Editing Framlingham Castle (section)

===Design===
Framlingham Castle is located on a bluff overlooking the [[River Ore]], and today is made up of three distinct parts, the Inner Court, the Bailey and the Lower Court, surrounded by the remaining mere and farmland.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.16.</ref>

The Bailey lies to the south of the walled Inner Court and was originally topped by a wooden [[palisade]] and earthworks, of which only the latter survive.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.30.</ref> The Bailey would have entered from an eastern gate and contained a range of buildings, probably including a Sergeant's Chamber, a Knights' Chamber, the Great Stable, barns and a granary.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.31.</ref> Modern visitors to the castle enter the complex through the Bailey from the south, which also contains the modern car park for the castle.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.15.</ref>

The Inner Court, or the Castle, lies beyond the Bailey across the 15th-century bridge that replaced the earlier drawbridge on the site.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, pp.17–18.</ref> The gate tower that forms the entrance is a relatively simple design from the 12th century: the fashion for much grander gatehouse designs began shortly afterwards.<ref>Pounds, p.149.</ref> The 2nd [[Duke of Norfolk]], [[Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk|Thomas Howard]], however, had it remodelled in the 16th century, adding his coat of arms and additional ornamentation to the walls.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.18 Stacey, p.6.</ref> The Inner Court is formed around a stone [[Curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]] of local [[flint]] and [[Septarian concretion|septaria]] stone, {{convert|10.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} high and {{convert|2.3|m|ft|abbr=on}} thick, protected by thirteen square mural towers with open backs, each around {{convert|14.3|m|ft|abbr=on}} high, with corners made of [[sandstone]].<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.19; Stacey, p.5.</ref> A wall-walk runs around the top of the towers and wall.<ref>Stacey, p.10.</ref>

Originally various buildings were built around the curtain wall. Moving clockwise from the entrance to the Inner Court, the shape of the 12th-century castle [[chapel]] can still be made out on the curtain wall.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.22.</ref> Convention at the time required a chapel to point along a north-east/south-east axis; in order to achieve this, the chapel had to extend out considerably into the bailey, similar to the design at [[White Castle (Wales)|White Castle]].<ref>Pounds, p.240.</ref> The chapel is adjacent to the site of the first stone hall in the castle, built around 1160; in the 16th and 17th centuries the chapel tower was probably also used as a cannon emplacement.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.21; Stacey, p.14.</ref>

On the far side of the Inner Court is the [[poorhouse]], built on the site of the 12th-century Great Hall.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.24.</ref> The poorhouse forms three wings: the 17th century Red House to the south, the 18th-century middle wing, and the northern end which incorporates part of the original Great Hall; all of the building was subject to 19th-century renovation work.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, pp.25–6; Stacey, pp.7, 10.</ref> Five carved, medieval stone heads are set into the poorhouse, taken from the older medieval castle buildings.<ref>Stacey, pp.7–8.</ref> Next to the poorhouse is the Postern Gate, which leads to the Prison Tower.<ref>Raby and Reynolds, p.27.</ref> The Prison Tower, also called the Western Tower, is a significant defensive work, redesigned in the 16th century to feature much larger windows.<ref name=StaceyP11/> In the middle of the Inner Court is the castle well, {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}} deep.<ref>Stacey, p.7.</ref>

A number of carved brick chimneys dating from the Tudor period can be seen around the Inner Court, each with a unique design; all but three of these were purely ornamental, however, and historian R. Allen Brown describes them as a "regrettable" addition to the castle from an architectural perspective.<ref>Ridgard, p.3; Stacey, pp.5, 15.</ref> Two of the functional Tudor chimneys make use of original mid-12th century [[flue]]s; these two chimneys are circular in design and are the earliest such surviving structures in England.<ref>Stacey, p.14.</ref>

One of the castle meres can still be seen to the west of the castle, although in the 16th century there were two lakes, much larger than today, complete with a wharf.<ref name=CreightonP79>Creighton, p.79.</ref> This dramatic use of water to reflect the image of the castle is similar to that used at several other castles of the period, including [[Bredwardine Castle|Bredwardine]] in [[Herefordshire]] and [[Ravensworth Castle (North Yorkshire)|Ravensworth Castle]] in [[North Yorkshire]].<ref name=CreightonP79/> [[Water castle]]s such as Framlingham made greater use of water than was necessary for defence and enhanced the appearance of the castle.<ref>Plowman, p.44.</ref> The view from the Great Hall in the Inner Court would originally have included the gardens of the Lower Court, and these would have then been framed by the mere and the Great Park beyond.<ref>Liddiard (2005), p.115.</ref> The area around the castle today remains a designed and managed landscape; although the Great Park is now covered by fields, the view still gives a sense of how the castle and landscape was meant to appear to its late medieval owners.<ref>Taylor, p.40; Liddiard (2005), p.114.</ref>