Wormegay Castle

Wormegay Castle is a motte and bailey earthwork, located next to the village of Wormegay in the English county of Norfolk.

Wormegay Castle
Norfolk, England
Motte of Wormegay Castle
Wormegay Castle
Coordinates52.6779°N 0.4522°E / 52.6779; 0.4522
Grid referencegrid reference TF65931173
TypeMotte-and-bailey

Details


The castle was probably built by Hermer de Ferrers after the Norman Conquest, and remained in the de Ferrers family until 1166.[1] The motte is 5 metres high and 77 metres by 62 metres wide at the base.[2] The motte is surrounded on three sides by a ditch up to 15 metres wide and 2 metres deep.[2] The bailey is 150 metres by 88 metres across, and raised about 1 metre from the ground.[2] The castle would have been highly visible in early medieval times, more so than in the 21st century, and would have formed a local landmark as well as controlling the local causeway across the Fens.[3] Wormegay formed the centre, or the caput, for an honour of feudal properties across East Anglia.[4] As the centre of a major estate, Wormegay provided castle-guard duties to Norwich Castle.[5]

See also

Bibliography

  • Liddiard, Robert. (2000) Landscapes of lordship: Norman castles and the countryside in medieval Norfolk, 1066-1200. Archaeopress. ISBN 978-1-84171-156-0.
  • Pounds, Norman John Greville. (1994) The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a social and political history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45828-3.

References

  1. Liddiard, p.75; Wormegay Castle, Gatehouse website, accessed 26 April 2011.
  2. Wormegay Castle, Gatehouse website, accessed 26 April 2011.
  3. Liddiard, p.160; Wormegay Castle, Gatehouse website, accessed 26 April 2011.
  4. Pounds, p.131.
  5. Liddiard, p.75.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.