More information : Mount and bailey castle south of Rickling Hall (TL 499301) thought to be Norman or C12th date (2). The mount is 18.5ft high and 135ft in diameter at the base. The partly destroyed ditch, now 5ft deep, and part of a bailey, which apparently existed on the N, has been converted into the moat of the present Rickling Hall. Plan (3). (1,2)
At TL 49913013 to the S of Rickling Hall are the remains of a motte. It has been extensively mutilated by garden landscaping, and the ditch which formerly surrounded it has been filled in, but it survives to a height of 5.0m and measures c 40.0m, in diameter. There is no certain remains of a bailey, though the homestead moat which remains around Rickling Hall (See TL 43 SE 2) could be utilising an earlier defence. No documentary evidence for a castle pre-dating Rickling Hall (c 1500) was found.
Published survey (25") revised. (3)
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