Castle Rising Castle

Castle Rising Castle is a ruined castle on the southern edge of the English village of Castle Rising about five miles northeast of the town of King's Lynn in Norfolk. The system includes one of the largest in England Keeps and stands as Grade I classified building since February 21, 1989 under monument protection. The surrounding him ring barrier is so high that the residential tower barely protrudes above and is therefore almost impossible to see from the outside.

The castle was, 1st Earl of Arundel built in the first half of the 12th century by William d' Aubigny at the site of an old Saxon settlement and adapted to changing uses and tastes time in the course of the following centuries. Best-known resident of the area was Isabelle de France, who resided there from 1331 to 1358. In the 15th century already ruinous but still used to a large extent, Henry VIII gave the run-down plant in 1544 at the Howard family, which owns today.

Castle Rising Castle is managed by English Heritage since 1958 and is from April to October daily, Wednesdays, consideration seen in the rest of the year to Sunday.

History

Castle Rising belonged in the Middle Ages to Snettisham, since 1052 the property of Stigand, the Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, was. In 1070 it was conquered by the Normans, and William I. gave the settlement subsequent to his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent. After this, however, was dropped in 1082 when his royal brother of favor, Castle Rising came to William Rufus, who gave it to William d' Aubigny. At his death in 1036 his son of the same name, the 1038 Queen Dowager Adelaide of Leuven married and received by the legal title of the Earls of Arundel inherited him. Shortly after his marriage he began in Castle Rising with the construction of a Norman Keeps, replacing an old Saxon settlement. At the same time he also works make to Arundel Castle, as well as build a new castle in New Buckenham. Castle Rising Castle, he was secure of a large dike and an upstream moat. The wall was increased in the late 12th or early 13th century and the upstream ditch deepened. At the same time took place west of the Walls of the plant Vorwerk. Until 1224 the fortified construction within the family was always inherited by the oldest son, William, until the fifth of that name died childless in that year. The property went to William's brother Hugh, but also left no descendants. At his death in 1243 his four sisters divided the inheritance among themselves. Castle Rising was the youngest, Cecily. Her husband, Robert de Montalt was de iure uxoris Lord of Rising and so the new owner of the castle. The childless grandson of the pair, also named Robert, sold the castle in 1327 for 10,000 marks to the English king Edward III. The system should actually pass until after his death and that of his wife at the disposal of the Royal House under the provisions of the purchase agreement but. After his death, widow Emma Roberts sold her right of residence in the castle for an annual pension of £ 400 to the king. The particular then 1331 Castle Rising Castle to the residence of his mother Isabelle de France, to 1358 maintained their principal residence there. During this time stayed on at least four occasions ( 1342, 1343, 1344 and 1349 ), the English King and his wife Philippa of Hainault at the castle while they visited Isabelle. Perhaps the Keeps were under their aegis south built several outbuildings, one of which is known by excavations in the 1970s that they were built in the first half of the 14th century. The new buildings included staff accommodation, workshops, stables, a Kitchen and a chapel. At the same time, modifications to the Keep were held and was built on the crest of the hill fort with a wall along with three towers.

Actually, the castle was in Castle Rising, after the death of Isabella go to Edward's younger brother John of Eltham, but since he died before his mother, changed Edward III. in October 1337 to determine the effect that he firmly linked the local castle with the title of Duke of Cornwall and awarded his son Edward, the Black Prince. This was strengthening the fortifications of the system further. After his death in 1376 his son Richard II of England, who exchanged the castle with John V, Duke of Brittany, against the Brest Fortress inherited him. 1397 Castle Rising Castle but came again into the possession of the British Royal Family and was in the aftermath of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, awarded an uncle of King Richard, after his death, the facility reverted to the crown. From 1403 to 1544 the ownership of the castle was again connected with the title of Duke of Cornwall. As early as the late 15th century, the buildings were, however, described as forfeited. An illustration from the year 1542/43 reported that the Keep a ruin with eingestürztem floor was, some was still in use. When Edward IV came into the possession of the castle of England in the 15th century, all the buildings were ruinous. It sheen, as though King Henry VII once again leave some repairs carried out to the buildings, but already under his direct successors they have been neglected again. Henry VIII gave the plant in 1544 to Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, and received in return of this the Good Walton, Falkenham and other possessions in Suffolk. The Howard family is still the owner of the plant, although this 1693 passed to a younger branch of the family. In the 18th century the castle ruins housed briefly a mentally sick.

