Castle Mound: a motte 40m north of St John's Church

Castle Mound rises ten metres above Mount Bures, a broad earthen disc ringed by a deep ditch that still holds water on its western edge. The Sackvilles likely raised it during the reign of King Stephen or Henry I, creating a violent local landmark only forty metres from St John's Church. Its southern bailey vanished beneath later development, yet the main mound remains stark and unbroken. Walking past the churchyard fence, you see the exact ground where medieval power once grabbed the sky before disappearing into ordinary Essex soil.