ABC Wednesday, B

For ABC Wednesday letter B I cycled to the nearby village of Bottisham – where I was hoping to take a photo of the usual village sign. Since I didn’t see any, I thought about going for a pub named The Bell… but on second thoughts this was kind of lame so I carried on with my cycling. Ended up in a place I’ve never been before: Burwell. There I saw a pretty village sign:

The sign shows a castle in ruins! Close to the Church I got all excited when I saw this :

So off I went cycling down the lane looking for a castle! Since I couldn’t find it, I asked a lady walking her dog. She was sure there was no castle around. Eventually I came to the castle grounds:

No castle to be found - the picture shows part of the church tower. There were many boards explaining the history of Burwell Castle. “In 1143 England was in a state of anarchy. Henry I had left his only living child Matilda as heir to the throne of England, but she was usurped by her cousin Stephen of Blois. 18 years of bitter fighting led to a settlement whereby Stephen reigned for a few months before he was succeeded by Matilda’s son Henry II. Barons used the opportunity to fight their own battles, and one of the most troublesome of these was Geoffrey de Mandeville, who made a base in the Island of Ely. His forces raided fen edge villages and towns such as Cambridge. King Stephen ordered castles to be built around the fens to surround Geoffrey, demanding land and workers from local landowners. When Burwell Castle was partially build Geoffrey attacked and was mortally wounded by an arrow. His revolt collapsed. This brought an abrupt end to the need for a castle here and the site was abandoned”.

Sadly the last wall of Burwell castle was knocked down by the Fire Brigade testing a fire hose in the 1930s.