Since December 31, 1958 is on the system under state management and is managed by English Heritage. Since that time various restorations and repair work on the remaining buildings have been performed. In addition, found from 1970 to 1976 under the direction of Beric M. Morley excavations, among other things on the ground floor of the Keeps place where discoveries confirmed a previous Saxon settlement of the place.

Description

Wall and outworks

The twelve acres ( approximately 4.8 hectares) footprint extensive castle complex consists of the well-preserved ruins of a 12th- century Keeps, which stands in a mound with an oval ground plan, as well as the remains of several partially preserved only as a foundation outbuildings. The wall dates from about the same time as the residential tower and is - if at all - not much older than this. The assumption that it is coming even from Roman times, was refuted by excavations. This also showed that the rampart was initially low and 12-13. Century was increased. The Great Wall is between six and ten feet higher than the area in its interior, which is about 198 meters long and has a maximum width of 150 meters besitzt.Westlich and east of the mound, which is entirely surrounded by an eight -meter-deep dry ditch, are preceded with a rectangular floor plan and without any kind of construction it two smaller earthworks. The west measures about 125 x 50 meters, has an up to two meters deep circumferential trench and a 1.5 meter high wall. This encloses an up to five -meter-high platform of earth, which has no connection to the central ring wall. Perhaps it was only used as pasture and was once accessible via steps in the Wall and a subsequent bridge over the moat.

The eastern Vorwerk is about 155 × 92 meters tall and has next to a nine -meter-high mound a four to five meters deep, offshore trench. It served to protect the castle access located on the east side of the castle complex and there interrupts the inner rampart. There, a brick, single-arched bridge leads to the ruin of a rectangular gatehouse of the 12th century, the bridge of a later date. The outwardly facing west wall of the gatehouse is six feet, its eastern wall of at least five feet thick. The width of the arched doorways is twelve feet. The remains of a spiral staircase that led to the earlier guardhouse in no longer existing floor of the building found at the southern outer wall of the gatehouse. To the south of the gatehouse closes on the crest of the mound a piece of the majority built of brick in the late 14th century curtain wall at. The two- foot thick masonry had on the inside of blind arcades. Its still visible wall holes could have been holes for beams, carrying a battlement.

Stem and Vorturm

A special feature of the castle at Castle Rising is her with blind arches, friezes, sculptures and reliefs richly decorated porch on the east side. He is not only one of the architecturally elaborate Keepvorbauten in England, but also one of the best preserved. With its rich decor it rises strongly on the otherwise rather plain exterior, the Keeps. The building housed a staircase to the upper floor of the adjoining Vorturms, from where the entrance on the first floor of the Keeps was reached. The stair entrance is located on the southern side of the narrow stairway, whose outer walls are still up to six feet high and six feet thick. The two- bladed portal is flanked on both sides by columns and shows on its archway two blind arcades. It leads to a nine -foot wide stone staircase, which played a military function, because at about half height could be through a door barricaded with heavy wooden beams. The beam holes are still visible today. There was a military platform from which a litter hole potential attackers could be attacked by the defenders above the door.

