Burwell Castle was an unfinished medieval

enclosure castle An enclosure castle is a fortified residence or stronghold, in which defence is facilitated by walls and towers. Such fortifications were usually composed of wood or stone, but there are later examples built of brick. Features In enclosure castl ...

in Burwell,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, England.

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Burwell Castle was built near the village of Burwell in 1143 by

Stephen I of England Stephen or Steven is an English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the firs ...

, on the site of a former Roman villa. It was constructed during the civil war of

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 ...

, a long running dispute between the supporters of Stephen, and his Angevin rival, the

Empress Matilda Empress Matilda (10 September 1167), also known as Empress Maud, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter and heir of Henry I, king of England and ruler of Normandy, she went to ...

. The baron Geoffrey de Mandeville was dispossessed of his castles by Stephen and rose up in revolt immediately afterwards, taking up a position near Ely in the Fens and threatening

Cambridge Castle Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest of England, Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, ...

and the route south to London; Burwell Castle was built as part of a chain of castles to protect the region, including fortifications at

Lidgate St Mary's church Lidgate is a small village and a civil parish in the West Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. Lidgate is located on the B1063 road in between the towns of Newmarket and Clare. The population of Lidgate is around ...

, Rampton, Caxton,

Swavesey Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Prime Meridian of the world in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives, ...

and possibly

Knapwell Knapwell is a hamlet in Cambridgeshire situated about west of Cambridge. It is within the diocese of Ely. Its population was estimated at 110 in 2001. At the 2011 census the population had fallen to fewer than 100. Nearby villages include Box ...

. Stephen appropriated the village of Burwell, which was constructed on a raised area of land of Roman origin, and proceeded to commence building the castle. It consists of a sub-rectangular mound measuring and surrounded by a rectangular ditch up to wide. Geoffrey de Mandeville attacked Burwell in 1144 when the castle was still unfinished, but during the operation he was hit by a crossbow bolt; he retired to nearby Mildenhall, where he died from the injury. After Geoffrey's death the castle was never completed, although a stone gatehouse was completed on the site, suggesting a period of further occupation. The

Abbot of Ramsey Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

built a chapel on the site around 1246, and the site was finally abandoned in the 15th century.Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell, p.24. The archaeologist

T. C. Lethbridge Thomas Charles Lethbridge (23 March 1901 – 30 September 1971), better known as T. C. Lethbridge, was an English archaeologist, parapsychologist, and explorer. A specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, he was honorary Keeper of Anglo-Saxon ...

excavated the site in 1935. At the time portions of stone walling survived but were later destroyed during testing of a fire hose. The castle site was bought by the Burwell Parish Council in 1983. The

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

conducted a geophysical and topographical survey of the castle in the 2010s. Today only the unfinished earthworks remain of the castle, which have scheduled monument status.
Burwell Castle
', Gatehouse website, accessed 22 May 2011.

Bibliography

*
Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Burwell. Draft Report 22/05/2003.
' Cambridge: Cambridge County Council. *Creighton, Oliver Hamilton. (2005) ''Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England.'' London: Equinox. . *Malim, C. (2001)
Burwell Castle, Cambridgeshire
'' Cambridge: Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit. *Pettifer, Adrian. (2002)
English Castles: a Guide by Counties
'' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .

References

{{reflist Scheduled monuments in Cambridgeshire Castles in Cambridgeshire

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

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Bibliography

References