Walden Castle
WALDEN CASTLE, MUSEUM STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1297737
- Date first listed:
- 28-Nov-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Walden Castle
- Statutory Address:
- WALDEN CASTLE, MUSEUM STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-06-20
- Reference:
- IOE01/03738/03
- Rights:
- © Mr John Stubbington. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1297737
- Date first listed:
- 28-Nov-1951
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 31-Oct-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Walden Castle
- Statutory Address 1:
- WALDEN CASTLE, MUSEUM STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WALDEN CASTLE, MUSEUM STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Essex
- District:
- Uttlesford (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Saffron Walden
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 53907 38722
Details
SAFFRON WALDEN
TL5338 MUSEUM STREET 669-1/1/305 (East side (off)) 28/11/51 Walden Castle (Formerly Listed as: Walden Castle)
I
Remnant of tower-keep. Late C11 or early C12. Flint and mortar core of walls severely degraded. Rectangular plan, approx 12.3m square with NW projection of forebuilding. 2 storeys survive. Interior has a central pier base to support upper floors and ground floor semicircular arched recesses approx 2.0m deep on the N, S and W sides. S recess has some herringbone pitched flint work, also shuttering ridges in the soffit mortar of S, SW and N recesses. On first floor, a recess on W side has been interpreted as a fireplace (RCHM). The walls are breached through on SE corner, on site of stairs and tunnelled through at back of the N recess. A well, now covered, exists in the NW angle. Over this corner is a low projection built in the C18 as a semaphore station. Although a ruin, areas of original flat wall facing of simple flint work survive in several places ie. exterior, centre of N wall, outer face of pilaster buttress and adjacent wall on E side, interior, rear wall of recess in S wall and adjacent wall to E. Some of the walling is covered with ivy. HISTORICAL NOTE: it is not known who built the keep. Stylistic comparison suggests a building date of the second quarter of C12, cf. Farnham Castle 1138, Ascot Doilly Castle 1129-42. Geoffrey (II) de Mandeville was however forced to surrender the castle to Stephen in 1144. (Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report, CBA Research Report 45: Bassett SR: Saffron Walden to 1300: London: 1982-: 15 -18; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 333).
Listing NGR: TL5390738722
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 370692
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, (1965), 333
Bassett, S R, Council for British Archaeology Research Report Chelmsford Archaelogical Trust in Saffron Walden to 1300, (1982), 15-18
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 21:14:19.
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