250-70 by a family called Thorpe, and it probably replaced an earlier structure on the site. Robert Thorpe was profitably employed by Peterborough Abbey, and had the resources to construct the Tower between 1290-1300. He also was responsible for unusual wall paintings in the Great Chamber. When Robert died, Longthrope passed through his descendants until 1391. Around 1501 it was sold to a London merchant, William Fitzwilliam, and until the 20th century, it remained with his descendants, who had become Yorkshire-based earls centuries earlier. At some point, perhaps following the Reformation, the Painted Chamber was whitewashed, but during redecoration after the 2nd World War, the wall paintings, hidden for centuries under the layers of whitewash, were re-discovered. The Tower is now looked after by English Heritage. The Tower is 8.5m square over walls 1.8m thick, and has 3 storeys, and a wall walk. To its south-west is the original block which contained a hall, after the tower was built; it has 13th century elements but has been modified over the centuries. The drawing shows the juxtaposition of the Tower and the Great Chamber.

E1. Colchester Castle is close to the centre of the town, above the left bank of the River Colne. The massive keep incorporates Roman masonry and was built on the platform once occupied by a Roman temple in c1075, as a back-up for town walls, also surviving from the Roman city of Camulodunum; the bailey surrounding it and extending to the aforementioned walls must have been contemporary. The castle was strengthened by King Henry II, and featured in the wars of King John, but that was the end of military action there for 4½ centuries, until it was besieged and captured by Sir Thomas Fairfax in 1648. In fact its history had been largely as a prison, and though an effort was made to demolish it in the late 17th century, it continued in that role until the 19th century. By the early 20th century it was roofless, but this was rectified and other work of restoration was carried out; in 1938 it became the town museum. The near-rectangular keep of dimensions 46 X 33m over walls 3.3m thick is the largest of its type in existence, and there are corner towers, pilasters, and an apse-like protrusion from the east wall, which signifies the presence there of a chapel. Now 2 storeys high, there was once a 3rd storey, and a 4th was planned but probably never built; the internal arrangements are those of a museum, rather than a medieval castle keep. Ramparts and a moat protect the bailey on the north and east sides and probably once extended round more of the circumference, but no medieval buildings survive within the area. It would be misguided to regret the restoration, but the building which remains hardly does justice to what was once there, inside or outside, especially with regard to the reduced height. The photograph is a view from the south-east.

E2. Great Canfield Castle is in a hamlet of that name which is 7km south-east of Stanstead Airport, and 22km north-west of Chelmsford. There are two accounts of the origins of the castle here; one goes back to 1042, and names the builder of ‘Robert’s Castle’ as Robert Fitz Wymarc, the other dates it to later that century and attributes it to the de Veres. The absence of any history associated with the castle suggests that it may not have been occupied for long; this thesis is supported by the absence of any traces of masonry, suggesting that its buildings were wooden surrounded by a palisade, and that it was never rebuilt in stone. The schematic shows the configuration of the motte and bailey, and gives an idea of the scale of the extensive earthworks, with deep moats fed by the nearby river. The site is totally overgrown with bushes and mature trees and no photograph could convey anything beyond that fact. The location of the church of St. Mary is also shown in the schematic, and a photograph taken from the south-west is presented. The chancel and nave were built early in the 12th century, presumably when the castle was still occupied, and are noted for a Norman doorway and chancel arch. The wooden bell tower at the west end dates to the 15th century, but the window in the western wall is modern.

E3. Hadleigh Castle is on an escarpment above the left bank of the Thames Estuary, 6½km west of Southend. The enclosure castle was founded by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent in the early 13th century but when he lost favour it came into royal hands; the building phases are shown in the English Heritage schematic. It seems to have become ruined in the late 16th century, and deteriorated rapidly until coming under state care in 1948. It is open to the public. Unfortunately a land-slip has caused the whole south side to collapse. The large court was 100m long X 70m wide, and surrounded by a perimeter wall 2m thick, with towers at intervals, and buttressed at the inner face; this and its situation gave the castle its strength. The hall, solar and other domestic buildings were at the west end of the court but the most striking survival is the south-east round tower of King Edward III, shown in the photograph.

E4. Hedingham Castle is on the north- west side of the village of Castle Hedingham, 9km south-west of Sudbury. It was held by a member of the de Vere family in the late 11th century, but the stone keep was built after 1142, when the Earldom of Oxford was acquired. The castle was captured a couple of times in the wars of King John in the early 13th century, and the family had problems arising from their strong Lancastrian sympathies, before King Henry VII eventually triumphed in 1485. Nonetheless, 20 earls had owned the castle before the last of the line died in 1702; the castle belongs now to the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, a descendant of the de Veres, and is open to the public. There is a large inner bailey, protected by ramparts and ditches, and to the east of it, an outer bailey, also protected by earthworks, and within which is an 18th century house. The keep, viewed from the south-west in the upper photograph, has dimensions of 17.5 X 15.5m over walls 3.3m thick. There are buttresses and turrets, but although there appear to be windows appropriate to 5 storeys, many of them are dummies and really there are only a basement and two upper rooms in the building. There are now no traces of the hall and ancillary buildings which once stood in the inner bailey adjacent to the keep, but the brick access bridge dating to the late 15th century, and shown in the lower photograph, still stands.

