Description

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

External Links

• Saffron Walden Castle at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4185821

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)