Mettingham Castle

Mettingham Castle was founded by Sir John de Norwich, who was given a licence to crenellate his existing manor house on the site in 1342.[1] The first house stood within a small moat, up to 15 foot wide with 6 foot high banks; upon receiving permission to crenellate, however, he built another court to the north of this, again moated, with a gateway to the north.[2] Another moated court was later built to the south.[2] An Edwardian style gatehouse formed the entrance to the castle and supplemented a stone wall that surrounded the property.[3] By 1562, there were "stables, servants' lodgings, kitchen, bakehouse, brewhouse, malting house, storehouses, and an aisled hall" within the castle walls.[4]

A late 19th century plan of the castle

The castle remained in Sir John's family until 1394, when it was given to a college of secular canons from nearby Norton, who established Mettingham College on the small moated court within the castle.[5] The monks taught up to 13 boys at the castle.[6] After the dissolution of the monasteries the property was sold off to a sequence of private owners after 1542.[1] The castle was largely demolished in the 18th century to make way for a new farm house on the site, which lasted until around 1880 when it was pulled down in turn; the house rebuilt on the site reused parts of the original medieval stonework.[7]

Today the site is a scheduled monument and a grade 2 listed building; the gatehouse still survives, as do some of the stone walls and many of the surrounding moats and earthworks.[8] In the 21st century a major renovation project occurred at the castle to repair the worsening damage, involving a grant of £330,000 by English Heritage.[6]

• Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
• List of castles in England

• Mackenzie, J.D. (1896) Castles of England. New York: Macmillan.
• Page, William. (ed) (1911) The Victoria History of Suffolk, Vol. 1. London: University of London.
• Wall, J. C. (1911) "Ancient Earthworks," in Page (ed) (1911).