E5. Pleshey Castle is in a village of that name, 8km north-west of Chelmsford. The motte and bailey castle is thought to have been built by the de Mandeville family in the late 11th century. They gained the Earldom of Essex but fought against King Stephen who captured the castle in 1143, though the family reclaimed it in 1156. Thereafter it passed to the Bohuns by marriage, and then to Thomas of Woodstock, who was killed on the order of his nephew, King Richard II, in 1397. The original wooden structures on the motte were replaced by a stone keep, probably in the late 12th century, but they and other buildings of which traces have been found, fell into decay in the 15th century, and in the early 17th century were quarried. The impressive earthworks with deep moats surrounding the motte, and the castle as a whole as shown in the aerial view from the south-west, are the main survivals from the medieval castle, but the bridge linking the motte to the bailey also stands. Visible in the upper photograph, but shown from close range in the lower photograph, it is realistically dated to c1400, though it had a wooden predecessor; the bridge is entirely brick-built with a pointed arch spanning 5.6m.

E6. Saffron Walden Castle, more accurately called Walden Castle, is on the north side of the town from which it takes its name, set upon Bury Hill. Its building was started by Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex in 1140, but it was confiscated by King Stephen, 2 years later when its owner changed sides to oppose him in the wars of the Anarchy. Building probably recommenced when de Mandeville’s son regained the site, but King Henry II sleighted it in 1158. In the mid-14th century the site passed to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and he received a licence to crenelate a house, presumably in the bailey of Walden Castle, but he rebelled and lost the property which passed to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. By then the ruined keep was probably close to its current state, and it has passed through many hands before being obtained by the local authority in recent years, but access is not yet possible because of the danger of falling masonry. The curious turret was added in the late 18th century. The only substantial survival from what was conceived as a motte and bailey castle is the lower part of a tower keep, 19m square with walls 3.8m thick; the ruin is 8m high and must have been intended to have at least 3 storeys. It should be stressed that the castle was probably never finished. The photograph is a view from the south.

L1. Bolingbroke Castle is in the village of Old Bolingbroke which is 10km south-east of Horncastle. There may have been a castle here as early as the11th century, but the ruins visible now relate to a castle constructed around 1220-30, by Randulph de Blundeville, Earl of Chester (and Earl of Lincoln from 1217). The castle then passed through a number of hands before becoming, as so many did, a possession of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He and his wife, who had brought him the castle, lived there until her early death but their son Henry - later King Henry IV - was born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1366. It played no part in the Wars of the Roses, and gradually became a backwater and by 1600 only the gatehouse and the King's Tower were still in use. It was garrisoned by the Royalists in the Civil War, but after the Parliamentary victory of Winceby in 1643, they surrendered and inevitably it was sleighted after the war; thereafter it continued to decay until placed in state guardianship in the 20th century. The enclosure castle shown in the English Heritage schematic had a curtain wall, 3.6m thick and there were 5 towers and a gatehouse, surrounded by a deep moat. The service buildings and hall were timber framed and there was no keep. The large earthwork in the centre of the rout yard beyond the moat is almost certainly post- medieval, and probably a fort built to help to defend the castle during the siege of 1643. The photograph shows the wall and one of the towers in the foreground giving a true impression of the condition of the ruin.

L2. Bytham Castle is in the village of Castle Bytham, 12km north of Stamford. The massive earthworks which largely survive were created by isolating a spur of the nearby hills with ditches and by using the rock and soil to build ramparts. There seems to have been a motte and bailey castle here soon after the Norman Conquest in 1085; its one involvement in serious military action took place in the decade after 1216, when its tenant, William de Colvill rebelled against King John, lost the castle, then in 1221, made his peace with the Regents for the young King Henry III, but had to rely on a royal army equipped with heavy siege weapons to recover the castle. The castle was rebuilt largely in enclosure configuration, as indicated in the schematic, though a shell keep was retained; the inner bailey was surrounded by a stone wall and a deep moat and the keep was reached from the south by way of a barbican and two separate gatehouses. An outer line of defence strengthened by walls and perhaps towers protected an outer bailey in which lay further buildings. The castle had two chapels, one in the main part of the castle and the other in the outer gatehouse. There is little mention of the castle after the 14th century, during part of which it was owned and occupied by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and by the mid-16th century it was ruined; presumably the total lack of visible stonework is explained by quarrying thereafter. The photograph is a view from the north-west.

L3. Grimsthorpe Castle is 17km north of Stamford. The medieval castle which once stood here is represented only by King John’s Tower, which suggests origins in c1200, but which was probably built early in the 14th century. It is suggested that it was once one of four at the corners of a quadrangular fortified house, with ranges between the towers. By the middle of the 16th century, the house was in the possession of the Duke of Suffolk who expanded it to accommodate King Henry VIII on his way to and from York to complete the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536. By 1553, the house was in the hands of the Duke’s daughter, Katherine who started a new line by marrying her gentleman Usher, Richard Bertie. In spite of a period of exile before Queen Elizabeth came to the throne and problems during and after the Civil War, caused by staunch adherence to the Royal cause, the family prospered, and in 1715 the patriarch became 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. A steady programme of alteration and enlargement of the Castle culminated at that time in a substantial remodelling by Sir John Vanbrugh. The family, who still own the castle have continued to make changes, albeit less dramatic, and the battlements on King John’s Tower were added in the 19th century. The house is now run by a trust and is open to the public. The surviving tower which is on the east side of the castle, has 3 storeys, and dimensions 9 X 7.5m over walls 2m thick; inside, there are rib-vaulted rooms. The photograph shows the south face (the back) of the castle, with King John’s Tower on the right.

