Rayleigh Castle

The standard of production of local histories has improved so much these days that it may be useful from time to time to draw attention to pamphlets or brochures that have general interest even if the focus is specifically local. Rayleigh, Essex provides a good example. A famous entry in the Essex folios of Domesday Book tells us that in hoc manerio (ie Rayleigh) Suenus fecit suum castellum, and the massive earthworks, now known as Rayleigh Mount, bear witness to this day to the defensive capacity of the site, dominating the salt-marshes of south-east Essex. Now thanks to the generosity of the local committee of the National Trust and other supporters an up-to-date account has been provided of the mound and castle. A neat historical account gives the main lines, the castle dated to c 1070, the work of Sweyn, son of Robert Fitzwimarc. Its history is traced through the disgrace of Sweyn's grandson, Henry of Essex, in 1163 back to the crown, the de Burgh family, and fourteenth-century decay and ultimate degeneration into a farm site.