NHER 3307 (Monument record) - Castle Rising Castle

Castle Rising Castle.
Castle, about 1138 with later additions.
Incorporating 11th-century church (later reidentified as 12th century) - see (S21).

1828.
Well cleared out. 'In clearing the large room in which is a well, in the well was found lamps, stone balls about an inch in diameter which were used for shooting, a very early reckoning penny or counter with other relics'.
See (S1).

1970 to 1976. Excavation
Excavation carried out by B. M. Morley for M.P.B.W. on the castle and church, also on the underlying Roman and Late Saxon ditches. Site was originally common land. Reused Roman brick in church. Thetford ware found at these levels but not early medieval. Ditches, postholes and hearths were cut by the keep foundations. South gable wall of substantial timber building found running north under the keep but no dating evidence. The 'chapel' in the bailey is in fact the original parish church, or perhaps a chapel of ease, of around 1150 and its bell pit was found; disused when castle built and became secular through the medieval period. There are two principal phases of construction of the main bank which were later than the church.A possible Saxon bow sided hall and two wooden walled features predate the chapel. The 'Roman' rectangular earthwork around the central bailey was shown to be contemporary with the castle and postdate the chapel. The castle keep was not completed until the 13th century. Ground inside keep made up with gravel to form floor, but this removed in the 17th century. The south range had been dismantled to ground level and then rebuilt as a timber-framed structure much of the same size; further work on the south range found the structure did not extend much further east.
The earliest ancillary buildings were 14th century with a chapel ?built for Queen Isabella which stood until the 18th century. A curtain wall with towers stood on the central bailey bank 14th to 18th century. The garderobes had no drainage and therefore raised walkways had to be provided in the bailey! A large brick kitchen with three phases of outbuildings stood south of the keep. Possibility of a 14th century great hall on a north and south alignment between the keep and the south range could not be verified.
See (S2), (S12), (S13), (S14), (S15), (S16), (S17) and (S18) for further information.
Amended by M. Langham-Lopez (HES), 7 May 2013.

1978.
Guidebook revised. The keep and gatehouse date from around 1138 and were repaired and altered around 1300. Some 18th to 19th century alterations.
See (S3).

1979. Visit.
Two huge erratics stand in inner bailey, one used as a quoin of a service building. In keep original entrance, large number of Bawsey tiles excavated at NHER 1075 were set here in the 1840s.
E. Rose (NAU), 20 September 1979.

1983.
R. Rickett (NAU) notes selection of tiles from Castle Rising in Peterborough Museum basement. Are these more of the Bawsey tiles such as the ones now in the doorway or from the castle itself?
E. Rose (NAU), 1 September 1983.

June 1987. Excavation.
Excavation took for ticket office, 1st June to 19th June, excavated two trenches within the rectangular outwork to the east of the great oval ringwork surrounding the keep. To the west of the access path a soakaway trench recovered little pottery and no archaeological features. To the east of the access path a larger trench buried soil up to 33cm thick contained 12th century pottery. The edge of a substantial feature was recorded at the southern edge of the excavation, but this produced no finds and had been filled with two dumps of redeposited material. Above the redeposited layers modern pipe trenches and postholes were found. The dumps encountered in this excavation are likely to be part of the same remodelling of the defences in the late 12th century that was recorded in the 1970s excavations.
See (S2), (S4) and (S19) for further information. The results of this work are also summarised in (S20).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.243).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 5 December 2022.

April 1988.
(S5) mentions 'paving tiles from Castle Rising'. Are these in fact more tiles from Bawsey?
Information from J. J. Wymer (NAU).

1994.
Scheduled area adjusted.

1995. Building Survey.
Condition audit of wall paintings within chapel.
Fragments of red pattern remained in sheltered areas and appeared fairly stable, despite their relatively exposed position within a structure that is windowless and only partially walled and roofed. Minor repairs were though required and it was recommended that the decoration was fully recorded and documented.
For details see report (S22), which was generated from information in the English Heritage Wall Painting Section database.
P. Watkins (HES), 22 August 2019.

June 1999. Earthwork Survey.
Survey at 1:1250 amends that in (S2). Main additional features include sections of curtain wall on central earthwork bank and minor feature in northwest and some possible sub division in eastern enclosure. Scarp to east of building may be partly the result of building work for new or earlier works hut.
See plan in file. This site was included in (S7) and the survey is also noted in (S11).
B. Cushion (NLA), 6 July 1999. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 31 March 2015.

(S8) notes that contrary to most modern accounts, Queen Isabella did not live at Rising until her death, but in the final years of her reign lived at Hertford Castle, hence the lack of finds from that period at Rising.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 April 2006.

The Commission at the time of the French invasion of 1386 examined Castle Rising and it may be no coincidence that two early cannons of the 14th century from the castle are now in the Tower of London (S9).
Rose, E. (NLA), 19 March 2007.

Historic building report.
The castle was founded by William de Albini in 1138. The present structure is roofless and without upper floors but is still one of the best preserved Norman castles in the country. The castle stands in an inner bailey surrounded by tall banks standing to their original height and with the remains of a later curtain wall. An outer bailey of earthworks survives to the east. In about AD 1300 a room was constructed above the forebuilding and this is the only part of the castle that is still roofed. Excavation during the 1970's and 1980's uncovered extensive evidence of buildings belonging to this period.
See (S10).
S. Howard (NLA), 14 June 2010.