Bramber Castle

Surveys indicate the Normans were the first to build a fortification in the area, around 1070, overlooking the River Adur. The castle became the administrative hub of the newly created Rape of Bramber and controlled the Adur estuary, and it was the caput of the large feudal barony of Bramber. It was held by William de Braose, 1st Lord of Bramber, whose family came from Falaise. Most of the fabric was built between 1073 and 1130.

During the First Barons' War, King John gave instructions that Knepp Castle, in the same county, be demolished and its resources used to reinforce Bramber. The original gatehouse appears to have been converted into a single tower at some point in the 12th century, with about another three metres added to its height and the entrances blocked up - work that coincides with an increased threat during John's reign.

Apart from a short period when John confiscated it, the castle remained with the de Braose family until the male line died out in 1326, when it passed to the Mowbrays.

Bramber was one of the poorest parts of Sussex. The castle remained a centre of administration under the Mowbrays, but they did not live there, and by the 1550s it was being recorded as 'the late castle' and used for grazing.

In the First English Civil War, Bramber was held by a Parliamentary garrison under James Temple and Simon Lentner. In December 1643 a skirmish took place nearby when a Royalist force tried without success to secure the bridge over the River Adur. Whether the castle itself was occupied is unclear, and there is no evidence for the local myth that its church was used as a gun position.

Little survives of the original structure, much of the stone having gone into the bridge and other buildings in the village. The addition of an outer ditch around 1209 caused the collapse of much of the original curtain wall in the early 16th century. The gatehouse tower still stands to almost its full height, and beyond it lie the foundations of what are believed to have been the living quarters and a guardhouse; the earthen motte rises some 30 ft, and a stretch of curtain wall survives up to 10 ft high. The small church beside the entrance, built for the castle's inhabitants, remains in use.

Two pillboxes were built on the castle site during the Second World War and have since been removed. The ruins and their twelve acres were acquired by the National Trust in 1945, and the site was listed Grade I on 15 March 1955. It was excavated in 1966-67, with a further minor survey in 1987, and those investigations supplied the dating of its early fabric. The ruin is a scheduled monument, owned and run by English Heritage.