North Elmham Bishops Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
North Elman

In the civil parish of North Elmham.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF98812160
Latitude 52.75551° Longitude 0.94489°

North Elmham Bishops Castle has been described as a certain Palace, and also as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Former church converted into a fortified manor house. Probably built by Bishop Herbert de Losinga (1091-1119) on the site of the Anglo-Saxon Cathedral of Elmham. Bishop Despencer, having obtained licence to crenellate, fortified the site c.1387. Ferruginous conglomerate with flint core and ashlar dressings. Brick dressings to C14 work. Roofless. Western tower with semicircular stair turret, aisleless nave, continuous transept with armpit towers and apse. Evidence for ashlar dressed tower and west transept arches, north and south nave doorways and entrances into armpit towers. C14 work includes a semicircular tower base matching the original stair turret and several masonry partitions with brick dressings. The site is surrounded by C14 earthworks. (Listed Building Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate may have been granted in 1327 (Click on the date for details of this supposed licence.).
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1387 Dec 29.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1017911, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 21445
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1342523
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 358933.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1014.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Newton, Sam, 2000, The Mystery of the Two Elmhams
Books
- Cushion, B. and Davison, A., 2003, Earthworks of Norfolk (Dereham: East Anglian Archaeology 104) p. 119-20 (plan)
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 62-3
  Liddiard, R., 2000, Landscapes of Lordship (British Archaeological Reports British Series 309) p. 108
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 129, 131, 166
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 113, 115, 168, 181
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 158-9
  Rogerson, Andrew, 1994, 'Castles' in Wade-Martins, P, (ed), An Historical Atlas of Norfolk (2edn Norwich; Norfolk Museums) p. 68-9
  Williamson, Tom, 1993, The origins of Norfolk p. 143-54
  Wade-Martins, P. (ed), 1987, Norfolk From The Air Vol. 1 (Norfolk Museums Service) p. 50
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 308
  Wade-Martins, P., 1980, Excavations in North Elmham Park 1967-1972 (Dereham: East Anglian Archaeology 9)
  Wilton, J.W., 1979, Earthworks and Fortifications of Norfolk (Weathercock Press) p. 24-5
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 300-1 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 283, 420 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Fletcher, J., 1982, Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 38 Part 2 p. 192
  Heywood, S.R., 1982, 'The Ruined Church at North Elmham' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 135 p. 1-10
  Rigold, S.E. and Heywood, S.R., 1980, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 137 p. 327-29
  Wade-Martins, P., 1970, Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 35 p. 25-78, 263-267
  Wade-Martins, P., 1969, Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 34 p. 352-397
  Rigold, S.E., 1962-3, 'The Anglian Cathedral of North Elmham, Norfolk' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 6-7 p. 67-108 download copy
  1935, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 40 p. 52-3
  Clapham and Godfrey, 1929, Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 23 p. 57-60
  Clapham, A.W. and Godfrey, W.H., 1926, 'The Saxon cathedral of Elmham' Antiquaries Journal Vol. 6 p. 402-9
  Howlett, 1914, Norfolk Archaeology Vol. 18 p. 109
  B.T.R.C., 1903, The Builder Vol. 84 p. 267-70
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), 1900, Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II (1385-89) Vol. 3 p. 381 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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