Bungay Castle

Bungay Castle comprises the surviving fabric of a medieval castle, the site thought to have first been fortified around 1070, and consolidated with the construction of a stone keep around 1175. The site was further developed with the addition of curtain walls, a walled inner bailey and a series of defensive ditches. Bungay Castle now survives as an extensive ruin, comprising the substantial remains of the 12th-century keep built by Hugh Bigod and the 13th-century curtain wall added by Roger Bigod, together with the fragmentary remains of the wall which originally enclosed the inner bailey to the west of the keep and curtain wall.

The castle, curtain walls and inner bailey walls now mainly consist of flint rubble core material, bound in lime mortar, with almost all former dressed stone or flint facing material now lost, apart from the retained ashlar work to the base of the gatehouse towers. There have been extensive repairs to the inner bailey wall immediately to the west of the castle remains, some of considerable age, using facing brickwork in some instances. In the northern section of the inner bailey wall enclosure, some areas of walling have collapsed and become detached from the main masonry body, and have settled below the line of the outer face of the wall in the area of the former ditch, now occupied by buildings forming the southern side of Earsham Street.

The core element of the castle site is the square base of the keep. Attached to the south wall are the remains of the forebuilding. Surrounding the keep are the curtain walls, which are roughly octagonal on plan, and which incorporate the twin semi-circular towers of a gatehouse to the west of the keep. The inner bailey extended from the castle's curtain wall and enclosed a roughly rectangular area to the west of the castle. Beyond the perimeter of this inner bailey area, and loosely conforming to its shape, was a wide ditch which is believed to have completely encircled the castle site. The inner bailey wall extended from the castle curtain wall approximately adjacent to the north-west angle of the castle keep, continuing westwards then abruptly turning southwards, then eastwards, then finally turning north-eastwards to reconnect with the curtain wall a short distance from the southern tower of the castle gatehouse. The final short length of inner bailey wall once incorporated a gateway to the south south-west of the keep and curtain wall, thought to be the second of a series of four entrances to the castle site, this one at the crossing of the inner ditch leading into the inner bailey.

The remains of the keep are square on plan, with the surviving fabric of the castle forebuilding extending from the western section of its south elevation. The keep is thought to have been around 22 metres square, whilst the attached forebuilding was around 12 metres in length and extended around 6 metres from the face of the keep. At the base of the south-west corner of the keep is an opening formed as the entry to a tunnel intended to undermine this corner of the keep. It was excavated around 1174 when the castle was besieged by Henry II as a consequence of Hugh Bigod's rebellion. In the north wall of the keep is a red-brick arched doorway which gives access to what was the basement floor of the keep, where the massively thick base sections of the keep walls are exposed to view.

Surrounding the keep are the substantial remains of the castle curtain wall. These survive at varying heights, and form a roughly octagonal enclosure, with a gatehouse on the western side and with the remains of the inner bailey walls extending from the north-west and south-west angles. The walls, like the keep, are now bereft of their facing materials, with the exception of the base sections of the twin gatehouse towers, which retain ashlar limestone masonry set below a moulded string course. The towers are semi-circular on plan and approximately 6.5 metres in diameter, each rising from a square base and open to the rear. Excavations carried out in 1934-1935 revealed the remains of a drawbridge pit, now retained in its excavated form, located between the gatehouse towers, to the rear of the ditch in front of the gatehouse. This is thought to have been spanned by a counter-poised bridge which could be raised to prevent access to the keep.

To the west of the remains of the keep and its curtain walls are the surviving sections of the inner bailey wall, the second of four defensive lines surrounding the castle keep, the other three being the curtain wall, the ditch beyond the inner bailey and the ditch around the outer bailey. The most substantial surviving sections of the inner bailey wall are located in the southern and western edges of the site. Smaller sections of the wall survive on the northern side of the enclosure, some forming parts of standing buildings. As with the castle remains, what survives of the wall is the core material of mortar-bound flint rubble together with some areas of brick-faced repair. The wall survives as a series of substantial lengths of varying height, interrupted by breaches where there appear to be no surface remains.

The wall extends westwards from its junction with the castle curtain wall, and defines parts of, or the whole of, the ends of gardens to houses fronting Earsham Street, beginning at Castle House (Number 15), then continuing in the gardens of Numbers 17, 19 and 21. It becomes a rear retaining wall to Keepers Cottage beyond which there is no visible original surface fabric for some distance. This section forms the retaining garden wall to Number 31 Earsham Street, and original fabric is concealed by later facing materials. Further west, a small detached section of the wall lies on sloping ground to the east of Number 35a Earsham Street, which itself incorporates a further wall section as an internal partition extending the full length of the building. For a further stretch there is again no visible surface fabric, but earthworks show the continuation of the line and the wall then reappears as a low retaining wall on land to the rear of Number 43 Earsham Street, Number 49 Earsham Street and Numbers 51 and 55 Earsham Street. The wall forms part of an outbuilding to the rear of Number 55 Earsham Street, and then returns southwards, forming a retaining boundary wall between the former Iron Works, now known as Cameron House, to the west and Number 47 Earsham Street to the east. The wall continues southwards, forming a retaining wall at the western boundary to the garden of Number 47 Earsham Street and the rear wall of the outbuilding to the east of Number 4 Castle Lane. In this section, parts of the wall survive to a height in excess of 3 metres. For another section there is no visible surface fabric, as the line of the wall survives to the east of Castle Lane as a steep earthwork up to 5 metres in height. The wall re-appears as a wide raised bank in which the wall's rubble core survives as a standing structure up to approximately 1.5 metres high and approximately 45 metres in length. The wall then extends eastwards towards the castle curtain wall, finally ending at its junction with the curtain wall.