Hedingham Castle is in Castle Hedingham, in Essex. It is considered to be one of the best preserved Norman keeps in England.
A keep is a type of reinforced tower, and they were a key feature of motte-and-bailey castles in France. The White Tower, which is part of the Tower of London, is one of the most famous keeps in the world!
If you’re wondering who the Normans were and what a Norman keep is, the Normans invaded England in 1066. Did you know that the first Norman king of England was William the Conqueror, who ruled England between 1066 and 1087?
It was William the Conqueror who gave the manor (usually meaning the land, village, and manor house) of Hedingham to the de Vere family (family of the Earls of Oxford) in 1086, and the de Vere family built a castle on the land in around 1100. The history of Hedingham Castle goes back over 900 years!
http://carneycastle.com/Hedingham/
