Rayleigh Mount, also known as Rayleigh Castle, is a 11th-century castle in the town of Rayleigh, Essex, England. Constructed by Swein of Essex after the Norman conquest of England, it was expanded in the 12th century by Swein’s ancestors, before falling into decline. It was renovated in the late 13th-century, probably by Queen Eleanor, before being robbed of its stone for newer buildings and abandoned. In the 21st century, only earthworks remain.
History
Rayleigh Mount was constructed after the Norman conquest of England by Swein of Essex, the son of the Breton noble Robert Fitz-Wimarc. Robert served both Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror, the latter of which rewarded him with estates after the invasion; Robert established a castle at Clavering, from where he ran his new estates. Swein inherited his lands and by 1086 had built a new castle in Rayleigh, an Anglo-Saxon village. The castle was positioned on a spur, overlooking the River Crouch and within sight of the River Thames, probably controlling the marshes between the two estuaries, where Swein farmed sheep. Swein made the new fortification his caput, or main administrative centre, and it was accompanied by a hunting park and a vineyard.
The castle initially took the form of a simple motte and bailey fortification, constructed by cutting off the eastern part of the spur with a ditch and palisade, forming a bailey approximately 72 m by 45 m, while building up the natural features of the site to create a motte. A wooden gatehouse on the northern side appears to have controlled access to the site.
Rayleigh Mount passed onto Swein’s son, Robert, and then onto Robert’s son, Henry, who redeveloped the castle between 1140 and 1160. Henry recut the ditch, raised the height of the motte and protected it with a layer of stone rubble. In 1163, Henry was accused of cowardice during one of King Henry II’s campaigns in Wales and, after losing a judicial duel, was condemned as a traitor and – having incorrectly believed to have died in the duel – forced into retirement as a monk at Reading Abbey.
The Crown took over control of Rayleigh Mount, carrying out further work on the site in the 1170s and 1180s. By the end of the 12th century, an outer bailey to the east of the castle had been constructed, probably linked to the inner bailey by a wooden bridge. Hubert de Burgh was given the castle in 1215, and used some of the stone to build parts of Hadleigh, slightly to the south. After the death of Hubert’s son, the Crown took back control of the castle.
The military value of the site declined, and by 1277 parts of the castle were being used for pasturing animals. Queen Eleanor used Rayleigh Mount as part of a stud farm for horses she established locally, and around this time the inner bailey was remodelled. The ground level was raised up to the same height as the ramparts, and a new hall and service buildings were built. in the north-west and north-east corners. The castle subsequently fell into disuse, and in 1394, Richard II allowed the castle’s foundations to be robbed of stone for use in building work at the local Holy Trinity Church.
By the 17th century, the site was used as a farmyard, complete with several barn.; In 1631, the antiquarian John Weever described it as a “ruined castle”.
In the early 20th century, the town of Rayleigh expanded rapidly, becoming a commuter town. Housing began to encroach on the outer bailey, and the area was used for military purposes during the Second World War. An early dig at the site was conducted as early as 1840, and proper archaeological excavations were carried out in 1909-10 and in the 1950s and 1960s, uncovering many of the foundations of the castle’s stone walls, constructed from ragstone and flint. Rayleigh Mound was given to the National Trust in 1923, and is protected under UK law as a scheduled monument.
Visiting the castle
Bibliography
- Medlycott, M. (1999). Rayleigh Historic Town Assessment Report. Essex, UK: Essex County Council and English Heritage.
- The National Trust. (1951). Rayleigh Mount, Essex. London, UK: Country Life and the National Trust.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page include those drawn from the Wikimedia websites, as of 24 December 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Rayleigh Castle – Top of the motte“, author John Myers, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.