Framlingham Castle

History

During the 15th and 16th centuries the castle was at the heart of estates held by the Mowbray and Howard families, who added brick ranges and elaborate pleasure gardens overlooking two newly dug meres. By the early 17th century the Howards had run into debt, and the castle eventually came into the ownership of Pembroke College, Cambridge, which has maintained it. Much of the castle's domestic building had been altered or removed over the centuries.

Architecture

The curtain wall, raised by Roger Bigod in the late 12th century, relies on thirteen mural towers rather than a keep, an early and distinctive form of defence for an English castle of its date. The Tudor Howards later added ornate brick chimneys along the wall.

Worth knowing

Mary Tudor took refuge at Framlingham Castle in 1553 while rallying support to claim the English throne, and it was here that she learned she had been proclaimed queen.

Gardens & grounds

The Howard family laid out elaborate pleasure gardens within the castle grounds and dug two artificial meres to be admired from the walls, though little of this Tudor garden survives today.