Let’s spin a yarn. It’s 1450 and thousands of sheep graze Norfolk’s purple heathlands. The wool trade is booming all over Europe and ambitious Norfolk lawyer John Heydon is determined to have a piece of it. Crafty deals soon make the Heydons major players, keen to flash their cash by splashing out on an imposing fortified manor house, complete with moat. Serious medieval bling.
By the mid-16th century, the castle ‘factory’ was turning raw fleeces into fine cloth in a workshop at the east end, flooded with dawn light from impressive windows. Spinners and weavers toiled over textiles sold in England and the Netherlands. Great wealth followed. In the 1560s, Sir Christopher Heydon had 80 servants, 2 coaches and fabulous parties, entertaining 30 head-shepherds at Christmas in thanks for tending 30,000 sheep.
Alas…lavish living collided with tumbling wool markets and Christopher died in debt. But the Heydons carried on spending, now more interested in astrology than business. Then Sir John Heydon III, a Royalist, was declared delinquent by Parliament in the English Civil War. And by the mid-17th century insurmountable debts forced the family to demolish most of the castle and sell off the materials. But the banqueting hall’s stained glass Heydon shields were salvaged. You can see them today in the south aisle windows of Baconsthorpe Church.
And all that’s left of the castle are ruins, left by a family that made and lost a fortune. Still, they’re a pretty place for a picnic on a golden autumn day.
