Castle Camps

Castle Camps was a Norman Castle located in what is now the civil parish of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire.

Owners

Castle Camps was originally a Saxon manor, belonging to Wulfwin, a Thane of King Edward the Confessor. After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror gave the manor to Aubrey de Vere I, ancestor to the Earls of Oxford. The castle remained in the de Vere family until 1584 when it was sold by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, to Thomas Skinner (d.1596), Lord Mayor of London. On 2 August 1607 it was bought by Thomas Sutton, who endowed it to Charterhouse, who in turn sold all the estate except Castle Farm and Manor in 1919. Between 1941 and 1945 a large part of the land of became an airfield.

History

In 1086, it was recorded in the Domesday Book:

Castle Camps [Canpas]: Robert Gernon holds 2 hides in CAMPS, and Thurstan from him. Land for 6 ploughs. In lordship 2; 8 villagers with 8 smallholders have 4 ploughs. 6 slaves; meadow for 2 ploughs; woodland, 12 pigs. Value £4; when acquired 30s; before 1066 40s. Leofsi held this land under Earl Harold [former king], and could withdraw without his permission. In CAMPS Aubrey de Vere holds 2½ hides. Land for 11 ploughs. In lordship, 1 hide and 1 virgate; 4 ploughs there. 17 villagers with 4 smallholders have 7 ploughs. 6 slaves; meadow for 3 ploughs; woodland for 500 pigs; from village grazing 8s. Total value £15, when acquired £12; before 1066 as much. Wulfwin, King Edward's thane, held this manor. Norman holds ½ hide of this land from Aubrey. Land for 1 plough; it is there. The value is and always was 40s.

Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire

Coordinates: 52°03′48″N 0°22′47″E / 52.06335°N 0.37981°E / 52.06335; 0.37981

Castle Camps is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Cambridge and near to the borders of Suffolk and Essex and to the town of Haverhill.

Previously named Great Camps and Camps Green, the village is named after Castle Camps, the castle within the parish's boundaries.

History

The parish of Castle Camps lies in the very south-eastern corner of Cambridgeshire. Roughly triangular in shape, it covers an area of 3,198 acres (1,294 ha). Its south-western and south-eastern borders separate it from Essex with the former following the line of the ancient woodland that separated the counties, and the latter probably representing the extent of the fence around the Castle. It also borders Shudy Camps to the north and has a short border with Bartlow to the north-west.

The hamlet of Olmstead in the south-eastern corner of the parish was sometimes listed as being part of Helions Bumpstead in Essex, and was part of its ecclesiastical parish, though part of Castle Camps for feudal purposes. It was included as part of Essex in the Risbridge poor-law union in the 19th century, and also sometimes listed as the Cambridgeshire part of Helions Bumpstead parish. The situation was only resolved in 1885 when it was transferred to Castle Camps for all civil purposes.