Buckenham Castle
Old Buckenham Castle and New Buckenham Castle are two ruined castles in the neighboring villages of Old Buckenham and New Buckenham in the English county of Norfolk .
Old Buckenham Castle
The only remaining remains of the former Norman castle are the remains of earthworks and traces of a stone defensive wall. The castle was built at the behest of Guillaume d'Aubigny , a follower of William the Conqueror . After the castle was rebuilt in another location, a priory was established at this point and many earlier remains were destroyed.
To maintain the function of a castle and to accommodate a garrison, New Buckenham Castle was built on the same site as it is today and the floor plan has hardly changed.
New Buckenham Castle
As the parish line is east of it, near the village of New Buckenham, the castle ruins, earthworks, chapel, barn and most of the surrounding meadows are actually in the parish of Old Buckenham and should be correctly named Old Buckenham Castle . The village of New Buckenham was later laid out as the castle.
At the beginning of the reign of King Stephen , William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, had a new castle built three kilometers northwest of the old castle. Today you can still see the remaining foundations of the circular stone donjon , which had a diameter of about 18 meters. The castle was besieged during the Barons' War in 1263. In 1649 the fortress was finally demolished by its owner at the time, Sir Philip Knyvet , with only the moat and earthworks remaining.
The family Knyvet was from its former headquarters in Southwick ( Northamptonshire moved here). In 1465 Sir John Knyvet lived in the castle. That year his daughter married Sir Henry Colet , who later became Lord Mayor of London .
The castle consisted of an inner courtyard and two outer courtyards, all of which were surrounded by earth walls. The circular donjon is believed to be the oldest in England. Its walls were 3.34 meters thick at the base and it is believed to be twelve meters high.
New Buckenham Castle is on the outskirts of the village, which in turn is about 20 miles southwest of Norwich on the A 11 and B 1077.
English Heritage has listed New Buckenham Castle as a Grade I Historic Building and the castle ruins are a Scheduled Monument .
Interested visitors can pick up the key at the Castle Hill Garage . You have to pay a small entrance fee.
Individual evidence
- ^ Anne F. Sutton: Colet, Sir Henry (c.1430-1505) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004.
source
- PM Remfry: Buckenham Castles, 1066 to 1649 . ISBN 1-899376-28-3 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 28 '18.5 " N , 1 ° 4' 1.9" E