Bungay Castle

Coordinates: 52°27′22″N 1°26′10″E / 52.4560°N 1.4361°E / 52.4560; 1.4361
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the novel, see Bungay Castle (novel).

Bungay Castle
Suffolk, England
The remains of Bungay Castle
Bungay Castle is located in Suffolk
Bungay Castle
Bungay Castle
Coordinates52°27′22″N 1°26′10″E / 52.4560°N 1.4361°E / 52.4560; 1.4361
TypeEdwardian castle
Site information
OwnerBungay Castle Trust
Open to
the public		Yes

Bungay Castle is a Grade I

Bungay, Suffolk.[1]

History

pale watercolour of a crumbling stone tower and overgrown bushes
Bungay Castle in 1790, in a watercolour painting by James Moore.
The gate towers in 1819.

The site was originally a Norman castle built by Roger Bigod in about 1100 to take advantage of the natural protection provided by a curve in the River Waveney.[2] Roger's son Hugh was a prominent player in the civil war period known as the Anarchy (1138–1154), and his loyalty was called into question during the early years of the reign of Henry II.[2] Henry confiscated Bungay but in 1164 he returned it to Bigod, who built a large square Norman keep on the site in 1165. It is not recorded how much it cost to build the keep, but the archaeologist Hugh Braun, who led the excavations at the castle in the 1930s, estimated that it would have cost around £1,400 (equivalent to £3,747,363 in 2021).[3] Bigod was on the losing side in the revolt of 1173–1174, and Bungay was besieged, mined and ultimately slighted by royal forces.[2] According to the historian Sidney Painter, it was one of at least 21 castles demolished on Henry II's instructions.[4]

The site was subsequently restored yet again to the

Dukes of Norfolk, who retained ownership until the 20th century, except for a short period in the late 18th century. In 1766 the site was sold to Robert Mickleborough, who quarried the keep and curtain walls for road-building materials. Later, in the early 1790s, it was purchased by Daniel Bonhôte, a local solicitor, but was sold back to the Dukes of Norfolk in about 1800.[1]

Other than the removal in 1841 of dwellings that had been built on the site, little or no repairs were undertaken for several centuries.[1]

Restoration and preservation

The castle's curtain walls and the twin towers of the gatehouse remain today, as well as a fragment of the keep. Restoration work under the supervision of Hugh Braun began in 1934, following excavations by the amateur archaeologist Leonard Cane. In 1987 the castle was given to the town of Bungay by the 17th Duke of Norfolk and is now owned by the Bungay Castle Trust.[1] It was scheduled in 1915, one of the first sites to be protected under the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act of 1913, and was subsequently listed as a Grade I monument in 1949.[1]

The castle in fiction

Bungay Castle was the setting for the eponymous novel by Elizabeth Bonhôte, Bungay Castle, a Gothic romance published in 1796, a few years after her husband Daniel had acquired the site.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Historic England, Bungay Castle, list entry no. 1034404 (listed 9 May 1949). Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-85115-782-5
    .
  3. ^ Hugh Braun, "Bungay Castle: Report on the Excavations" Open access icon, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 22 (1935), pp. 201–223.
  4. doi:10.2307/2848384
    .
  5. ^ The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day, eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990).

External links

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