The Eynsford Castle, Kent, London

Eynsford Castle is a stone Norman castle in the English county of Kent, within the civil parish bounds of the village of Eynsford. It was historically the manor owning most of the land of the village. Built in 1088 and occupied by local nobility but ransacked in the 14th century it fell into decay and is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public. Standing within a picturesque village, Eynsford Castle is a rare example of an early Norman 'enclosure castle'. Built by the Eynsford family, the castle became the subject of a disputed inheritance. It culminated in an act of vandalism in 1312. From that point, the castle was abandoned. The castle was round and surrounded by a moat. Inside the stone wall and flint were once homes, which burned in the thirteenth century but was rebuilt, however, to be abandoned in the fourteenth century, leaving the ruins of a certain size. They date from the nineteenth century and thus what is one of the oldest castles of stone in England.