Lidgate Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 in the village of Lidgate

Lidgate

Lidgate is a small village and a civil parish in the St Edmundsbury District, in the English county of Suffolk. Lidgate is located on the B1063 road in between the towns of Newmarket and Clare. Lidgate has a place of worship and a castle called Lidgate Castle. The population of Lidgate is around...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, built to an unusual quandrangular design.

Details

Lidgate Castle was built in the village of Lidgate, Suffolk, probably around 1143, during the years of the civil war known as the Anarchy

The Anarchy

The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...

. At this time King Stephen of England

Stephen of England

Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...

 was engaged in a campaign against the rebel baron Geoffrey de Mandeville

Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex

Geoffrey de Mandeville II, 1st Earl of Essex was one of the prominent players during the reign of King Stephen of England. His biographer, the 19th-century historian J. H...

, and the castle may have been built as part of the campaign to contain his advances in the region.

The castle was built on a natural rise, and takes the form of an unusual, quadrangular motte and bailey design. The motte is square, 20 m across and is today around 2 m high, with two adjacent protective platforms alongside it; the main bailey to the south is protected by a protective ditch, 20 m wide and 5 m deep, and a 3.2 m high outer bank.

The castle was probably abandoned in the 1260s, and at some point in the 13th or 14th century, St Mary's Church was built inside the bailey, against the earthworks - the church's nave was probably the original castle chapel - the south side of the castle was largely destroyed to make way for the growth of the village and agriculture. Today the castle is a scheduled monument.