L4. Hussey Tower is close to the centre of Boston, on the left bank of the River Witham, and to the west of school playing fields. It was built of brick, as part of a larger complex by a town official called Richard Bennington in the mid-15th century, and came into the possession of Sir John Hussey, a courtier to King Henry VIII. His downfall was the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536, a protest against the King’s religious reforms; even though he denied any involvement he was executed at Lincoln later that year, and his tower was sleighted. The tower survives, roofless with 3 storeys of dimensions 9.2 X 8.3m, with walls 1.4m thick at the base but thinner above. There was certainly a hall block alongside, so the tower was a solar giving sleeping accommodation, and other buildings including a gatehouse, dismantled as part of the sleighting, were part of the complex. The photograph is a view from the north- west, and the corner turret to the north-east which contained stairs can be seen.

L5. Lincoln Castle is north of the centre of the city, just to the west of the cathedral, in the south-west corner of the old Roman town. It was founded in 1068, and the shell keep known as the Lucy Tower, towards the top-left in the aerial view from the east, was built shortly afterwards. Lincoln, and its castle were prominent during the ’Anarchy’ of the mid-12th century, and King Stephen was actually captured in a battle nearby, though soon released. It was again involved in armed actions during the reign of King John, and the civil war which continued after his death, but eventually passed to the ubiquitous John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. It was not involved in the Wars of the Roses, and its defences decayed, although buildings within the large bailey served as courthouse and prison. It was held by both sides during the Civil War, but the Battle of Winceby in 1643 sealed the fate of the Royalists holding it at that time. In 1831, the local magistrates purchased the castle, and the court house at the top of the photograph still serves that function, but the prison blocks in the centre-left, ceased to hold prisoners in1878, and the buildings now store records, and provide space for a museum. The enclosure castle had a bailey of dimensions 170 X 150m, surrounded by a curtain wall strengthened by a number of towers. The shell keep to the south had dimensions, 25 X 20m, and there was a second tower, on a mound at the south-east corner of the bailey called Observatory Tower. The gateways to the west and east date to the 11th and 12th centuries respectively, and barbicans were added later, while the tower at the north-east corner, (lower-right on the aerial view) called Cobb Hall was a late-13th century addition. All the features mentioned along with the 11th century curtain wall survive as substantial ruins though not to full-height. The lower photograph is of the ruin of the Lucy Tower (shell-keep).

L6. Rochford Tower is on the west side of Boston and was one of four similar brick- built structures (the others were Butterwick Tower, now demolished, plus Hussey Tower and the Tower-on-the-Moor) that formed the centre-piece of manorial sites in the area. It took its name from the Rochford family who had lived in the area since the 13th century, acquiring considerable status, and are thought to have built it between 1445 and 1460. The manor was granted to the Abbot of Westminster in 1504 by Henry VII, and later leased to the Kyme family who occupied the site from c1640 until 1816. However, an adjacent hall block was demolished just before the later date, and the tower probably went out of use at the same time, and is now ruined. The 4-storey, square tower of dimensions 8.4 X 7.9m and with walls 1.4m thick had a barrel vaulted store on the ground floor and accommodation above. An octagonal stair turret at the south-east corner provided access to all levels. The upper storeys were provided with fireplaces and had evidence of wall paintings, both indicating high-status occupation, but strangely none had a garderobe (toilet). Rochford Tower is in the garden of a private house, surrounded by mature trees which makes it difficult to photograph, probably by design; my own photograph taken from the south reflects this, but I have not found any much better.

L7. Sleaford Castle is west of the centre of the town of that name on a tract of land bounded by the railway, a street called Castle Causeway, and streams led off from the River Slea, which is to the north. It was built in the 1120s and 1130s by a Bishop of Lincoln. It is never thought to have seen action, serving more as an administrative centre for the bishops, in which context the manorial barn, located as shown on the schematic was important. The castle was habitable until the mid-16th century, but it was stripped of its roof then, and quickly became ruinous. Now there is said to be one small huddle of masonry left, though in truth I never came across it in my wanderings amongst the impressive earthworks shown in the schematic and the photograph. The castle is thought to have been of enclosure type with a keep, towers and a gatehouse, signified as Inner Courtyard, and surrounded by a substantial moat. Beyond were an outer courtyard and outer bailey, again protected by moats and gatehouses. Suggestions that the castle was not capable of defence seem very wide of the mark. The photograph looks south-east from where the gatehouse to the outer courtyard must have been, with the inner moat, which would have been water-filled in the foreground.

