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Castle-Acre in Norfolk County England History and GeographyCASTLE-ACRE, a parish in the Lynn division of the hundred of FREEBRIDGE, county of NORFOLK, 4 miles (N.) from Swaffham, and 104 (N. by E.) from London, containing 1100 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £5. 6. 8., and endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant. T. W. Coke, Esq. was patron in 1796. The church, dedicated to St. James, is a spacious and ancient structure, with a lofty square embattled tower: the east window of the chancel is ornamented with the arms, and a window in the nave with a figure in complete armour, of Earl Warren, in stained glass. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. Castle-acre, now an inconsiderable village, noted chiefly for the remains of its ancient castle and priory, from the former of which it takes the prefix to its name, appears, from the vestiges of a Roman road leading from Thetford to Brancaster, which may still be traced, from the discovery of a tesselated pavement, and lately of several coins, (among which were some of Vespasian and Constantine,) to have been a Roman station, on the site of which the castle was probably erected. Fairs for toys and pedlary are held on St. James' day and August 5th. The magistrates for the division hold a meeting once a fortnight; and a manorial court is held annually in October. The castle was built by William Warren, first earl of Surrey, to whom the manor, vith one hundred and thirty-nine others, was given by the Conqueror, and who made it the head of all his lordships: it was probably enlarged by his descendant, who, in 1297, entertained Edward I. as his guest: there are sufficient remains to indicate the extent of this massive pile, which, with its appendages, comprised an area of more than eighteen acres, surrounded by an embattled wall seven feet in thickness, and strengthened by three lofty buttresses built over the broad and deep moat by which the castle was surrounded. The buildings were of a circular form, and erected on the slope of a gentle eminence; below the outer wall, which reached nearly to the river, was a terrace-walk commanding a fine view of the adjacent country: they consisted of an outer and an inner ward, in the latter of which was the keep, a lofty circular building of extraordinary strength. Through the area, in a direction from north to south, passes the principal street, at the north end of which, leading into the inner ward, is a fine arched entrance, with an outer and an inner gate, and between them a portcullis, defended by two circular bastions; at the south end of the street are traces of a similar gateway, and nearly in the centre is another gateway leading into the outer ward, which was enclosed by an embattled wall of stone and flint, considerable portions of which are remaining; and on the eastern side of the same street, near the north gate, are the remains of the chapel that belonged to the castle, now converted into a dwellinghouse. To the west of the castle are the ruins of the priory founded by the same Earl Warren, in 1085, for monks of the Cluniac order, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and subordinate to a similar establishment, by the same founder, at Lewes, in the county of Sussex: its revenue, at the dissolution, was £324. 17. 5. The grcater part of the west front of the priory church, a spacious cruciform structure with two towers at the west end, and a massive central tower, is still remaining, and, with the exception of a large window of later insertion over the entrance, is an elegant specimen of the most enriched style of Norman architecture. The conventual buildings, now converted into a farm-house and offices, are of later date, and from the remains, their extent and arrangement may be distinctly ascertained: a large room, now called the prior's dining-room, has a fine oriel window, in which are the arms of the priory; of the earls Warren and Arundel; of Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk; and of France and England, all in stained glass: at the east end are vestiges of an altar, over which is a fine large window. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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