Hedingham Castle (EHER 6787)

Castle consisting of a ringwork and bailey with a keep dating from 1130-1140. Most of the buildings date from a rebuild dating to the 15th and 16th centuries including the bridge connecting the inner and outer baileys. Most of the buildings were demolished during the early 17th century. Scheduled and listed.

Monument description derived from merging EHER 6787 and 25226. Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Hedingham Castle (remains of). <1> The castle (a large ring-work with 'wishbone' counterscarp banks and bailey <2> (see plan from <3>), was built by Aubrey de Vere (Earl of Oxford) in 1130-40. By 1214 it was in Crown hands and was captured in 1216 although it remained a stronghold until the 17th/18th century when all buildings (most of them rebuilt in the 15th/16th century) were destroyed with the exception of the great Norman Keep (TL 7870 3587) and the 15th/16th century bridge connecting the inner and outer baileys (TL 7875 3589). The Keep (4 storeys high and built of Barnack stone), is one of the finest and most complete examples of 12th century military architecture in the country. Roman tile has been worked into the back of the fireplace but nowhere else <4>. Although the interior has suffered from fire in 1954 it is well preserved and in private ownership. Excavations in 1853 and 1869 were carried out and foundations discovered (see plan from <5>). Site Assessment = The earthworks are important and extensive, and the keep is among the finest and most complete examples of 12th century military architecture in England. The condition of the tower is extraordinarily perfect, and the walls and arched recesses to a great extent retain internally the original plastering'. Foundations exposed in 19th century excavations now mostly overgrown. Earthwork condition is good, keep very good, and bridge good. It is....probably the best preserved of all tower keeps in England. <2> - <6> Hedingham Castle. It consisted of an inner bailey surrounded by a curtain wall, with the keep in the middle, and the great hall and other buildings on the south-west. An outer bailey lay to the north-east, connected to the inner bailey by a bridge. The surviving earthworks consist of the mount which forms the inner bailey, the outer bailey, and traces of the start of a probable town enclosure on the west. The mount is of about 2 acres, approximately oval in shape and flat topped. To the north-west and south-west it has a deep ditch with a strong bank. This has disappeared to the south-west. The banks of a shallow ditch between the mount and outer bailey are revetted with a Tudor brick wall. There is an old well on the mount. The outer bailey has a strong rampart along the east arm, continuing along the north side but with no berm. Buildings and gardens have obliterated part of the south arm (see plan in source <2>). The keep was built about 1130-40, and the fore-building added shortly afterwards. It is 58x53ft and of 4 storeys. The walls are of flint rubble faced with Barnack stone, averaging 11ft thick on the ground floor. Originally each angle carried a square turret, but only the north-west and south-east remain. Putlog holes remain in all the walls. Each elevation has a similar arrangement of windows and the entrance archway is in the north half of the 2nd storey of the west front. The fore-building remains consist of a rectangular projection extending to the height of the basement storey against the west front. The facing has been removed from the flint rubble walls. Stone stairs leading up to the entrance, against the keep south of the fore-building, were enclosed by a flint rubble wall now stripped of its facing. The original floors inside the keep do not survive. Most of the other buildings were rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century, including the bridge, curtain, great hall, and various towers. Three towers were apparently destroyed in the late 16th century. The remaining buildings, apart from the keep and bridge, were probably destroyed during the 17th and 18th centuries. Fragments of the curtain wall survive. Excavations in 1853 and 1869 revealed the foundations of the great hall (about 83x37ft), its adjoining butteries and other buildings, the east end of the chapel, traces of 2 towers and a gatehouse at the inner end of the bridge. The bridge is late 15th or early 16th century, brick, much restored, and of 4 spans. RCHM 3. Grade I. <2> - <10> The castle was built by the de Vere's, Earls of Oxford, in the late 11th to early 12th century. At some point between 1561 and 1592 the seventeenth Earl of Oxford razed most of the buildings, with the exception of the keep, on the castle mound. Further demolition took place in 1666 to prevent Dutch prisoners-of-war being kept in the castle. With the death in 1703 of Aubrey de Vere, the 20th Earl, the Earldom became extinct. <11> Dixon and Marshall provide evidence that the keep was originally three-storeyed, and the later 4th floor was added as a sign of the enhanced status of the de Vere family. <12> Hedingham Castle. Scheduled no.3. <13> 1995. Survey Hedingham Castle (TL 787 358) was the main seat of the Earls of Oxford. It is a large earthen ringwork castle with two baileys and was probably built in the late 11th/early 12th century by Aubrey de Vere who was granted the land by William I during the Norman Conquest. The large central mound was evidently the main focus of the castle, with the smaller, inner, bailey to the east and the larger, outer, bailey to the west. The entrance to the inner bailey is lost, possibly beneath the 18th century Hedingham Castle House. The outer bailey quickly went out of use as the town grew. The magnificent and sophisticated keep was built around the middle of the 12th century, at the height of the Anarchy, and may have been constructed to mark the elevation of the de Veres to the earldom of Oxford (an honour granted by Queen Matilda). Other buildings would also have existed, though no sign of these remain today. Around the castle three hunting parks were created; Great Park, Castle Park and Little Park. The 13th Earl of Oxford was instrumental in the accession of Henry VII, and it was he who was responsible for an ambitious building programme at Hedingham at the end of the 15th century, when all of the earlier stone buildings other than the keep and a gatehouse (now gone) were replaced by brick towers and apartment ranges covering most of the castle mound; slight earthworks mark the positions of some of these buildings. The most notable of these was the Great Brick Tower, an ornate 'donjon' overlooking the town of Castle Hedingham; the foundations of the stair turrets of this tower remain. The Tudor bridge (recently restored) and Tennis Court also date to this phase of the history of the castle. The castle was surveyed in 1592 by Israel Armyse <14>, but many of the buildings appear to have been razed to the ground by the early 17th century <15>, by which time it had ceased to be the seat of the Earls of Oxford <16>. In 1713, the estate was sold to the Ashurst family who proceeded to build a great house there and to extensively landscape the grounds for gardens. The earthworks at Hedingham Castle were surveyed by the Royal Commission in October and November 1995 following a request from English Heritage. See archive report and plan at 1:1000 scale. <17> 2015. Aerial photography. Evidence of foundations of demolished buildings adjacent to the keep were recorded in 2015 on aerial photographs. <18> See also: <19> - <37>