I was delighted today to be joined once more by the Chairman of Rayleigh Town Museum, Mike Davies.

It came as somewhat of a surprise to me that in spite of the many subjects we have discussed, we had never spoken about Rayleigh Castle which once existed to protect the town.

Of course there’s no sign of the castle itself now but it seems it had been built in the 11th century shortly before the Norman conquest.

In fact it was one of 48 castles that earned recognition in the Domesday Book, the only one in Essex to do so.

It was actually built by SWEYNE, who was the son of ROBERT FITZWIMARK, a Norman Lord and a favourite of EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, and one of the wealthiest land-owners in post-conquest Essex. It is reported that in 1086 his lands were valued at £255 – that’s about £500,000K today! The castle was built on about the only high ground available at 240 feet with commanding views to the North, the only direction from which any attack was possible, although it never actually witnessed any battles. 

On Sweyne’s death the castle passed to his son, ROBERT OF ESSEX and thence to his grandson, HENRY OF ESSEX who having been accused of cowardice in battle, was subjected to trial by combat – which he lost! At which point the castle and its estates were confiscated to become the property of the king, HENRY II before being passed onto KING JOHN (of MAGNA CARTA FAME) – and thence HUBERT de BURGH, who it’s thought dismantled a good portion of it to build HADLEIGH CASTLE in around 1230, although it was Richard II who gave final permission for its demolition.

By the second half of the 13th century the ownership of what was left of the castle had reverted to the crown, but by this time the land was being used for pasture and by 1394, it looks as though nothing of any note was still standing.

By the late 19th century the land was owned by a local benefactor, Edward Francis, who lived in Rayleigh High street, in what is now Lloyd’s Bank, and undertook a number of excavations on the site—which are now in the Southend Museum. 

A primary school in town is named after him.

In 1923 he offered to sell the land to the local Council—who declined, and so he donated it to the National Trust, becoming their first site in the county.

It is now known as RAYLEIGH MOUNT which you can visit on any day of the week but note it closes at 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays, but the near-by RAYLEIGH WINDMILL is normally open on Wednesdays from 10am to 1pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm to 4pm. Entry is free but they’d appreciate a donation of £1 per person. On occasions the Windmill might be closed for a private event so pdf you’re thinking of visiting it’s probably a good idea to take a look at THE ROCHFORD DISTRICT COUNCIL website to avoid disappointment! By the way there’s a special 3-D model on the top floor showing what The Castle looked like 1000 years ago! 

Amazingly some of the original 1000-year old timbers still exist and can be seen in The Rayleigh Town Museum – now there’s a surprise!

There’s a special event happening at The Museum between 10am and 4pm on Friday September 13th, Saturday 14th September plus a special opening on Sunday 15th September.

Listen again here to what Mike had to tell me today: –

In the second hour of today’s programme, we heard about a comedian who suffered from the awful experience of no one laughing at any of his jokes.

Can you imagine what this must have felt like?

Well this is the experience that greeted LEWIS SPEARS whilst performing at The KINGS COMEDY CLUB in Melbourne, Australia.

Using tried and tested material, LEWIS SPEARS failed to get even a single chuckle out of his stony faced audience.

Not surprisingly he quickly picked up that “something was amiss”.

“This is very strange,” the comedian said awkwardly after his opening spiel didn’t earn any howls of laughter.

He tried a new tack plus another series of jokes but to no avail.

Then before making a swift exit, he commented that following his set, he would have to summon up the courage to present his invoice to the man running the show. 

At least this comment turned out to get a reaction, with one heckler suggesting that he might want to lower his expectations and ask for a free drink rather than any actual cash.

In the event it turned out that it was all an elaborate prank staged by a group of “YOUTUBERS” who had instructed the crowd to keep totally silent so as he finally left the stage the room erupted into applause for him as people reckoned he’d been such a good sport.

Social media users thought the prank was hilarious, albeit extremely cruel in a comedy setting.

How very cruel!

Hope to see you again tomorrow,
Scott