Bungay Castle is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in the town of

Bungay Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at th ...

, Suffolk.Historic England, Bungay Castle
list entry no. 1034404 (listed 9 May 1949). Retrieved 12 May 2022.

History

The site was originally a Norman castle built by Roger Bigod in about 1100 to take advantage of the natural protection provided by a curve in the

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The earliest attestation of the name is from 1275, ''Wahenhe'', from ''*wagen + ea'', meaning the river by a q ...

.Adrian Pettifer,
English Castles: a Guide by Counties
' (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2002). . Roger's son

Hugh Hugh is the English-language variant of the masculine given name , itself the Old French variant of '' Hugo (name)">Hugo'', a short form of Continental Germanic Germanic name">given names beginning in the element "mind, spirit" (Old English ). ...

was a prominent player in the civil war period known as

the Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Duchy of Normandy, Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adel ...

(1138–1154), and his loyalty was called into question during the early years of the reign of

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

. Henry confiscated Bungay but in 1164 he returned it to Bigod, who built a large square Norman

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

on the site in 1165. It is not recorded how much it cost to build the keep, but the archaeologist Hugh Braun, who led the excavations at the castle in the 1930s, estimated that it would have cost around £1,400 (). Bigod was on the losing side in the

revolt of 1173–1174 The Revolt of 1173–1174 (sometimes referred to as the Great Revolt) was a rebellion against King Henry II of England by three of his sons, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their rebel supporters. The revolt ended in failure after eighteen ...

, and Bungay was besieged, mined and ultimately

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative, or social structures. This destruction of property is sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It ...

by royal forces. According to the historian Sidney Painter, it was one of at least 21 castles demolished on Henry II's instructions. The site was subsequently restored yet again to the Bigod family and was further developed in 1294 by

Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk Roger Bigod (c. 1245 – bf. 6 December 1306) was 5th Earl of Norfolk. Origins He was the son of Hugh Bigod (Justiciar), Hugh Bigod (1211–1266), Justiciar, and succeeded his father's elder brother Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk (1209� ...

, who probably built the massive gate towers on the site. He fell out with

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

and after his death the castle reverted to

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

, falling into disrepair and ruin. In 1483 it was re-acquired by the

Dukes of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the t ...

, who retained ownership until the 20th century, except for a short period in the late 18th century. In 1766 the site was sold to Robert Mickleborough, who quarried the keep and curtain walls for road-building materials. Later, in the early 1790s, it was purchased by Daniel Bonhôte, a local solicitor, but was sold back to the Dukes of Norfolk in about 1800. Other than the removal in 1841 of dwellings that had been built on the site, little or no repairs were undertaken for several centuries.

Restoration and preservation

The castle's curtain walls and the twin towers of the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

remain today, as well as a fragment of the

. Restoration work under the supervision of Hugh Braun began in 1934, following excavations by the amateur archaeologist Leonard Cane. In 1987 the castle was given to the town of

by the 17th Duke of Norfolk and is now owned by the Bungay Castle Trust. It was scheduled in 1915, one of the first sites to be protected under the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act of 1913, and was subsequently listed as a Grade I monument in 1949. The castle is currently closed (Summer 2024) until further notice and is covered in scaffolding as repairs are made. It does not have a reopening time.

The castle in fiction

Bungay Castle was the setting for the eponymous novel by

Elizabeth Bonhôte Elizabeth Bonhôte, née Mapes (baptised 11 April 1744 – 11 June 1818) was an English novelist, essayist and poet. Her most successful work was ''Bungay Castle (novel), Bungay Castle'', a Gothic romance written after her husband had bought the ...

, '' Bungay Castle'', a Gothic romance published in 1796, a few years after her husband Daniel had acquired the site.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990).

References

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External links

Visit Bungay: Bungay Castle

Visit East of England: Bungay Castle
Bungay Waveney District Ruins in Suffolk Castles in Suffolk Grade I listed buildings in Suffolk Tourist attractions in Suffolk Bigod family