Walden Castle

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 MUSEUM STREET 669-1/1/305 (East side (off)) 28/11/51 Walden Castle (Formerly Listed as: Walden Castle)

I

Remnant of tower-keep. Late C11 or early C12. Flint and mortar core of walls severely degraded. Rectangular plan, approx 12.3m square with NW projection of forebuilding. 2 storeys survive. Interior has a central pier base to support upper floors and ground floor semicircular arched recesses approx 2.0m deep on the N, S and W sides. S recess has some herringbone pitched flint work, also shuttering ridges in the soffit mortar of S, SW and N recesses. On first floor, a recess on W side has been interpreted as a fireplace (RCHM). The walls are breached through on SE corner, on site of stairs and tunnelled through at back of the N recess. A well, now covered, exists in the NW angle. Over this corner is a low projection built in the C18 as a semaphore station. Although a ruin, areas of original flat wall facing of simple flint work survive in several places ie. exterior, centre of N wall, outer face of pilaster buttress and adjacent wall on E side, interior, rear wall of recess in S wall and adjacent wall to E. Some of the walling is covered with ivy. HISTORICAL NOTE: it is not known who built the keep. Stylistic comparison suggests a building date of the second quarter of C12, cf. Farnham Castle 1138, Ascot Doilly Castle 1129-42. Geoffrey (II) de Mandeville was however forced to surrender the castle to Stephen in 1144. (Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report, CBA Research Report 45: Bassett SR: Saffron Walden to 1300: London: 1982-: 15 -18; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 333).

Listing NGR: TL5390738722