Ruins of Bramber Castle in West Sussex, built soon after the 1066 Norman invasion of England.
Bramber, West Sussex, England: foundations of living quarters and possibly a guard room, of Bramber Castle, on the edge of the village of Bramber, near the town of Steyning, and overlooking the river Adur. The castle was built soon after 1066 and William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion of England as part of a network of castles to protect King William I’s new territories and to guard the Sussex coast. The first castle at Bramber was built in 1073, of motte-and-bailey design, by William de Braose (c. 1049 - 1094), who had accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy,. An artificial mound or motte was raised in the middle of a natural knoll, protected on three sides by a deep ditch. The northern part, beyond the motte, became the ‘bailey’ or enclosure. Around the end of the 1000s, a deep ditch was dug around the whole knoll. A stone curtain wall was built on top, with a gatehouse controlling the main entrance to the south. The gatehouse was heightened, probably in the early 1100s, by more than 15 metres, creating a three-storey great tower built of chalk, limestone, local flint and expensive dressed Caen stone imported from France. Bramber Castle remained in the de Braose family for more than 200 years, but in the early 1300s passed by marriage to the de Mowbray family and later to the Howard Dukes of Norfolk. It was sold privately in 1926, purchased by the National Trust in 1946 and is now maintained by English Heritage.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Bramber, West Sussex, England, UK
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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