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The extensive ruins of Baconsthorpe Castle, a moated and fortified 15th-century manor house, are a testament to the rise and fall of a prominent Norfolk family, the Heydons.
Among the largest sepulchral chapels attached to any English church, this cruciform mausoleum houses a remarkable sequence of 17 sculpted and effigied monuments, spanning nearly three centuries (1615-1899), to the De Grey family of Wrest Park.
The shell of a 17th-century mansion commanding magnificent views, reputedly the inspiration for the 'House Beautiful' in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
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The substantial remains of a strong and important motte and bailey castle dating from the 11th to 13th centuries, with surrounding walls, ditches and earthworks. A palace complex was added in the 13th century.
Among the most complete and impressive monastic ruins in Norfolk, of a Benedictine priory with a well-documented history. The nave, with its splendid 13th-century west front and great bricked-up window, is now the parish church, displaying a screen with medieval saints overpainted with Protestant texts.
The partial excavated remains of a Roman 'Saxon Shore' fort, including wall and ditch sections and building foundations. Built around AD 200 for a unit of the Roman army and navy and occupied until the end of the 4th century.
One of the earliest purpose-built artillery blockhouses in England, this brick tower was built in c.1398-9 to command a strategic point in Norwich's city defence
The romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes. Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War, becoming a favourite residence of the ageing king. The barbican and two striking drum towers - one later used by Georgian revenue men looking out for smugglers - are his work. Recent archaeological research has also discovered evidence of Roman activity here.
A pretty four-arched late medieval bridge, spanning the River Kennett on the old route from Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds.
The extensive remains of one of the most important East Anglian monasteries, the Cluniac Priory of Our Lady of Thetford. Founded in the early 12th century, it owed much of its prosperity to a miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary, whose statue here was discovered to conceal relics of saints, and became a magnet for pilgrims. Two of the greatest men in early Tudor England, Thomas Howard, victor of Flodden, and Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, were buried near her shrine. Survivals include the lower walls of the church and cloister, along with the impressive shell of the priors' lodging and, reached by a pathway from the main site, an almost complete 14th-century gatehouse. Information panels guide you around the priory .
