Ruins Of Castle And Eleventh Century Church

Castle Rising comprises the ruins of a major Norman castle and an 11th-century parish church. The castle was built around 1138 for William d'Albini II. It is constructed of Barnack limestone combined with carstone, Sandringham sandstone and flint.

The Castle

The castle consists of a hall keep with footings of domestic buildings in carstone to the north, all surrounded by a circular rampart with parts of a curtain wall, a gateway through the rampart and a bridge across the deep encircling ditch. The keep measures approximately 24 metres by 21 metres and stands about 15 metres high, with ashlared walls now incorporating panels of coursed local stone.

The east facade features a three-storeyed forebuilding to the right, which projects forward and has a tiled saddle roof. To the left is the enclosed outside stairway of the keep. The two-bay forebuilding is built of ashlar with a central pilaster strip and clasping buttresses at the angles, all having shafts to the ground and first floors. The first floor has two large semi-circular headed windows, above which runs a string course with figure corbels. Three square openings light the second floor. The left return has a similar window to the east at first floor level, with a tall semi-circular headed blank arch below, blocked with local stones and having side shafts.

The wall to the roofless outside stairs has an ashlar clasping buttress with shafts at the angles and a central ashlar pilaster strip with remains above of a postern stair. High blank arcades appear to left and right. The left arcade consists of six semi-circular headed arches with cushion capitals to lost shafts, the rear of the arcade decorated with chevron indentations and a zig-zag string course below. Above are remains of two circular openings now containing grotesque corbels. The blank arcade to the right comprises six intersecting semi-circular headed arches with roll mouldings. The keep wall above to the rear has a central ashlar pilaster strip, openings to first and second floors, and a clasping buttress to the left angle.

The south facade consists of four panels of roughly coursed local stones replacing the original ashlar, separated by ashlared pilaster strips and clasping angle turret buttresses with engaged shafts and small stair lights. A battered plinth runs along the base. Each panel at ground floor level has one slit opening. The first floor has varied openings, while the second floor has a small bullseye window in each of the first three bays and an opening with a double semi-circular headed light in the fourth bay. The entrance to the right leads to the attached outside stair through a semi-circular headed doorway with side shafts, a frieze of corbels above, a blank arcade of two arches, a cornice and two circular openings with grotesques matching those to the left of the east facade.

The north facade mirrors the south. The west facade is divided into four bays articulated by ashlar pilaster strips, with a battered plinth and altered blank arches in ashlar to the second, third and fourth bays, continuous with the pilaster strips. An ashlared forebuilding stands to the left.

Interior of the Keep

The interior is now floorless and divided into two parts: the Great Hall to the north and the Great Chamber to the south. A basement to the west of the Great Hall contains a pier and double groined vault. Service rooms above include a kitchen with a circular hearth of on-edge tiles in the south-west angle, with a circular chimney rising through the angle turret. Grotesque corbels survive from the roof of the Great Hall.

The remains of a chapel occupy the south-east corner of the first floor, with blank arcading on the south and west walls of the nave. The semi-circular chancel arch has cushion capitals to shafts and decorative mouldings. The one-bay chancel has a raised floor and rib vaulting with figure head bosses at the crossing. A zig-zag string course runs below the sill of the east window.

The forebuilding to the north-east contains a newel stair with ashlared walls and vault, leading to an antechamber that gives access to the Great Hall on the first floor. The semi-circular headed doorway to the Great Hall is of three orders with side shafts having cushion capitals, each supporting a zigzag and roll moulding. This doorway was later converted to a fireplace and blocked with 15th-century encaustic heraldic tiles inserted around 1840.

The first floor room is of two bays with rib vaulting springing from foliage corbels of the late 13th century. The vaulting crosses the semi-circular headed window rear arches with attached shafts. The second floor room is an addition, now with internal buttresses and remains of vaulting. A cushion capital to the shaft of a former external clasping turret buttress of the keep survives low at the north-west angle. A 19th-century fireplace stands to the south.

Bridge and Gateway

The bridge crosses the ditch to the east. It has a revetment of various local stones and erratics, with a four-centred head in brick to the arch and a parapet incorporating some brick.

The gateway through the rampart is now roofless, built of a variety of local stone with limestone dressings. It has semi-circular arches to front and rear. The returns between the arches have, to the left, one recess and a doorway to a partial newel stair, and to the right two recesses, all with semi-circular headed arches.

A small length of curtain wall survives to the south of the gateway on the rampart, mainly of 14th-century brick with some stone, the stone facings now lost.

The Church Ruins

The ruins of the 11th-century parish church stand approximately 30 metres north of the castle keep, partly within the earth rampart. Built of a variety of local stone—rubble of carstone, Sandringham sandstone, flint and erratics—the church followed a three-cell plan of nave, central tower and apsed chancel. Part walls of the complete plan remain.

The nave retains remains of opposing south and north doorways and a low bench running around the walls. To the west of the south doorway is part of a 16th-century fireplace with some herringbone brickwork. The apse has round-headed single-splayed lights to the north and east with Roman tiles in the internal dressings.

The church was superseded by the 12th-century church of St Lawrence approximately 260 metres to the north and was subsequently covered by the castle ramparts. It was excavated in the early 19th century when a font base was discovered, said to fit the stem of the font now in the church of St Lawrence.

Historical Context

From 1331 to 1358 the castle was the residence of Isabella, wife of Edward II and accomplice to his murder in 1327. The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Norfolk No. 3) in the care of English Heritage.