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

• Historic England Listing
• 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.

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