A delightful medieval village with some interesting ancient buildings and some very pretty narrow back streets.

Why is it called 'Castle Hedingham'? I'll leave you to work that out after you've looked at the next picture.

This Norman Keep was built in 1140 by Aubrey de Vere and is 110 feet high with walls 12 feet thick. The main door can be seen on the shaded side with the bottom of the stone steps showing near the right side.

Most Medieval castles are now only stone shells; the wooden roof and floors having rotted away hundreds of years ago. Hedingham Castle still has its roof and floors and, consequently, the interior stone decorations are undamaged by weathering.

The church of St. Nicholas, Castle Hedingham, seen from the main entrance to the churchyard.

This church dates from the early 12th Century although it has a number of later alterations. The tower, for example, was built during the early 17th Century (Tudor). The church has 3 original Norman doors and a rare Norman Wheel window in the east wall.

The churchyard cross, just inside the gates, is partly modern but the pillar itself is early Norman with carved decoration on all sides.

One of the narrow streets, Churchponds, pictured from the churchyard and bordered by attractive, ancient, colour washed cottages.