Baconsthorpe Castle

Visit the extensive ruins of Baconsthorpe Castle, a moated and fortified 15th century manor house, that are a testament to the rise and fall of a prominent Norfolk family, the Heydons.

Over 200 years, successive generations of this ambitious family built, then enlarged, and finally abandoned this castle.

Sir John Heydon probably built the strong inner gatehouse during the turbulent Wars of the Roses period, and his son Sir Henry completed the fortified house. In more peaceful times, their descendants converted part of the property into a textile factory, and then added the turreted Elizabethan outer gateway, inhabited until 1920. 

The Heydons

The Heydons were an ambitious family. They first made their fortunes through the law profession and later from wool. Baconsthorpe Castle was built as their main residence in about 1450, and it became increasingly larger and more elaborate as the family’s wealth grew.

The Heydon’s splendour, however, was short-lived. Having accumulated large debts, the family was forced to demolish parts of the castle in 1650 to sell as building materials.