En un regard
Le château en bref
Sedgwick Castle is a fortified medieval manorial site, now in ruins. It lies in the parish of Nuthurst, south-east of Horsham, in the former Rape of Bramber, and probably formed part of a deer park. The site is read first of all through its ditches: two steep-sided concentric moats, 9 to 12 m wide and 2.5 to 4 m deep, surround a flat central platform about 50 m across.
The origins of the site go back to the 12th-13th centuries. Two licences to crenellate were granted, in November 1258 and then in March 1262. A stone enclosure was then built around earlier buildings. The site remained occupied until the 16th century, and a great Tudor hall was probably built there towards the end of the 15th century. A lodge, Sedgwick Lodge, was built around 1600 on the site of the present house, and the castle was then largely demolished in 1612.
Partial excavations in 1923-1924 uncovered the foundations of a stone building measuring about 15 by 13 m at the centre of the enclosure. Surviving today are a section of the 13th-century curtain wall about 4 m high on the south-west, with the base of an angle turret, as well as walls of a late medieval building about 22 m long. Dammed ponds and earthworks complete the site. It is a Scheduled Monument and stands on private property.
