Things to do in East Anglia

Baconsthorpe Castle is located north of the village of Baconsthorpe in Norfolk, England. The castle was a fortified manor house and is now in ruins. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building. The ruins include the remains of towers, forming a square court of 30m, and the curtain walls are still complete. In the middle of the south wall are the remains of a three-storey gatehouse with a two-storey projection for the drawbridge. To the east are the remains of a two-storey range. There is a lake on the east side, and a deep moat round the other three sides. The ruins are administered by English Heritage and are accessible to the public. Baconsthorpe Castle was built in the late 15th century by John Heydon and Sir Henry Heydon (died 1504). The castle was originally a manor house which was later fortified. A three-storey gatehouse was built in the south wall, and later the a quadrangle was completed with curtain walls, towers and a range of buildings on the east side. There used to be a drawbridge over the moat. An turreted outer gateway was built 50m south of the drawbridge. The house fell into disrepair after the Civil War. The outer gatehouse was inhabited until 1920.

Burgh Castle is located in the village of Burgh Castle in Norfolk (about twenty three miles south east of Norwich). The castle was a Norman earthwork motte and bailey fortress, built within the stone walls of a 3rd century Roman fort. Three of the four sides of the large rectangular Roman fort are still standing (the fourth side fell into Breydon Water, the adjoining estuary). The walls have large rounded bastions at the corners and at intervals along the walls. The gate is in the middle of the east wall. The Norman castle had a large oval motte with a surrounding ditch and was positioned in the south west corner of the Roman fort. The motte was leveled in the 18th century and now only fragments of the earthworks remain. The site is owned by English Heritage and is open to the public. Burgh Castle Burgh Castle

Castle Rising is located in the village of Castle Rising in Norfolk, England. The castle is in ruins but most of the square keep is still standing - the keep was probably modeled on Norwich Castle. An impressive feature of the castle is the massive earthworks surrounding the castle keep (one of the largest in the country). The castle earthworks cover an area of about twelve acres. There is an oval shaped inner bailey, and two smaller enclosures to the east and west. There is a ruined church north of the castle that dates to around 1100. The castle is now in the care of English Heritage and is open to the public. Castle Rising was built around 1140 by William d'Albini, 1st Earl of Arundel, who also owned Arundel Castle. The castle and earthworks were extended during the late 12th or early 13th century. This may have been in response to the Revolt of 1173-1174 when Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk captured Norwich Castle during the revolt. During the Anarchy (1135-1154) the castle was used as a mint producing coins for King Stephen. Between 1330 and 1358, it was the residence of the disgraced former Queen Isabella of France. The castle passed to the Howard family in 1544 and it remains in the family today. Castle Rising Castle has been used over the years as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and in the 18th century used as to house mental patients. Castle Rising keep. Largely built c1140, the impressive keep at Castle Rising is one of the most important twelfth century castles in England

Colchester Castle is located in the centre of in Colchester in Essex. It is the largest Norman Keep in Europe, and is built in the same style as the White Tower of the Tower of London. It is a Grade I listed building. The castle is a rectangular block with projecting towers at each corner, and a semi-circular recess (apse) on the eastern side. The battlements at first floor level look like a hasty addition. The castle was originally three or four storeys high, but the upper floors have been removed. The castle is now home to the Colchester and Essex Museum. The castle is built on the foundations of the earlier Roman temple. The foundations of the old Roman temple have now been uncovered and can be seen on a castle tour. The castle was ordered by William the Conqueror, and work was completed by around 1120. It is believed to have been built by Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester. In 1215, the castle was held for three months by a French garrison who had been assisting the English Barons in their struggle with the King. Eventually Colchester Castle was recaptured by King John. By the 14th century Colchester Castle was used as a prison. The roof of the Great Hall had collapsed by 1637. In 1648, during the final stages of the English Civil War, Royalist leaders Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle seized Colchester and took over the castle. Colchester Castle was captured by Parliamentarian forces after a siege. Lucas and Lisle were subsequently executed at the rear of the castle. In 1656 the Quaker James Parnell was martyred at the castle. The upper storeys were pulled down in the 17th century for building materials in the town. In 1727, the castle was acquired by Charles Gray who restored it and added an Italianate facade and tower. He created a private park around the castle, and built a summer house on the old Norman castle earthworks. He roofed the castle with red tiles. In 1892, the castle and the surrounding park were given to the town. The castle was restored in the 1930s after the local council took over the building and grounds. Extensive stabilisation work was commenced in the 1980s, and completed in 1992. The castle re-opened in early May 2014 after a 4 million pound refurbishment The entrance to Colchester Castle Colchester Castle