The stairs ended at a two-wing, flanked by columns door, the entrance to the so-called vestibule granted in the subsequent Vorturm. This square tower at the northeast corner of the Keeps has an outer edge length of 20 feet and was perhaps used earlier on the ground floor as a prison. Its three floors are completed by a small pan covered gable roof, the second floor including the roof is not part of the original structure, but was not applied until the early 14th century. It houses a 16 × 16 -foot room with a ribbed vault and a fireplace on its south wall, which dates from the 19th century. The large windows of the room no longer have their original round-arched form, but have been replaced by today's rectangular window. The vaulted ceiling is repeated in the space of the first floor, the entrance hall as the Great Hall of the Keeps played a special role. His glazed window with halbbogigem upper end were formerly open arcades. The large, elaborately designed portal has a triple profiled jambs and is busy with columns. Since 1840, however, the six foot wide, halbbogige input is installed and has since then served as a chimney.

Windows in front

Former entrance to the Great Hall

Window on the second floor of the Vorturms

Keep

The three-storey Keep of Castle Rising Castle was founded in the 12th century. As building material came limestone, sandstone from Sandringham and flint used. With around 15 meters in height and side lengths of 24 and 21 meters, the building is a good example of a so-called hall keep, in which the residential tower is wider than tall - as opposed to the so-called tower keep. The two-storey building has similarities with Norwich Castle and the Castle of Falaise. Its four corners are marked by seven feet wide, square corner towers that stand pilasterartig out of the wall run. Inside the south-west and the north-east tower are spiral staircases ranging in 76 steps from the ground floor to the second floor. On its floor level the approaches of the former battlements are still preserved.

The south facade of the Keeps is divided by three feet wide pilasters into four fields. The same pilasters can also be found on the north side. The tapered base of the southern external wall is thick at the base and six feet six inches. The north and east walls are a bit stronger, while the west wall measures only six feet by seven feet. On the ground floor of the south wall, there are only narrow slits of light, which is due to the fact that this story was not used for living, but as a warehouse. The first floor of the south side shows various types of windows, while the second floor has mostly circular light openings. The only exception is a round-arched mullioned windows in the fourth, eastern field. All windows of the Keeps appear to have been never glazed, but could be locked from the inside with shutters. Can be found on the western exterior wall at the level of the first floor between two pilasters an abortion bay.

Inside the former wooden ceilings and floors are no longer preserved, so that the visitors from the ground floor can see the sky. The keep is divided by a six foot thick membrane over its entire length in two games. The north is determined on the first floor by the 13 × 8 meters-in the Great Hall (English Great Hall ). Accessible he was through the portal on the first floor of the Vorturms. To the west of him there were latrines, a utility room and the kitchen with a large fireplace. These rooms are on the obtained, stone-vaulted ceilings of the ground floor, where even today a fountain with seven feet in diameter is obtained. In the southern part of the first floor is the 13 × 5 meters measured so-called Grand Chamber (English Great Chamber ), which served as living space of each castle lord. East joins her on the castle chapel with a floor plan of 3.9 x 4.2 meters with a groined vault on the ceiling of the choir.

Outbuildings and chapel ruins

Within the large mound there are the excavated foundations of various outbuildings of the castle, dating from the 14th to the 16th century. South of the Keeps were once servants accommodation, outbuildings and even a chapel for the Burgmannen. Initially, pure wooden structures from the first half of the 14th century, these were later replaced by wood and stone or pure stone and finally stopped at the end of the 16th century. Parts of the chapel ruins were even in the 18th century.

The oldest stone building on the castle grounds is the 30 meters north of the Keeps lying ruins of a Romanesque church from the 11th century that served as a parish of the local village well. After the construction of the castle it was secularized in the 12th century and used as outbuildings, which witnessed a fireplace from the 16th century on the southern wall. It was replaced by the St Lawrence 's Church in Castle Rising. The outer walls of the 26 -meter-long, single-nave building are still standing to a height of four meters today. The 12 × 4.8 meters measured east nave joined a 4 × 4 meters measuring Mittelbau, followed by an approximately 4.8 × 4 meters measured choir and a semicircular apse at the east end. From the latter two of the three original windows are still partly preserved. According to the local tradition of the early Norman font in the present parish of Castle Rising is originally from the Kapellruine.