When was clare castle built

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Clare Ancient House Museum - 0. Clare Priory - 0. Clare, St Peter and St Paul - 0. Cavendish, St Mary's Church - 2. Denston, St Nicholas Church - 4. Hedingham Castle - 5. Long Melford, Holy Trinity Church - 5. Toggle navigation. Best of Britain. Buttress uncovered in early victorian excavations at the south-west side of the entrance into the inner Bailey. The railway station occupying the castle bailey , destroying much of the remains.

The level was raised to create the goodsyard so there are undisturbed archaelogical levels underneath that would clear up some of the remaining mysteries. From then on, Clare castle became a romantic ruin on the garden of Clare Abbey, then a private house. Most of the castle wall was removed in around for the double purpose of employing the poor and repairing the roads. In , the inner bailey was destroyed to provide Clare with a railway station. A few relics were discovered but there was no attempt at any archaeology.

The station road was driven through the outer bailey and through the bastions between the inner and outer bailey. The occasion was marked by a pageant where the residents dressed up in mediaeval costumes and cheered. The Stour flows to the south of the Priory. Some of the flow was artificially diverted in a small channel before the Norman Conquest for the requirements of a watermill that was based at the bottom of Mill Lane.

This would have been a relatively small building with a mill that spun horizontally like a giant spinning-top.

This was a small headrace because the horizontal wheel requires less water and the system is difficult to scale up.

The tailrace is still visible. There was a separate diversion of the Stour to supply the ponds and moats around the Priory. The Chilton stream was entirely diverted from its original course into the Chilton Ditch around the castle, though its water was used for the moats. The cut-off stream across the meadows can still be seen and originally also took the water from the tailrace of the original mill. This means that the headrace, or mill leat, did not run across the southern wall of the inner bailey as it does now.

The castle would have had unspoiled meadowland in front of it down to the river, which would have then been wider and deeper. The mediaeval main road from Sudbury, now a bridleway in places, then went across Essex past Bechamp st Pauls, and would have afforded mediaeval travellers a magnificent view of the Castle as it curved round, as it does now, towards the river bridge.

In the mid-fourteenth century, vertical watermills were introduced. They could drive up to four stones rather than just one, and were easily expanded. At Clare, the old mill was removed and a 'New Cut' made to a vertical mill downstream. Because a vertical wheel takes more water to drive it, this necessitated a much larger headrace with a sluice gate, and it meant blocking the Chilton Ditch at the site of the current sluice gates.

So much water was diverted that the old Stour became much smaller. It also meant the end of river traffic, because all the mills downstream did the same thing. The whole British Isles had been Christian for at the very least four hundred years by the time of the conquest.

The Communion required wine, there was little general demand because the British were resolutely beer drinkers. This was unsurprising because grapes could only be grown in the sunniest, driest, parts of Britain : This realistically meant East Anglia and parts of Kent and Sussex. The best location for vineyards was on the chalklands of East Anglia. Wine-making is mentioned by Tacitus, and Bede reports that it was drunk in Britain for pleasure as well as the eucharist in 'wine-houses'.

Wine was originally produced in East Anglia in the early Middle Ages times mainly for ecclesiastical use. The commercial production of wine was boosted by the Norman invasion. As well as requiring wine for the communion, the Normans were resolute wine-drinkers, having caught the habit from the French.

Before the conquest, a large part of north Essex and Suffolk was within a parcel of land known as 'The Honour of Clare', which was given by William 1st to the de Clares. It isn't known how much wine was produced before the conquest, but t he doomsday book mentions th e presence of a vineyard at Clare, quoting its acreage in a French unit , the 'arpent'.

There were three vineyards mentioned in Suffolk, and several in Essex e. Great Rayleigh, Hedingham, Great Waltham. The remains of a medieval castle, motte and bailey. The site had previously been the location of a feudal manor and barony. It was the de Clare family that replaced that first wooden structure with a stone keep in the 13th century, and later the castle became the home of Elizabeth de Clare, one of the richest women in England.

As her main home, the castle was substantial, luxurious and surrounded by extensive grounds including a water garden and a deer park. Elizabeth required a large staff and is known to have imported luxury items such as wines, spices and fur. The motte is particularly prominent as it is feet 30 m high, with a base that is feet m across.