L8. Somerton Castle is just to the west of the village of Boothby Graffoe, 12km south of Lincoln. Antony Bek, long-time militant Bishop of Durham, received Somerton Manor on the death of his mother, Eva de Grey, in the late 1270s, and probably built the castle in the 1280s. In 1309, Bek gifted Somerton Manor to King Edward II, and in 1328 his son, King Edward III granted it to a John De Roos supposedly for life for a rent of £10 per annum, but took it back after 6 years. King John I of France was confined here after being taken prisoner at Poitiers in 1356. Thereafter it remained usually in the hands of Kings or their high connections until it was attached to the Duchy of Lancaster in 1478. After that, decay set in, possibly accelerated by quarrying, though there were periods in which what remained was refurbished and augmented, but it is now on the ’at-risk’ register. It was built as a quadrangular castle of dimensions 100 X 54m, with circular towers at the angles, curtain walls between them, and surrounded by a moat. Of that building, only the south- east tower with three storeys and a conical roof, and the ground floors of the north-east and north-west towers survive. Attached to the south-east tower is the south front, extended by an L-shaped wing built in c1600. The earthworks, including the moat, remain very prominent. The castle is not open to the public, nor easily seen from the nearest roads to it though visible from a minor road at a rather greater distance which runs east to the village of Navenby. The photograph is taken from the south.

L9. South Kyme Tower is on the west side of the village of that name, 10½km north-east of Sleaford, beside the B1395. The property was moated from an early date, probably from before the Norman Conquest. The tower was built in the mid-14th century by Gilbert Umfraville, Earl of Angus, as part of a larger fortified house, which certainly incorporated a hall block, and there may have been another like tower. Little is recorded of its later history, though it passed through known hands until becoming a possession of the Duke of Newcastle in the early 18th century. The future prime minister must have been responsible for demolishing the hall, which has left traces on an outer wall of the tower. That structure was 23m high, 8.8m square over walls 1.5m thick, and ashlar built of Barnack stone. It had a basement, vaulted with eight chamfered ribs converging to an octagonal cusped panel in the centre serving as a boss, and above were 3 other floors reached by a staircase in the turret at the south-east corner. The building is unroofed, and no floors survive above the first. The moat which encloses a triangular platform is the other survival. The photograph is a view of the south face showing the stair turret, and the beam-slots for the demolished hall block.

L10. Tattershall Castle dominates the village from which it takes its name, 13.5km south of Horncastle on the left bank of the River Witham. The first castle on the site was of stone, built in 1231; it was of enclosure type with inner, middle and outer wards, a moat and curtain wall with towers around the former, and a gatehouse. Ralph, 3rd Lord Cromwell rebuilt it completely of brick, with the massive tower, during the two decades prior to 1450. Although the castle survived turbulent times, and was double-moated, it should be seen more as a decorative mansion than a strong fortification; it was never assaulted. After Cromwell’s death, its history was rather downbeat as it changed hands between families including the Clintons, Earls of Lincoln, and Fortescues. By 1910 it was roofless, in total disrepair, and after an auction, its American purchaser began to rip out furnishings including medieval fireplaces with the intention of installing them in his own home. The Marquis Curzon stepped in at this point, purchased the castle, regained the fireplaces, and renovated the castle thoroughly before presenting it to the National Trust. Apart from the tower, shown in the photograph, which is 40m high and c20m square, the foundations of the medieval kitchens survive in the inner ward, while in the middle ward, a guardhouse through which entry is obtained, still stands.

L11. Torksey Castle is on the right bank of the River Trent, in the village of that name which is 15km north- west of Lincoln, on the A156. It was a castle only in name, built as a manor house by the Jermyn family in c1560. It was occupied for less than a century, until the Civil War, when after being taken and occupied by a Parliamentary force in1645, it was retaken by Royalists but burnt by them to deny it to their opponents. It was never rebuilt, and rather used as a quarry after that, so in some ways the standing ruins are larger than might have been expected. The survivals are the west front and part of the rear wall; as can be seen in the photograph the former had a high stone ground floor, with four towers, and continued upwards in the same form but built of red brick with ashlar dressings. The manor house must have been an attractive sight when built, and at that time it was almost certainly further from the River Trent.

NF1. Baconsthorpe Castle is north of the village of that name, and 6km south-west of Sheringham. It was founded as a hall in the 1450s by John Heydon, a lawyer of dubious reputation, but curiously for a high status home, buildings were erected later that century, on the east side of the main court to house wool processing. An outer court, with the gatehouse at the bottom-centre of the aerial photograph which looks north- east, was added in the mid-16th century. The inner gatehouse which contained the main residential quarters was remodelled in c1600. The Civil War brought disaster to the Royalist owners, and the castle, in that after confiscation, the then- owner had to knock down and quarry most of the buildings to pay off the debts incurred in buying back the property. However the inner gatehouse had a number of resident owners before the collapse of a western turret in the 1920s rendered it un-inhabitable, and the state took over the task of preserving the site. The main court was moated and had a curtain wall with a number of towers. Domestic rooms in the inner and outer gatehouses were of high quality, and there were also such rooms in a building on the west side of the main court. The lower photograph is a view of the inner gatehouse from the south-east, showing the broad moat and curtain wall.

