Great Yarmouth Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Kingstonhus

In the civil parish of Great Yarmouth.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TG52550736
Latitude 52.60552° Longitude 1.72845°

Great Yarmouth Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The site of Great Yarmouth's medieval castle. The castle was probably constructed before 1208. In 1550 it was given to the town and used a gaol. In 1621 it was demolished. Little is known of its structure, although C16 illustration shows it as a keep with four towers. Deep foundations and a floor found in 1965 during building work were probably part of it. Rutledge states that the name Castle was not used until 1396, but before this it was called the Kingstonhus which must take its date of foundation back to before 1208 when the town was in the king's hands. (Norfolk HER)

In 1620 the upper storey was removed and the materials used for enclosing the mount. The following year the whole structure was demolished. (PastScape ref. Palmer, 1984)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 134109.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 13375.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- The ORB
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 57
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 159
  Rogerson, Andrew, 1994, 'Castles' in Wade-Martins, P, (ed), An Historical Atlas of Norfolk (2edn Norwich; Norfolk Museums) p. 68-9
  Margeson, S., Seiller, F. and Rogerson, A., 1994, The Normans in Norfolk (Norfolk Museums Service) p. 24
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 310
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 308 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Richard Nevell, 2014-15, 'Castles as prisons' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 28 p. 203-224
  Rutledge, P., 1990, 'Before the Walls (of Great Yarmouth)' Yarmouth Archaeology p. 43
  Palmer, C.J., 1864, 'The Town Wall of Great Yarmouth' Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 6 p. 117 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Palmer, C.J. (ed), 1854, Manship's History of Great Yarmouth (Yarmouth) p. 50, 239 (written temp. James I) online copy

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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