In 1823, the site was purchased by the Kerrison family who demolished the windmill in 1844. In its place they built a Victorian imitation of the castle keep, containing a house for Sir Edward Kerrison’s batman who had saved his life at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The house was used partially as a local museum up to 1917. The mock castle was known as Kerrison’s Folly.
In 1923 the site was given to Eye Borough; in 1932 it was declared an ancient monument. The house and part of the folly was damaged by a storm in the 1960s and the house subsequently demolished.
As for the Honour of Eye, this remained and was granted to several persons ‘for life or at pleasure’. People who gained the Honour were the Uffords, dc la Poles, Queen Catherine (wife of Charles II) and finally the Cornwallis family.
All that remains of the castle now is part of the curtain wall and remains of bailey buildings. The inner bailey would have been used for the accommodation of the Lord of the Manor, the motte itself being used purely for lookout and a last line of defence. The wall, of flint and rubble construction, would have contained guard towers, of which two survive.
Below the inner bailey parapet would have been a number of rooms for storage purposes. Stables, a blacksmith etc would have been located in the outer bailey.
A well designed series of information boards give a fair impression of what remains on the site and some brief historical background.
There arc seventy steps up to Kerrison’s Folly at the top of the motte. There is nothing to see inside except some rather tatty brickwork from the building of 1844. Flowevcr the panorama of the town and surrounding countryside is excellent.
World History
