WINGFIELD CASTLE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1032894
Date first listed:: 29-Jul-1955
List Entry Name:: WINGFIELD CASTLE
Statutory Address:: WINGFIELD CASTLE

User submitted image — Uploaded by Bob Kindred This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1032894
Date first listed:: 29-Jul-1955
List Entry Name:: WINGFIELD CASTLE
Statutory Address 1:: WINGFIELD CASTLE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: WINGFIELD CASTLE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Suffolk
District:: Mid Suffolk (District Authority)
Parish:: Wingfield
National Grid Reference:: TM 22202 77211

Details

WINGFIELD WINGFIELD GREEN TM 27 NW 5/165 Wingfield Castle - 29.7.55 -- I

Remains of fortified manor house. Late C14, for Michael de la Pole, who was granted licence to crenellate in 1384. 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 is built into the remains of the west curtain wall, probably on the site of the castle great hall, part of which it may incorporate. Mid C16, with at least 2 phases of C17 alteration. An impressive range some 40m long. Part rubblework, colourwashed or plastered, part timber framed to the upper floor, with good C16 exposed close studding to the east. Roof plaintiled to east, glazed black pantiled to west. 2 storeys and attic. Various mullioned and mullion and transom windows: some original, others of later date and some C20 copies of C16 work. Fine diamond-leaded glazing with many stained glass panels, much of it old but all inserted C20 from elsewhere. 2-storey rubblework entrance porch: 4- centred arch, the hoodmould supported on stops carved with falcons, the crest of the Jernyngham family to whom the castle was granted in 1544. Above the entrance an oblong niche surrounded by guilloche work. Original doorframe and door. To north of porch a 3-storey stair tower: square, with splayed angles to ground and first floor. To the west a massive external stack with 4 octagonal shafts, 2 having moulded brick embellishment; star caps. 3 other external stacks, one with rebuilt octagonal shafts. Later axial stacks. Interior has a number of good 4-centre arched brick fireplaces. Main ground floor room has ovolo-moulded ceiling beams of c.1600. In the kitchen a blocked late C14 opening to the moat with a moulded arch. Fine C16 plain oak newel stair in 2 flights. Large first floor room with plain barrel ceiling. Much C17 work, especially partitioning. Mid C16 roof with clasped purlins and arched wind braces. The detached buildings within the line of the curtain walls are not included in the listing.

Listing NGR: TM2220277211

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 280114
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.