NF2. Caistor Castle is on the west side of the town Caistor, which is now a northern suburb of Great Yarmouth. The castle was built between1433 and 1448 for Sir John Falstoft, (there are a few spellings), funded by ransoms paid for those captured in battles such as Verneuill in 1424, during the Hundred Years War. He probably had some of the failings highlighted by Shakespeare, but a 25-year military career which was generally successful, suggests that the great playwright did him no favours. After Sir John’s death in 1459, the castle passed to the Paston family and so it features in the famous letters. Their possession was disputed, and not only by its builder’s closest heirs; the Duke of Norfolk who also had a claim, besieged and captured it in 1469, but the Pastons regained it 6 years later. However, they left in 1599 to occupy their mansion at Oxnead, and the decay of the castle into its present ruined state began then. As built, it was a moated courtyard castle of brick fabric with stone facings, the main features are shown in the schematic. The inner court was rectangular of dimensions of 45 X 42m and was surrounded by a wall with a gatehouse to the north-east. There were ranges of domestic and service rooms along each wall, though little evidence of them survives. The most impressive survival is the round west tower, of diameter 7.5m and rising 27m above the moat, which probably contained the apartments of the castle-owner, and is shown in the photograph. A channel was dug between the wide moat and the River Bure which allowed access and supply by water.

NF3. Castle Acre Castle is in the village of Castle Acre, 7km north of Swaffham. It was founded by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey in the 1080s, and remained with that family until the male line ran out in 1347, when it passed to the Fitz-Alan, Earls of Arundel, and eventually to the Dukes of Norfolk who sold it in 1558; by then it may have been derelict for over a century. Thereafter it had a number of owners before arriving in the hands of the Coke family who acquired the Earldom of Leicester, and they placed the site under state guardianship in 1971. The configuration is of a classic motte and bailey, though when built the protection given to the upper ward at the top of the schematic, was only a stockade, and a house there was hardly fortified. However in the 12th century all this changed with the building of a curtain wall with a gatehouse, and the development of the house into a keep 24m square with walls 3m thick. The lower ward had high walls to the east and west, but was protected by the River Nar to its south, while a gateway with a barbican gave access in the north-east corner. Domestic buildings including a hall, kitchen and probably a chapel were built in the lower ward in the 14th century. The aerial view from the east shows most of the features referred to which survive mainly as impressive earthworks, low ruins and foundations.

NF4. Castle Rising Castle is on the south side of the village of Castle Rising, 6km north-east of Kings Lynn. It was founded by William de Albini in c1140 when he had just been created Earl of Arundel. Two centuries later it became royal, housing Isabella, the disgraced widow of King Edward II, and then passing by way of Edward the Black Prince to a succession of Kings before in 1544 it was granted to the then Duke of Norfolk. By then it was a ruin, and some quarrying took place in the early 18th century, though it was tidied up a century later. It is now an English Heritage property. The aerial photograph taken from the south-east shows the inner ward with its exceptionally large ramparts and deep ditch which date to the early 13th century. The gatehouse thought to date to 1140, and barbican, connect by way of a medieval bridge, to an outer ward to the east, also surrounded by ramparts and a ditch; the smaller outer ward to the west does not connect with the others, so cannot have served any purpose. The keep, also dating to 1140 and shown viewed from the south-east below, has dimensions 24 X 21m over walls 2.6m thick, and had kitchens and other service rooms on the ground floor, and the hall and a chapel squeezed in above, along with bed-chambers and lavatories; this was the only high status accommodation in the castle.

NF5. Claxton Castle is in a village of that name, 12km south-east of Norwich. The history seems fairly clear- cut in that 2 licences to crenelate were granted to the de Kerdeston family in 1340 and 1376, and the castle can be assumed to have been built in that period. It came into the possession of the de la Pole Dukes of Suffolk in the 1440s and in the next century was held after her divorce from King Henry VIII by Queen Anne of Cleves. It passed to the Gawdy family later in the 16th century, but by then it was probably in decay because they built a new house adjacent to it and may well have utilised bricks stripped from the castle, which has been ruinous since then. The castle is almost universally described as a brick-built and moated, fortified courtyard house, but I find that description hard to reconcile with what can be seen now, as in the photograph below, which is limited as the castle is on private land, and the view from the nearest public road is obscured by bushes and trees. However, it is clearly an enclosure wall with turrets and buttresses, made of bricks and stone rubble; apparently it is 30m long, 1m thick, and survives to a height of up to 8m. By no stretch of the imagination could it be described as a house wall. There may have been a courtyard house at the centre of the enclosed area, but the moats and curtain wall suggest a high level of protection.

NF6. Mileham Castle is in the village of that name, 9km north-west of Dereham, and straddles the B1145. The motte and bailey castle was probably constructed in c1100 and it entered history as part of a deal involving King Stephen, the Fitz-Alans, and the Chesneys in 1154. The castle had fallen out of use by 1300 and is recorded then as decayed. It comprised a motte with two crescent shaped baileys to its north, the former built up round a flint rubble keep of dimensions 18 X 17m over walls as much as 4m thick. Fragments of the keep, shown in the photograph, along with earthworks including protective ditches are the present-day survivals.

NF7. New Buckenham Castle is on the west side of the village of that name which is 6km south-east of Attleborough, beside the B1113. It had a short- lived predecessor at Old Buckenham which is 3km to the north-west, where earthworks are apparently still visible, but William de Albini, Earl of Arundel is thought to have built the motte and bailey castle at New Buckenham in the 1140s. At this time, there was a moated, near circular inner bailey, of diameter 60m with a stone gatehouse to the north- east facing an outer bailey, and a circular keep in close proximity. Around half a century later, the massive ramparts which surround the motte were built up, and the entrance was switched to the south-west corner where a new outer bailey was positioned, as indicated in the schematic. Thereafter, the castle changed hands a number of times, normally by marriage, and was threatened if not actually captured on occasion during periods of strife. Eventually it was sleighted, and ceased to be occupied after the Civil War. Apart from the ramparts and moat, the circular keep of outer diameter 19.5m above walls 3.3m thick survives to a height of one storey, as shown in the lower photograph, and the access bridge over the wide moat may date at least in part to c1500.

