More information : (TL 51532500) Castle Hill (NR) Remains of Castle (NR) (1)
Stansted Castle, a ringwork and bailey. The ring is circular about 1/2 an acre in extent surrounded by a rampart and dry-ditch. The rampart is 2.6m high and 4.0m wide at the summit in places and contains the lower courses of a flint rubble wall. The ditch is about 21.0m wide crest to crest and 3.2m deep from the summit of the scarp. The defenses are nearly obliterated on the S and W sides where the ground drops sharply away. Projecting towards the S from the line of the wall is a rubble wall, 4.0m long, 0.7m thick and 3.0m high, which possibly indicates a tower. On the E side a gap in the rampart leads by a causeway into the bailey. In the centre of the ring are traces of a small round enclosure, probably the site of a keep.
The bailey, slightly over an acre in extent, is also defended by a bank and ditch, but with no trace of walling; presumably the rampart was strengthened by a wooden palisade. The bank is 4.0m above the ditch which is well-defined only on the NW side where it communicates with the ring-work ditch. The entrance in the N is flanked by a raising of the rampart on each side, though the W side is mutilated. The rampart is obliterated on the S side and only a steep scarp remains. A scarp crosses the bailey E to W, possibly indicating a wall dividing the bailey into two wards.
The area to the E of the bailey is disfigured by quarrying. (2)
Stansted Castle, is as described by Authy 1.
Re-surveyed at 1:2500. (3)
No change to survey of 26 4 66. (4)
Stanstead or Mountfitchet Castle - open to the public as a reconstructed castle and Norman village. (5)
Listed by Cathcart King. Little or no history, but this was the head of a substantial barony. (6) |