Burwell Castle
| Burwell Castle | |
|
Cambridgeshire | |
|---|---|
 Earthwork remains of Burwell Castle | |
| Type: | Enclosure castle |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL587660 |
| Location: | 52°16’9"N, -0°19’28"E |
| Village: | Burwell |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Earthworks |
| Owned by: | Burwell Parish Council |
Burwell Castle, beside Burwell, a village in eastern Cambridgeshire, exists today as a series of extensive banks and ditches largely overgrown.
The castle was a mediæval enclosure castle and was apparently left unfinished.[1]
Details
Burwell Castle was built in Burwell in 1143 by King Stephen, on the site of a former Roman villa.[2] It was constructed during the Anarchy, a long running civil war between the supporters of Stephen, and his Angevin rival, the Empress Matilda. The troublesome baron Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex was dispossessed of his castles by Stephen and rose up in revolt immediately afterwards, taking up a position near Ely in the Fens and threatening Cambridge Castle and the route south to London; Burwell Castle was built as part of a chain of castles to protect the region, including fortifications at Lidgate, Rampton, Caxton, Swavesey and possibly Knapwell.[3] Stephen appropriated the village of Burwell, which was constructed on a raised area of land of Roman origin, and proceeded to building a castle.
The castle today consists of a sub-rectangular mound measuring 200 feet by 100 feet and surrounded by a rectangular ditch up to a hundred feet wide.[4]
Geoffrey de Mandeville attacked Burwell in 1144 when the castle was still unfinished, but during the operation he was hit by a crossbow bolt: he retired to nearby Mildenhall, where he died from the injury.[5] After Geoffrey's death the castle was never completed, although a stone gatehouse was completed on the site, suggesting a period of further occupation.[6] The Abbot of Ramsey built a chapel on the site around 1246, and the site was finally abandoned in the 15th century.[7]
The archaeologist T. C. Lethbridge excavated the site in 1935.[8] At the time portions of stone walling survived but were later destroyed during testing of a fire hose.[9] The castle site was bought by the Burwell Parish Council in 1983.[10] The University of Exeter conducted a geophysical and topographical survey of the castle in the 2010s.[11] Today only the unfinished earthworks remain of the castle, which have scheduled monument status.[12]
References
- ↑ Wright, Duncan W.; Creighton, Oliver; Trick, Steven; Fradley, Michael (2016-01-02). "Power, conflict and ritual on the fen-edge: the Anarchy-period castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, and its pre-Conquest landscape". Landscape History 37 (1): 45. doi:10.1080/01433768.2016.1176434. SSN 0143-3768. https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/512/1/Wright_power%20conflict%20and_2016.pdf.
- ↑ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, pp.15, 23.
- ↑ Creighton, p.59.
- ↑ Wright, Duncan W.; Creighton, Oliver; Trick, Steven; Fradley, Michael (2016-01-02). "Power, conflict and ritual on the fen-edge: the Anarchy-period castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, and its pre-Conquest landscape". Landscape History 37 (1): 33. doi:10.1080/01433768.2016.1176434. SSN 0143-3768. https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/512/1/Wright_power%20conflict%20and_2016.pdf.
- ↑ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, pp.23-4.
- ↑ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, p.24; Pettifer, p.11.
- ↑ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, p.24.
- ↑ Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, p.15.
- ↑ Wright, Duncan W.; Creighton, Oliver; Trick, Steven; Fradley, Michael (2016-01-02). "Power, conflict and ritual on the fen-edge: the Anarchy-period castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, and its pre-Conquest landscape". Landscape History 37 (1): 29. doi:10.1080/01433768.2016.1176434. SSN 0143-3768. https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/512/1/Wright_power%20conflict%20and_2016.pdf.
- ↑ Malim, p.2
- ↑ Wright, Duncan W.; Creighton, Oliver; Trick, Steven; Fradley, Michael (2016-01-02). "Power, conflict and ritual on the fen-edge: the Anarchy-period castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, and its pre-Conquest landscape". Landscape History 37 (1): 26. doi:10.1080/01433768.2016.1176434. SSN 0143-3768. https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/512/1/Wright_power%20conflict%20and_2016.pdf.
- ↑ Burwell Castle, Gatehouse website, accessed 22 May 2011.
Bibliography
- Creighton, Oliver Hamilton: 'Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Mediæval England' (Equinox, 2005) ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8.
- Pettifer, Adrian: 'English Castles: a Guide by Counties' (Boydell Press, 2002) ISBN 978-0-85115-782-5