NF8. North Elmham Bishop’s Castle is in the village of North Elmham which is 9km north of Dereham on the B1110. There may well have been an Anglian Cathedral here during periods after the 7th century, and certainly in the 10th century, but it will have been a wooden structure and has left no trace. After the Norman Conquest the see was moved first to Thetford, and shortly afterwards to Norwich. The bishop after 1071, Herbert de Losinga, retained the North Elmham site, and built there a palace, with a chapel which quite possibly stood on some of the ground occupied by the aforementioned cathedral. Matters took an extraordinary turn when after taking a prominent role in suppressing the Peasants Revolt of 1381 as it was manifested in Norwich, and presumably feeling himself a target for revenge, Bishop Henry Despencer, converted the chapel into a fortified house, surrounded by a moat. His death in 1406 seems to have prompted a rethink about the need for such protection, and the building fell into decay, becoming buried over the centuries until it was excavated in 1871; it is open to the public. As can be seen in the schematic, (hatching denotes 14th century work) the building retained most of the outward form of a church, save for the two turrets in the south wall of the nave which protected a first floor entrance. That floor contained a hall above the nave which was utilised for storage and services while at the upper level the west tower and transept contained private chambers. The photograph is a view from the south-east.

NF9. Norwich Castle is in the centre of the city. It was built in the late 1060s, comprising at first timber buildings on top of a motte, protected by a wooden palisade with baileys to the south and east which were protected by banks and ditches. In 1075, Ralph Guader who had held the castle rebelled with two other earls, and was forced to flee though his wife Emma defied the King's army for 3 months, before being allowed to join her husband. The stone keep was built in the 1120s and in 1200 a great stone gatehouse was built at the top of the bridge that spanned the dry ditch surrounding the motte; a stone bridge was probably built at the same time, with a great drawbridge pit, about nine metres across, at its upper end. The castle was captured by the French pretender to the English throne, Prince Louis, in 1217. After this the military importance of the castle declined and in 1345 the King gave the two baileys to the city of Norwich. The keep remained under the control of the Sheriff of Norfolk, for by this date it had become the county gaol, and remained so until 1887. Then it was bought by the city corporation and converted into the museum and art gallery it remains today. Entry to the battlemented keep, which is 28m square and 21m high, was up a flight of stairs to a vestibule at first-floor level and through the grand entrance into the great hall, which took up much of the northern half of the keep. Beyond it were a pantry, a kitchen and latrines. The southern half of the keep was divided into a number of smaller rooms, including a chapel, the great chamber, with a large fireplace, used by the governor and a private room for the King to use when he visited. Most of the ground floor was used for storage, but at one end under the chapel were dungeons reached only by holes in the first floor. The decorative exterior, with pilaster buttresses and blocked arcades is very unusual. Only the foundations remain of the inner gatehouse, and nothing of those giving entry to the baileys. The photograph is a view from the south.

NF10. Oxburgh Hall is on the south-west edge of Oxborough village, 10½km south-west of Swaffham. The hall was built by Sir Edmund Beddingfield in the late 15th century, and is still the home of that family, though now under National Trust stewardship. The Bedingfields, who remained catholic after the Reformation, were heavily fined by Queen Elizabeth as recusants, and then picked the wrong side in the Civil War, during which the hall was partly burnt; however, they retained possession. The hall is a doubtful inclusion in a list of castles; although licence to crenelate was granted in 1482, the defensive features were at least as much for show as military purpose, and probably never tested. As built it was a moated, quadrangular building, 50m square, and the 4 two-storey ranges enclosed a court. Entry was by way of a bridge over the moat and through a high gatehouse with octagonal turrets at its outer corners, in the centre of the north range. In the late 18th century the south range which contained a medieval hall was demolished, only to be replaced by a single storey gallery a century later, and many of the rather twee decorative features were also added in that period. The photograph is a view from the north-west.

NF11. Thetford Castle is south-east of the centre of Thetford, which is 18km north of Bury St. Edmonds. The motte and bailey castle was built shortly after the Norman Conquest, and probably held by the Bigod Earls of Norfolk. It is doubtful if there ever were stone buildings here, because the castle was short-lived; it was destroyed by King Henry II in 1173 and the site was never refortified. The well-preserved earthworks are shown in the aerial photograph taken from the north-west; those in the upper part are the double-rampart and ditch of an Iron Age fort. The chalk motte is c13m high and with a levelled summit, 25m in diameter, and it is surrounded by a ditch and a rampart. The bailey was to the east, on the right in the photograph.