Framlingham Castle is located in the market town of Framlingham in Suffolk on a bluff overlooking the River Ore. The castle is a motte and bailey style castle made up of an inner court, a lower court and a Bailey. The site is surrounded by farmland. Visitors to the castle enter the "Bailey from the southern end where the car park is located. The inner court is reached via a bridge built in the 15th century which replace the earlier drawbridge. The Inner Court has a stone curtain wall about 14m high. There is a wall walk around the top of the wall and towers. On onside of the inner court is the poorhouse built in the 17th and 18th centuries. There a well about 30m deep in the centre of the Inner Court. One of the to lakes or meres still exists on the western side of the castle. Facilities Framlingham Castle has cafe, toilets, parking (free for members), museum, exhibition. Visitors can also enjoy the gardens and walks around the castle grounds. The castle also hosts various events such as falconry, medieval reenactments The original castle of the site was a Norman motte and bailey castle built in the 12th century. It was destroyed by Henry II after the uprising of 1174. A replacement castle was built on the same site. The replacement had a curtain wall with thirteen towers to defend the enclosure, but there was no central keep. The castle was subsequently besieged and captured by King John in 1216. The castle evolved into a prestigious home with extensive gardens and parkland, with two artificial lakes built beside the castle. The castle fell into disrepair in the 16th century. The castle was given to Pembroke College who built a workhouse on the grounds. During the Second World War, the castle was used as part of the defenses against a German invasion. It is now managed by English Heritage and protected as a scheduled monument. The Arts The 2017 song, "Castle on the Hill" by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran refers to Framlingham Castle in Sheeran's home town.

Hadleigh Castle is a ruined thirteenth and fourteenth-century royal castle near Hadleigh in Essex, occupying a prominent ridge above the Thames estuary with commanding views over the Leigh-on-Sea marshes, the estuary and the distant Kent coast. The castle was built by Hubert de Burgh in the 1230s and subsequently rebuilt by Edward III in the 1360s as part of his coastal defence programme against French naval raids during the Hundred Years' War. The castle was immortalised by John Constable in his celebrated painting of 1829 which shows the ruined towers against a stormy sky, one of the most famous images of an English ruin. The site is managed by English Heritage and freely accessible, with the remaining towers of the curtain wall providing extensive views over the estuary landscape. The artist's connection and the estuary setting make Hadleigh one of the more evocative and culturally significant castle sites in southeast England.

Orford Castle in Suffolk is one of England's most architecturally remarkable medieval fortifications, built between 1165 and 1173 by King Henry II as a royal fortress and administrative centre on the Suffolk coast. What makes Orford genuinely unusual among English castles is its polygonal keep: an 18-sided tower with three square projecting turrets that represents a significant departure from the rectangular keeps typical of the Norman period and demonstrates the experimental architectural thinking of Henry's court engineers. The keep was designed not just as a military building but as a royal residence of some comfort, with a great hall, a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket added after the archbishop's murder in 1170, private royal chambers and a kitchen equipped to produce meals of appropriate scale and quality for a royal household. The multiple floors connected by spiral staircases within the circular and polygonal towers gave a degree of internal planning flexibility not available in the simpler rectangular keep designs, and visitors who climb through the building can experience this layout at first hand. The castle's construction served both military and political purposes. Henry needed to counter the power of Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, whose castles at Framlingham and Bungay dominated eastern Suffolk. By building a royal fortress at Orford, Henry established a visible royal presence in a region that had leaned toward baronial independence. The castle proved its worth in 1173 to 1174 when it helped suppress the rebellion led by Henry's own sons, playing a role in the complex family conflicts that characterised his reign. The view from the castle roof encompasses the distinctive geography of the Suffolk coast: the town of Orford below, the River Ore and Alde behind the long shingle spit of Orford Ness, and the North Sea beyond. Orford Ness itself, the largest vegetated shingle spit in Europe, is visible as a low, mysterious landform that served as a top-secret military testing site for much of the twentieth century and is now managed as a nature reserve by the National Trust. The castle is managed by English Heritage and is open throughout the year. The town of Orford is a characterful Suffolk village with a excellent smokehouse producing some of the finest smoked fish in England, several good restaurants and a pleasant quayside from which ferry trips to Orford Ness depart.

Walden Castle at Saffron Walden in Essex is a ruined twelfth-century Norman castle keep, one of the largest Norman shell keeps in Essex, built sometime between 1125 and 1143 by Geoffrey de Mandeville, one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman barons of the reign of King Stephen. The castle keep survives as a substantial ruin in the attractive market town of Saffron Walden, managed by Uttlesford District Council and freely accessible to visitors. The town of Saffron Walden is one of the finest historic market towns in Essex, with a beautiful medieval church, remarkable topiary maze on the common, and well-preserved Tudor and Georgian architecture making it one of the most rewarding small towns in East Anglia. The castle ruin provides a medieval foundation for a town whose heritage spans the Norman period to the present.