Castle Acre
Looking across the earthworks [Enlarge]
View map (TF 820 152): Multimap | Google | title="Location of castle on Live Local">Live Local
Castle Acre began life as a two story manor house erected by William de Warenne, the first Earl of Surrey, shortly after the Norman conquest. Initially this hall was surrounded by a simple ringwork bank. In around 1140 a motte was raised around the hall, the top being ringed by a stone wall remains of which are still visible. The hall itself was strengthened into a keep, though this process was never completed. The original intent was to produce a square tower dissected by a cross wall but only half was ever raised.
The low motte built around the now ruinous keep, which was originally a manor house. [Enlarge]
A surviving section of curtain wall on top of the earth bank which surrounds the bailey. [Enlarge]
The Bailey is enclosed by impressive high earth banks, which were themselves topped by a stone wall. A well preserved section of this wall still exists. The castle also sported a gatehouse now evidenced only by its remaining ruins.
On the rise of Henry II to the throne the keep was destroyed, presumably as an adulterine castle. Much of the rest seems to have been left however until the castle was abandoned following the death of the last Warenne Earl in 1347.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Castle Acre today is not so much it's remains but the sense of power one feels despite the lack of physical remnants seen at other castles. It's relative isolation (a sense of which was helped by the fact that we seemed to be virtually the only visitors at the time) means that standing amoungst its protective banks one feels as if the world really is held at bay. It gives a homely sense, but in a way such fortifications of the time were designed to. When the world around is slightly mad one can shut the windows on the night and hide behind the banks and walls. By many standards there is not much there, nor was there ever, but it is a castle I like.
A view looking into the bailey giving a fell of the sense of enclosure [Enlarge]
The remains of the gatehouse which once guarded the castle's entrance [Enlarge]
Sources:
- Personal visit
- Castle UK Entry
- Castle Explorer Entry
- A. Pettifer, English Castles: A Guide by Counties, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge (1995) ISBN: 0 85115 782 3
The protective ditch on the outer side of the earth banks [Enlarge]
A view of the bailey showing what few signs remain of its former occupation [Enlarge]
The remains of the keep, showing the thickening of the original walls and how it was only half completed [Enlarge]
A section of the keep wall. Note the blocked window, from the original manor house, indicated by the sign [Enlarge]
Photograph Gallery (yet more photos!)