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Orford Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Oreforde

In the civil parish of Orford.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TM41934987
Latitude 52.09421° Longitude 1.53073°

Orford Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Orford Castle lies at the western edge of the village of Orford, the scheduled monument encompassing an area known as Castle Green (TM 44 NW 17). Orford is the earliest castle in England for which documentary evidence of its building survives. The Pipe Rolls, record its construction by King Henry II between 1165 and 1173 to a total cost of £1414 9s 2d. Orford Castle was a symbol of the King's power, strategically placed both to uphold royal authority in a region thickly planted with castles of powerful lords and to guard the coast against invasion. The castle has a number of special claims of interest which include the unique design of the polygonal keep and the fact that it was one of the earliest castles in the country to use mural or flanking towers along the curtain wall. The keep, is the only standing structure to survive. This remains in good condition standing some 30 metres high and constructed from at least 4 different kinds of stone. Most of the walls are made of roughly-cut blocks of local septaria, a sandy coloured mudstone, together with a more robust oolithic limestone from Northamptonshire. Internally a second local stone, corraline crag was also employed as well as Caen stone from Normandy for the finer detail. At the top of the south eastern turret of the keep a reinforced concrete roof was constructed during the Second World War. This was originally intended to hold an anti-aircraft gun but instead housed a radar observation post. (PastScape)

Heslop's important 1991 paper showed the sophistication of the design of the great tower. The roof of the upper hall was probably conical, with a domed interior celling, a reference to Byzantine splendour. Perhaps, one day, English Heritage will brave enough to replace the current modern roof with one that reproduces the original design.

Often described as being built to exercise some degree of royal control over the Bigod earls of nearby Framlingham. Certainly it would seem Bigod money, raised for returning their castle to them after revolt was used to fund the building. However, Orford was a significant medieval port at this period, exporting wool and lead to Europe, and the castle would have had a function in controlling that trade, collecting duties and safeguarding that money. One of the windowless intramural chambers in the great tower was probably a treasury and one of the windowed chambers in one of the turrets was a muniment room, where records were made and stored. (The room does not have a fireplace but is warmed by the fireplace of the lower hall - this would keep parchment rolls dry and stop rot but reduce the fire risk). The VCH suggests this was the site of an earlier, non royal, stronghold.
Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling   Listing   I. O. E.
Maps >
OS getamap   Streetmap   Old-Maps   Where's the path      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   V. O. B.   EarthTools          
Air Photos > 
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   Flashearth      
Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio      

Sources of information, references and further reading

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get.
*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
This record last updated on Monday, June 17, 2013
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