Hedingham Castle

Hedingham Castle

This castle keep was built in the mid-12th century and stands on a mound or ringwork. It is constructed of flint rubble faced throughout with ashlar blocks of Barnack stone and has a lead roof.

The keep is square in plan, measuring approximately 17.5 metres by 16 metres, and rises four storeys high. It retains two turrets at the north-west and south-east corners. The walls have a battered base below a chamfered plinth, which continues around wide, flat corner pilaster buttresses. Smaller flat central pilasters spring from the plinth. Putlog holes remain visible in all the walls.

A rectangular forebuilding of flint rubble survives on the north-west side up to basement height. The stone steps approaching the entrance door have been recently rebuilt with a modern banister. A modern platform has been constructed over the dungeon in the forebuilding to provide access to the main first-floor entrance. The entrance doorway itself is a semi-circular arch of two orders: the plain inner order has a portcullis groove, whilst the outer order is decorated with chevron ornament. The jambs have attached shafts with moulded and carved bases and scalloped capitals with moulded abaci. Over the archway are keying channels for the former roofs of the forebuilding and staircase porch.

The basement level has two large openings on the north-east side fitted with 20th-century double-leaf doors. Each elevation has a similar window arrangement. The basement is lit by two narrow loops with chamfered jambs and very deep internal splays. The second storey has two narrow windows with moulded semi-circular heads, shafted jambs with moulded bases, scalloped capitals and chamfered abaci (the west front has only one window). The third storey has a similar lower range of windows and a wider upper range of two pairs of coupled windows with the same detailing. The central piers have been rebuilt in brick except on the south-east side, where one has been rebuilt in stone whilst the other retains its original shafted form. The top storey has two elaborate windows with shafted jambs, moulded bases, scalloped capitals, moulded abaci and semi-circular arches of two orders, the outer enriched with carved chevrons and the inner curved and plain. The angle pilaster buttresses have loops on the lower three storeys and a small semi-circular headed window on the fourth storey. The north-west turret has plain windows with semi-circular heads on its south and east walls and a later rough opening on the north wall. The south-east turret has a similar original window on its north wall, with later windows of 19th or 20th-century brick on the other walls. On the west front the basement windows are blocked by the forebuilding.

Interior

A garderobe in the north-east corner runs the full height of the keep. The spiral staircase occupies the north-west corner, with a central stone newel 0.53 metres in diameter and steps 1.57 metres wide. The steps were originally stone but are now brick. The basement, probably used only for storage, is plain, and the stair turret entrance has been renewed in brick. All the floors date to the first half of the 20th century. The pinkish tinge visible in the internal stone on the upper floors is due to calcination after a fire.

The first floor or Lower Hall is spanned east to west by a plain segmental arch with moulded abaci to the plain pilaster jambs (the central portion has been rebuilt). The semi-circular arched entrance doorway has shafted jambs with moulded and carved bases and scalloped capitals with moulded abaci. A long hole for a draw bar survives in the south jamb. All window recesses have moulded semi-circular arches and shafted jambs with scalloped capitals and moulded bases. In the north-east corner within the wall thickness is an entrance passage with groined vaulting to the garderobe. The fireplace in the centre of the south wall consists of a segmental recess with shafted jambs, moulded bases, scalloped capitals and moulded abaci decorated with billet pattern. The semi-circular arch is moulded and enriched with chevron ornament. Small barrel-vaulted chambers within the walls are entered through doorways in the window recesses; these doorways have plain or rebated jambs and semi-circular arches.

The second floor or Upper Hall rises through two storeys and was originally open to the roof. It is spanned east to west by what is probably the largest Norman arch in Europe. The semi-circular, richly moulded arch springs from shafted pilasters with moulded and beaded bases and scalloped capitals with moulded abaci. All semi-circular arched window recesses are enriched with zig-zag moulding and have angle shafts with moulded bases and scalloped capitals, some with bead ornament. The abaci of the capitals continue as a string course along the south wall and over the arch of the fireplace. The centre of the south wall contains another original fireplace similar to that on the first floor but with slightly different capital detail. The entrance archway from the stair turret has continuous roll moulding. In the north-east, south-east and south-west angles of the room are shafts with moulded bases and scalloped capitals, originally supporting ceiling wall plates. Some corbels also remain. A small recess with groined vaulting adjoins the garderobe in the north-east corner. Similar wall-thickness chambers exist as on the first floor.

At approximately half-way height, the Upper Hall is surrounded by a gallery formed as a continuous passage in the wall thickness. The south gallery entrance has double shafted jambs continued in a semi-circular arch, the shafts enriched with spiral bands of bead ornament. The north gallery entrance has shafted jambs with moulded bases, scalloped capitals and moulded abaci. Two arches open from each side into the Hall, similar in detail to the north entrance. The passages have barrel-vaults intersecting at the angles.

On the top floor the semi-circular window recesses are plain and retain holes for the original shutter hinges and shutter slots in the soffits. There is a recess in the centre of each wall with a plain semi-circular head and a smaller recess at the north end of the east wall. The north-east, south-east and south-west angles have small chambers in the wall thickness entered from the window recesses, as on the other floors.