The Gatehouse website record for Stansted Mountfitchet Castle

In the civil parish of Stansted Mountfitchet. In the historic county of Essex (Modern Authority of Essex, 1974 county of Essex).

300yds east of the church, the bailey is on higher ground than the ring. The ring is circular, surrounded by a rampart containing lower courses of a flint rubble wall, 8.5ft high and 12ft wide at the summit in places, and surrounded by a dry ditch 70ft wide from crest to crest and 10ft deep from the summit of the scarp. In the centre are slight traces of a small round enclosure, probably the site of the keep. The ground drops sharply south and west and the defences are nearly obliterated on these sides. Projecting toward the south from the line of the wall is a short length of flint rubble wall (13ft long x 3ft thick x 9ft high). It retains some of the original surface of coursed flints and seems to indicate the presence of a tower on that side. On the east side a gap in the rampart on that side. On the east side a gap in the rampart leads by a causeway across the ditch into the bailey. The bailey is also defended by a rampart and ditch and is crossed by a slight scarp, possibly indicating the foundations of a wall formerly dividing the bailey into 2 wards. No apparent wall within the rampart which was probably strengthened by a wooden palisade. The rampart is c13ft above the bottom of the ditch, well defined only on the north west and communicates with the ditch of the ring work on that side. The entrance on the north is flanked by a raising of the rampart on each side. On the west this extra elevation has been partly thrown down. The rampart is obliterated on the south and only a deep scarp remains. A fragment of wall stands on the south west side of the ring, now 0.7m thick x 4.2m long and 2.8m high. In poor condition. No trace of a circular building foundation within the ring. Renn suggests a large keep similar to New Buckenham in Norfolk. Built by Robert de Gernon who came with William the Conqueror. It was destroyed in 1215 at the time it was held by Richard de Mountfitchet. The castle was not rebuilt after 1215.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TL51532500

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 373402
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 4551 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.