Bramber Castle and the Rise and Fall of the House of Braose

This book is the story of Bramber Castle and its builders, the de Braose family of Normandy and England.

There are somewhere around 1,500 castles in England and Wales, ranging in condition from barely recognizable ruins to still occupied and functional fortresses. Among the functional and occupied castles is the royal residence known as Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II lives when she is not at her other royal residences. It was built by William the Conqueror not long after his conquest of England in 1066, and it is coming up on its thousandth birthday.

But between the few fully functional and many barely recognizable examples there is a large number of ruined castles, and one of these, Bramber Castle, is the subject of this book. There isn’t much of it left. The most prominent part is the very visible remnant of the gate tower, but one can also see parts of the stone curtain wall, and the stumps of another tower which once overlooked the flood plain of the River Adur.

The castle was built around 1071 by Lord William de Braose, a supporter of William the Conqueror. De Braose and his descendants occupied the castle for the next 250 years.