We do not know when Bigod began building his castle at Walton. There is no mention of a castle in Domesday, but that does not necessarily mean it didn’t exist at the time. In Suffolk only one castle is mentioned, at Eye.
My personal belief is that the castle was commenced early in the reign of King Stephen. He acceded to the throne in 1135. Walton, with its readymade castle walls and its position near the sea, was ideal for conversion. A simple mottc-and-bailcy design was the quickest and easiest to construct
Within the Roman walls.
Relationships between Bigod and the King had reached rock bottom by 1139 or 1140 when Stephen successfully attacked Walton. We do not know if Bigod was there, but by Whitsun 1140 Stephen caught up with Bigod at Bungay. Bigod was defeated.
T. M. Felgate in his book on Walton Priory states that the castle was built in 1146. This cannot be the case if the castle was attacked in 1139/40! However, it could well be an indication that Bigod was now feeling more confident with his position and that the castle was rebuilt.
Again, we do not know what form the new castle took, but we can conjecture that it was probably a square stone keep structure set into one corner of the existing quadrangle of the Roman fort. It certainly proved far more durable when the castle was again attacked.
Hugh Bigod didn’t have long to enjoy his new castle. In 1156, King Henry II, two years into his reign, confiscated it and stationed his own soldiers there.
In 1173, Hugh Bigod’s nephew, another Hugh, took part in an unsuccessful revolt against the king. Together with the Earl of Leicester and a group of mercenary Flemish soldiers they attacked Walton Castle. The siege lasted four days, but they failed to retake it. (For details of the campaign see p. 45.)
The campaign turned out to be a disaster for Bigod. In 1174 Walton, together with Ipswich, Bungay and Framlingham, was ordered to be destroyed. Walton was no longer required as a royal castle because Orford had been built.
Henry II ordered the stones of the castle to be carried into Felixstowe, Walton and Trimley to pave the streets and to prevent the castle being rebuilt. According to contemporary reports the castle was completely taken down. Some of the stones were almost certainly used in a building found in the corner of a recreation ground of Colneis Road in 1967, possibly a manorial hall. The Pipe Rolls of 1176 state that the stones were sold off in Ipswich.
Here the story should end, but there is one little twist. When I was researching the book I discovered a drawing at Languard Fort attributed to J. Shepherd of 1623. The inscription states that this was a picture of Walton Castle! The walls are at a very rough guess around 16 feet (5 m) high, very thick and with a rounded bastion at each corner. So, obviously the destruction was not at all complete. Bigod may have managed to bribe the demolishers to stop their work as he did at Framlingham and Bungay or alternatively only Bigod’s Norman castle was demolished and the Roman remains left. This is where the masonry came from which can now be seen at very low tides off Brackenbury Cliffs.
FURTHER READING
John Fairclough and Steven J. Plunkett, ‘Drawings of Walton Castle and Other Monuments in Walton and Felixstowe’ in Procmlinjfs of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, vol. 39, part 4(2000),pp. 419-59.
World History
