Burwell Castle
Burwell Castle is an abandoned castle in the village of Burwell in the English county of Cambridgeshire . The castle was built in the Middle Ages and was never completed.
history
King Stephen had the Motte built in 1143 on a site where a villa stood in Roman times. During the construction, anarchy raged in England , a civil war between the supporters of King Stephen and his opponent Empress Matilda . Stephan confiscated all castles from Geoffrey de Mandeville , who soon after joined the revolt against Stephan. He established himself with Ely in the Fens and threatened Cambridge Castle and the road south to London . Burwell Castle was built as one of several royal castles to protect the area, such as Lidgate Castle , Rampton Castle , Caxton Castle and Swavesay Castle . Stephan appropriated the village of Burwell, which the Romans had built on a hill, and had a small moth erected at its highest point, which was surrounded by unusual, rectangular earthworks and had a curtain wall and a small gatehouse .
Geoffrey de Mandeville attacked Burwell Castle in 1144. At that time the castle was not yet finished. De Mandeville was hit by an arrow; he retired near Mildenhall , where he succumbed to his injuries. After De Mandeville's death, the castle was never completed; only the gatehouse was fully built, which indicates that the castle was later inhabited. The Abbot of Ramsey had a chapel built on the site around 1246 , and the site was completely abandoned in the 15th century.
Archaeologist Thomas Lethbridge conducted excavations on the site in 1935. In 1983 the property was purchased by Burwell Parish Council . Today only the unfinished earthworks are preserved. They are considered a Scheduled Monument .
Individual evidence
- ^ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell . Draft Report 05/22/2003. Cambridge County Council, Cambridge 2003. pp. 15, 23. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Oliver Hamilton Creighton: Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England . Equinox, London 2005. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8 . P. 59.
- ^ A b Burwell Castle , Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- ^ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell . Draft Report 05/22/2003. Cambridge County Council, Cambridge 2003. pp. 23-24. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell . Draft Report 05/22/2003. Cambridge County Council, Cambridge 2003. p. 24. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: a Guide by Counties . Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2002. ISBN 978-0-85115-782-5 .
- ^ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell . Draft Report 05/22/2003. Cambridge County Council, Cambridge 2003. p. 15. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ C. Malim: Burwell Castle, Cambridgeshire . Cambridge: Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit, Cambridge 2001. p. 2.
Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 9.5 ″ N , 0 ° 19 ′ 27.8 ″ E