Hello everyone, it feels good to be back and to be able to start slowly exploring and travelling safely throughout the UK at this present time when things are still a little crazy. We were able to take our explorations from down South towards the quiet village of Bramber to visit the wonderful Bramber Castle Ruins. Open at all reasonable times, this site is free to all to come visit and frequents dog walkers a lot because of the size of the area. Just remember that the English Heritage own this site and they have onsite paid parking which is layed out when you get there, unless you are a member then all you need to do is pop your sticker on your car and you’re good to go.

So a little about Bramber Castle. Built around the ages of 1073 this early Norman motte and bailey castle was built by William de Braose, a baron who accompanied William the conqueror and fought at Hastings, de Braose was rewarded land to how Bramber came about. who , it actually remained in the ownership of the de Braose family for over 250 years. It was subject to siege by parliament during the civil war to which parliamentary troops had set up cannons in the transepts of a nearby church, so that it would fire down on the castle. Today, what you will be able to see if the ruins of the gatehouse, a tall slender pillar right at the entrance of the site and a single window aswell as some floor joist holes that you can make out when looking up the pillar.

Beyond the gatehouse you are able to discover existing foundations of what is believed to have been living quarters and a guardhouse, it’s small but the dressed stone make an entrance and the majority of the walls surrounding it only exist now. Other parts of Bramber are the original castle motte wall, roughly to a height of 30ft in places, and as you wander around you will be able to make out the rest of the wall surrounding the site.

Much isn’t really known to well about Bramber and its history, only really mentioned that a skirmish happened in the village around 1642 and that the church suffered quite badly in that time. William built a church naming it St Nicholas at the same time as building the castle, which makes the church the oldest Norman church in Sussex, it stands downhill of Bramber castle on a slope that romantically overlooks the village of Bramber.

St Nicolas church was originally built for a college of canons, but in the mid 13th century the church was given over to be the parish church of Bramber. Much of the main interior still exists of the 11th century build, with its detailed carvings in the capitals that support the chancel arch, these are carved in a beautiful early Norman style detailed with heads and a panel showing you the biblical story of the fox and geese.

Although there isn’t much to see, you still are able to have a wonderful afternoon here. Dog walking, people enjoying a coffee for there walk it is somewhere to come wander if you are in the west Sussex area. You can also climb to the top of the motte in the middle to have a glance at the stunning views of the beautiful South Downs.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Bramber, if you like what you see then why not head on over to our YouTube channel? We have a number of walking tours around the UK area and are continuing to post up new content aswell as on our Instagram page where you will be able to watch our latest explorations. We would really appreciate your support to subscribing to our channel and giving us a follow, it helps us give you more content, and helps us do what we love doing. Thank you and we’ll see you soon!