Ely Castle

Ely Castle is a decayed castle in the town of Ely in the English county of Cambridgeshire . All that remains of the castle today is a mound called Cherry Hill near the cathedral, on which the moth presumably once stood.

history

The Motte was built in 1070 at the behest of Wilhelm the Conqueror . It served in its conflict with Hereward the Wake to subdue the Isle of Ely . Once Ely was pacified, Ely Castle was abandoned.

In 1140, during the civil war of anarchy , Bishop Nigel had the castle fortified again, but then surrendered to King Stephen's troops . In 1143 Geoffrey de Mandeville was entrusted with the management of the castle.

A castle in Ely is said to have been captured and destroyed by Falkes de Breauté in 1216.

In the second war of the barons in 1268, half a century later, Ely was taken with its fortifications. It is believed that the castle built by Bishop Nigel was soon destroyed.

Excavations

Today the only visible remnant of a castle is the mound.

In 2002, during excavations on this mound, a large number of clay objects such as jugs and bowls were discovered, which were used daily in the time of the Normans . Agricultural tools and tools for hunting were also found, some of them made of bronze, which archaeologists attribute to the transition period between the Viking and Norman rule after 1066. Significant quantities of clay were also found, which was often used to seal the surface of mounds.

Unfortunately the city administration did not finance a continuation of the excavations and so the excavation site was closed in early 2003. The finds are now on display at the Ely History Museum, along with significant finds from the area around the city.

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• Ely Cherry Hill . Gatehouse Gazetteer.
• City of Ely . British History Online.
• Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles . David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3 .
• Ely Museum website.

Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '43.5 "  N , 0 ° 15' 48.1"  E