NF12. Weeting Castle is on the east side of the village of that name, 10½km north- west of Thetford. It was built in 1180 by Hugh de Plais as a manor house, unfortified in spite of the name, but protected by a moat added in the 13th century. It passed by marriage to the Howard Earls of Norfolk in the late 14th century, and was no longer occupied, decaying to the present ruin in the succeeding centuries. The house was basically rectangular of dimensions 26 X 15m, and the main room was a vaulted hall open to the roof, over cellars; to its north were service rooms and a yard containing a detached kitchen. South of the hall were private chambers on two floors and toilets. The photograph is taken from the north- west, below it is an English Heritage mock- up, viewed from a similar direction.

SF1. Bungay Castle is at the centre of the small town of that name which is within a tight loop of the River Waveney, 20km west of Lowestoft. It was probably founded by Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk in the late 11th century, but the family had to surrender it to King Henry II, and he eventually pulled it down after another rebellion in 1174. It was refortified by a later Bigod in 1294, and passed to the Mowbrays and then the Howards in 1483. After that it was no longer occupied and began a long decay, only really halted in the 1930s when excavations were carried out. It is now looked after by a Trust. In the aerial view from the south-west, the nearly square keep of dimensions, 22 X 21m, is in the upper part of the field of view; it was probably built in the mid-11th century on a low motte with an inner bailey to the west, and an outer bailey to the south. The two large D-shaped towers, on the lower left of the photograph, formed part of the gatehouse controlling entry to the motte after 1290. The inner bailey was protected by a curtain wall and a ditch, and housed wooden domestic buildings including a hall.

SF2. Burgh Castle is on the right bank of the River Waveney, just short of its junction with the River Yare, 5km south-west of Great Yarmouth. Burgh Castle was one of at least nine Roman coastal forts in eastern and southern England known as the Forts of the Saxon Shore. The defences at Burgh Castle date to around AD 300, and survive except to the west to almost to their original full height, at 4.5m, although a parapet (now missing) protected soldiers patrolling the wall top. The defences were strengthened by a series of projecting bastions, sited at the corners of the fort and at intervals along the walls. In the late 11th century, a small castle was built in the south-west corner of the fort, at the position shown on the map taken from the Norfolk Archaeological Trust site. The castle re-used part of the southern defences of the Roman fort with a gap cut through the south wall for the ditch surrounding a motte, and a rampart protected the west side. All that survives of the castle today are the remains of that partially flattened motte which once had a wooden keep on top. The photograph is of the south wall of the Roman fort, showing one of the towers.

SF3. Clare Castle is in the village of that name, on the left bank of the River Stour, and 10½km north-west of Sudbury. The motte and bailey castle was founded by Richard Fitz Gilbert, in the 1070s; the family took the name de Clare, and held the castle until 1314 when the last of the male line was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn. Between 1317 and 1360 it was occupied by Elizabeth de Burgh (best called de Clare to avoid confusion with a contemporary Queen of Scotland) and she undertook extensive construction work. Thereafter the castle passed by the way of the Mortimers to the English crown in the 15th century. By the 16th century it was ruinous, though walls survived at reduced height until a railway was driven through the area occupied by the baileys in the 19th century, (shades of Berwick-upon-Tweed castle). It comprises a motte, 16m high, surmounted by a fragment of a cylindrical tower of flint rubble, shown in the upper photograph; this shell keep was originally of 15.5m internal diameter with walls 1.8m thick, but only the western arc survives to a height of 7.5m, as shown in the lower photograph. There were 2 baileys, the inner southern-most having been walled, and an outer ditch surrounded the whole. The castle is at the angle formed by the junction of the River Stour and Chilton Stream, so gained some further protection on the south and east sides. The entrance from outer to inner bailey was defended by flanking towers and probably a drawbridge, with what appears to be an outer barbican.

SF4. Eye Castle is in the centre of a village of that name which is 30km north of Ipswich. The motte and bailey castle was built by William Malet in the late 1060s. The castle came into royal hands in 1106, when one might speculate that stone buildings will have replaced wooden ones, and from then on ownership alternated between Kings and lords, powerful in Suffolk, until 1400, by which time it was probably ruinous. The schematic shows the general configuration (north to the top), and that stonework on the motte derives unfortunately from a 19th century folly. The only surviving medieval masonry is probably the curtain wall along the north side of the bailey and leading up to the motte, shown in the photograph.

SF5. Framlingham Castle is on the north- east side of the village of that name, 22km north-east of Ipswich. A castle was built here, probably in c1100 with a motte by the Bigod family, but King Henry II destroyed it in 1175, because the Bigods had revolted. The family reoccupied Framlingham in 1189, and at this time the curtain walls were built. Thereafter the castle swopped between the crown and the Bigods and then the Mowbray family, until the Howards, later Dukes of Norfolk, gained possession by marriage. Their Catholicism cost them the property during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but they recovered it from her successor King James I and VI, but sold it in 1635, and thereafter it came into the hands of Pembroke College, Cambridge who knocked down all the internal buildings and erected a poorhouse in the main court. The English Heritage schematic shows that court, ovoid and of dimensions, 90 X 60m surrounded by a strong curtain wall, 12m high and 2.3m thick, with 12 towers. The gatehouse to the south is of the early 16th century, as is the bridge giving access to it; there was also a barbican of that date. Remains of the oldest building in the complex, a 12th century hall, are on the east side of the inner court, with those of a chapel; the later hall was in turn replaced by the poorhouse buildings. The photograph is a view from the north- west across what was an outer court, while a bailey lay to the east.

