Camber Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Isolated in the middle of the salt meadows between Rye and Winchelsea, Camber Castle is one of the best-preserved artillery forts of the English Renaissance. It once stood at the tip of a shingle spit commanding the Camber, the sea entrance to the port of Rye; the retreat of the sea has left it more than one and a half kilometres from today's shoreline. Its very legible plan tells of three building campaigns: a private round tower built in the early 16th century by Sir Edward Guldeford, then its incorporation by Henry VIII into a concentric arrangement of towers, curtain wall and finally semicircular bastions, completed in the mid-1540s. The monument combines local stone, Caen stone salvaged from the dissolved friaries of Winchelsea, and yellow bricks fired on site. Made useless by the silting of the channel, the fort was disarmed in 1637 and then stripped of its lead. Acquired by the State in 1977 and restored, it is now in the care of English Heritage. Its exterior can be reached on foot from Rye, in the heart of a protected landscape popular with birdwatchers.