Castle camps

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Castle Camps is a ruined castle in the village of Castle Camps in the English county of Cambridgeshire .

owner

Castle Camps was originally a Saxon manorial and belonged Wulfwin , a Thane of King Edward the Confessor . After the Norman conquest of England , William the Conqueror lent them to Aubrey de Vere I , an ancestor of the Earls of Oxford . The castle remained in the de Vere family until 1584 when Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , sold it to Thomas Skinner († 1596), Lord Mayor of London . On August 2, 1607, Thomas Sutton bought the castle and donated it to the London Charterhouse , which in turn sold the entire property with the exception of Castle Farm and the manor in 1919 . From 1941 to 1945, a large part of the site served as an airfield.

history

1086 was recorded in the Domesday Book :

Castle Camps [ Canpas ]: Robert Gernon holds 2 hides in CAMPS, and Thurstan from him. Land for 6 plows. In lordship 2; 8 villagers with 8 smallholders have 4 ploughs. 6 slaves; meadow for 2 ploughs; woodland, 12 pigs. Value £ 4; when acquired 30s; before 1066 40s. Leofsi held this land under Earl Harold [former king], and could withdraw without his permission. In CAMPS Aubrey de Vere holds 2½ hides. Land for 11 plows. In lordship, 1 hide and 1 virgate; 4 plows there. 17 villagers with 4 smallholders have 7 plows. 6 slaves; meadow for 3 ploughs; woodland for 500 pigs; from village grazing 8s. Total value £ 15 when acquired £ 12; before 1066 as much. Wulfwin, King Edward's thane, held this manor. Norman holds ½ hide of this land from Aubrey. Land for 1 plow; it is there. The value is and always was 40s.

The Inquisitio Comitatus Cantabrigiensis shows that there was land there for 12 plows, 20 cattle, 134 sheep, 43 pigs, 50 goats and 2 horses and that Norman kept ½ hide of Aubrey separate from 2½ hides, which is part of a land area of ​​5 Are hides.

Aubrey de Vere I. probably had the manor fortified or had a moth built, although the moth could date from the 12th century. The strongest fortress in Cambridgeshire by the end of the 12th century, it was known for its small outer bailey and the size of its mound , the flat surface of which stretched over more than an acre. Work on the castle in the years 1265–1331 is documented and it is believed that this involved the construction of a new outer bailey.

At the end of the 15th century, a four-story brick tower was added to the castle. It survived until 1779, when it collapsed in a storm. The mansion was rebuilt in the 16th century, but collapsed again in 1738. Part of the rear wall was then used to build a smaller farm called Castle Farm . Most of this wall is still standing today. Around this time, SH Buck made a sketch of the castle, which is dated to 1731.

No acts of war were recorded near Castle Camps, although in 1526, during the quarrel between the widowed Countess and the new earl, magistrates of the peace were driven out by force of arms.

today

The only aboveground remains of the Norman castle are a piece of ruin in the courtyard south of the current farmhouse and earthworks . The whole thing is considered a Scheduled Monument .

The highest point in the parish is at Wigmore Pond at 126.492 meters above sea level.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NR Shipley: The History of a Manor: Castle Campes, 1580-1629 in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research . Volume LXVII. University of London, London 1974. pp. 162-181.
  2. ^ Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire . Volume IS 408.
  3. ^ Ordnance Survey 1 "to the mile map 148 Saffron Walden . 1968 edition.

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 3 ′ 22 "  N , 0 ° 22 ′ 21.4"  E