SF6. Little Wenham Castle is 9½km south-west of Ipswich, and is part of an interesting complex of buildings reachable by way of a rutted minor road called The Row, to the north of Great Wenham. The castle was built in c1275, and is thought to be one of the oldest buildings in England made from home- produced bricks. It seems to have been built by tenants called Holebroke, and passed to a family called de Debenham whose Yorkist allegiance led to the only action seen by the castle in 1470, and later to the imprisonment and possible execution of the head of the family. Thereafter the castle passed through many hands, being inhabited last in the 18th century. The main block, running north to south, had dimensions 13.5 X 7.3m, with walls 1.4m thick lower down; the basement was vaulted, and above it was a private chamber. A square projection to the east contained another vaulted basement, a chapel above, and unusually, a bedroom above that. As can be seen the building had battlements, and was surrounded by a moat, but was fortified rather than fully defensible. The complex originally included a timber-framed hall to the south, but it was replaced by a new-build in the 16th century outside the moat, and its predecessor was dismantled. I was only able to see the top part of the castle, above farm buildings, from public land, so I have presented an English Heritage view from the south-east. Immediately to the north of the castle is the 13th century church of All Saints, almost certainly part of the same building programme as the castle, though its fabric is flint and stone. It is now redundant but well preserved, and viewed from the south in the middle photograph. Finally, mention should be made of the 16th century timber-framed barn just to the west of the church, viewed from the south-east in the lowest photograph.

SF7. Mettingham Castle and College are south of the village of the same name, which is 5½km west of Beccles. The castle dates to the 1340s, and was built by Sir John de Norwich. In 1373 it passed to Catherine de Brews, a nun, who gave it to a Chantry college at Raveningham which moved via Norton Subcourse to the castle in 1394, a process delayed by the sacking of the castle during the peasant’s revolt in 1381. It was a large college for a master and 12 fellows dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with a large income of £212 in the 1530; it was suppressed in 1542. After this unusual interlude for a castle, it soon passed to a powerful local family, the Bacons who held it for more than a century; thereafter it had a number of owners who built and demolished various houses within its moated confines. The only substantial remains of the original castle are the impressive gatehouse with its 2 polygonal turrets, on the lower left of the aerial view from the north-west, and viewed from the north in the upper photograph, together with lengths of curtain wall on each side of it. The remains of the college are in the top-centre of the aerial view, and date from c1400; the square tower may have been the residence of the master. Other buildings are modern, though there remain some fragments of older castle buildings. I believe the remarkable site is sometimes open to the public, but otherwise it is difficult to see much from the road to the north.

SF8. Orford Castle is in the village of that name, 25km east of Ipswich, on the right bank of the River Alde, looking over to Orford Ness. The castle was built in the years between 1166 and 1173, to strengthen the royal position in East Anglia; it fell to Prince Louis of France in 1217, but was recovered when peace was declared. In seemingly calmer times in the region it was granted in 1336 to Robert de Ufford who became Earl of Suffolk. No longer a royal castle in an area suffering economic decline, the castle passed between families who did not maintain it well. In 1754, the Seymour-Conway family purchased it but a few decades later proposed to demolish the keep, by then the only part of the castle in any sort of decent condition, but its value as a landmark for shipping (like Reculver Towers in Kent) caused permission to be refused. The keep was refurbished in the 19th century, and was used as a radar station in the 2nd World War, before being placed in state guardianship in 1962. It was unique in England, with 3 turrets 6m wide projecting from around a cylinder of diameter 14m, above walls 3m thick. The turrets rise 7m higher than the central cylinder to 32m.. The hall was on the first floor, in the main body of the keep, and above it, were private chambers; the turrets contained more such, and service rooms and latrines. The keep was surrounded by a curtain wall with probably four flanking towers and a fortified gatehouse protecting a relatively small bailey and further out was a ditch, crossed by a stone bridge and a palisade, probably the main defences. There are no masonry remains of these features.

SF9. Wingfield Castle is on the west side of a village of that name which is 16km west of Halesworth. The de la Pole family originally from Hull, acquired the manor house at Wingfield by marriage in the late 14th century, and Michael de la Pole was raised to the Earldom of Suffolk, and granted licence to crenelate in 1384. Over the next century the family rose high, but its heads suffered exile, murder, and executions for their ambition, until the last of the line was killed at the Battle of Pavia in 1525; he had been the Yorkist claimant to the throne through his grandmother, the daughter of Richard, Duke of York, and as such perceived as a deadly threat by King Henry VIII. That King had seized Wingfield Castle, and partially dismantled it, before a timber-framed house was built in the castle courtyard in1540. Thereafter the castle had many owners, and survives still as a private dwelling to which there is no public access, though it can be viewed without trespassing. The original enclosure castle was trapezoidal, with a south side, 58m long, a north side, 82m long, and other sides, 70m long, all surrounded by a moat. The entrance was through the south face, shown in the photograph, where a bridge leads to a gatehouse flanked by 3-storey semi-polygonal towers, and connected by curtain walls to octagonal towers at the south-east and south-west corners. This wall continues to half-way along the east side but has vanished above foundation-level elsewhere, as have towers at the north-east and north-west corners. The successor to the Tudor house is where the west wall would have been, and is probably on the site of a 14th century hall.