Southwold Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Southwold.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.
Medieval County of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TM507763
Latitude 52.32823° Longitude 1.67863°

Southwold Castle has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

A 'castle' of some form may have been built but is likely, given the lack of later evidence, to have been small and relatively domestic. The manor had just been obtained from Simon, Abbot of St. Edmunds in exchange for Mildenhall. The licence may have functioned as a legal and royal confirmation of this exchange. Site not known but possibly on site of C18 manor house at TM506762 or lost to coastal erosion. The manor and, presumably the manor house, became vested in the king in 1495 and may well have been given to the borough when this was incorporated in 1504. There was a major fire which destroyed considerable parts of the town, including the town hall and prison, in 1659. Whatever remained of the medieval manor house including any work by Richard de Clare would then have been thoroughly robbed to help with town reconstruction.
Given the origin as a monastic holding it seems likely the manorial centre was close to the church at given map reference.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1392131.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 88 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 460 (possible)
  Copinger, W.A., 1908, Manors of Suffolk Vol. 2 p. 155-6 (tenurial history) online copy
  Gardner, T., 1754, An Historical Account of Dunwich online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1910, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1258-66) Vol. 5 p. 61 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio