Wingfield Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TM22217724
Latitude 52.34785° Longitude 1.26146°

Wingfield Castle has been described as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

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

Description

Remains of fortified manor house. Late C14, for Michael de la Pole, who was granted licence to crenellate in 1385. An irregular rectangle on plan, surrounded by a moat. Only the south curtain wall is intact, with a fine gatehouse, not quite central, and polygonal corner bastions. Flint rubble with stone dressings. Red brick embattlements, mostly rebuilt. Below the parapet a string course with gargoyles. Lancet and loop windows to ground floor, 2-light Decorated-style windows above. Gatehouse has 3-storey polygonal corner towers with flushwork panelling at the base. Outer entrance has moulded segmental pointed arch, dying into the imposts. Moulded inner arch with original gates and wicket gate. In the jambs are square panels with the Wingfield and de la Pole arms and a portcullis groove. To courtyard a 4- centred arch. Inside the gateway 4 doorways with 2-centred arches. Evidence for vaulted roof. First-floor guardroom has original fireplace with stone buttresses terminating in corbels carved as human heads. 2-storey curtain walls; on the inner side there are several fireplaces and a piscina where living rooms and the chapel once stood. Foundations of the missing curtain walls and bastions can be traced. The present house dates from the mid C16 and was built into the remains of the western curtain wall. It is part stone-built and partly timber framed. (Listed Building Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1385 April 27 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1032894
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 390625.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WGD 001.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Robert Liddiard, 2015, 'Reconstructing Wingfield Castle' in Peter Bloore and Edward Martin (eds), Wingfield College and its Patrons: Piety and Prestige in medieval Suffolk (Boydell and Brewer) p. 77-96 (other papers in the volume likely to also be of interest)
  Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 305, 409
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 88
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 160
  Martin, Edward, 1999 (3edn), 'Medieval Castles' in Dymond, David and Martin, Edward (eds) An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (Lavenham) p. 58-9
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 238
  Brown, R.Allen, 1989, Castles from the Air (Cambridge University Press) p. 233-4
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 459
  Pevsner, N., 1961, Buildings of England: Suffolk (London, Penguin) p. 457
  Aldwell, S.W.H., 1926, Wingfield: Its Church, Castle and College (republished 1995) p. 7-34
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Wall, 1911, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Suffolk Vol. 1 p. 320, 622 (plan) online copy
  Copinger, W.A., 1909, Manors of Suffolk Vol. 4 p. 108-113 (tenurial history) online copy
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 286-7 online copy
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 2 (London) p. 174-6 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 298, 419 online copy
  Buck, Samuel and Nathaniel, 1774, Buck's Antiquities (London) Vol. 2 p. 276
Periodical Articles
- Coulson, C., 1994, 'Freedom to Crenellate by Licence - An Historiographical Revision' Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol. 38 p. 111
  Coulson, Charles, 1993 Aug, 'Specimens of Freedom to Crenellate by Licence' Fortress: The castles and fortifications quarterly Vol. 18 p. 3-15 (reprinted in Liddiard, Robert (ed), 2016, Late Medieval Castles (Boydell Press) p. 221-240)
  1913, Country Life Vol. 33 p. 952-8
  Manning, C.R., 1889, 'Wingfield Castle. (8 Jun 1888)' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 7.1 p. xxxiii 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), 1897, Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II (1381-85) Vol. 2 p. 555 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)

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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.
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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.

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*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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