Wormegay Castle is a motte and bailey earthwork

Earthworks (engineering)

Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving or processing of quantities of soil or unformed rock.- Civil engineering use :Typical earthworks include roads, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms...

, located next to the village of Wormegay

Wormegay

Wormegay is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated some south of King's Lynn and west of Norwich.It covers an area of and had a population of 339 in 141 households as of the 2001 census....

 in the English

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...

 county of Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

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Details

The castle was probably built by Hermer de Ferrers after the Norman Conquest

Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

, and remained in the de Ferrers family until 1166. The motte is 5 metres high and 77 metres by 62 metres wide at the base. The motte is surrounded on three sides by a ditch up to 15 metres wide and 2 metres deep. The bailey is 150 metres by 88 metres across, and raised about 1 metre from the ground. The castle would have been highly visible in early medieval times, more so than in the 21st century, and would have formed a local landmark as well as controlling the local causeway across the Fens. Wormegay formed the centre, or the caput, for an honour of feudal properties across East Anglia

East Anglia

East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

. As the centre of a major estate, Wormegay provided castle-guard

Castle-guard

Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffedknights...

 duties to Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...

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External links

• CastleUK.net on Wormegay Castle