RUISLIP CASTLE

Middlesex

The motte and bailey castle was built by Ernulf de Hesdin early in the Norman period, although it is possible he reused a Saxon burh thought to have existed here. The castle was certainly built by the time of the Domesday Book. In 1087 de Hesdin granted the estate to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy, they built a series of buildings inside the bailey - including the Barn which forms the core of the Museum today and dates to around 1300.

The castle appears to have been strengthened during the Anarchy which may just have been the Monks of Bec being careful, but their order was not in England long and the castle and manor seems to have disappeared for some centuries not surfacing again until 1613 when it was owned by King’s College, Cambridge.

Extensive excavations over the years have turned up little of use beyond the castle having two periods of construction and a horde of several Anarchy period coins.

Today the castle is in the grounds of Manor Farm Museum but is barely mentioned at the Museum at all.

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2019