Stansted Mountfitchet Travel Guide

While adults may be more interested in the reconstruction of the castle and the different buildings, the animals can be considered as a main attraction for children. This makes Mountfitchet castle a popular place for families. There are chickens, geese, sheep and goats. There are in the castle to represent the animals which lived in the castle in norman times and were a source of eggs, milk, meat and other animal products.

The animals living in the castle today come from different places, most of them were maltreated before they came to Stansted Mountfitchet and some chicken used to live in battery farms. The castle is a place for them to spend the last days of their lives in peace and give joy to the visitors. There is the possibility to buy some food for them, however I am a little sceptic about that as the animals may get overfed.
The animals do not really care about the people walking around in the castle (a goose became a little aggresive when I wanted to pick up a piece of paper I accidentally dropped, but that was my only negative encounter with them). That white rooster even followed me quite a long way through the area. Anyway, enjoy the presence of these nice creatures, but please do not annoy them.

For further information about the castle itself, please visit my tip "Norman motte-and-bailey castle" or seek further information visiting the website below.

In other places, such a fountain would be not worth not mention. But somehow, I liked this nice little fountain from the late 19th century. It is a replica which is not in use and stands on a small traffic island..

The crossing with the traffic island is one of Stansted Mountfitchets main traffic points (if you can speak of something like that...)

St. John's is the main anglican church of Stansted Mountfitchet and one of the oldest buildings in the town. It is located between chapel hill and St. John's road at one of the highes points in the town.

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The Norman motte-and-bailey castle is the main attraction in Stansted Mountfitchet. It was built in 1066 by norman Baron Mountfitchet. The castle was originally made of wood as many similar castles of its time. However, some stone structure was added throughout the decades. In 1215, King John made an order to destroy the castle as Richard de Montfichet was one of his opponents (and was also among the group which forced King John to sign the Magna Carta). The stones were used by villagers to build their houses and you can still see an unusually high number of flint stone walls in Stansted Mountfitchet. It was not until the 1980s when reconstruction of the castle started.

You will find several small buildings within the castle, each one representing a different craft or art. If you come close to a building, you will activate a sensor and you will hear some information about the respective building - nice feature, but it can become annoying as you will probably activate the sensor several times by the slightest move so that you hear the text again and again. Some boards will suplly you with further information to read.

The castle is very popular with children, especially regarding the animals (sheep, chickens, goats etc.) in the castle. A few buildings are not suitable for small children (showing torture for example), but these are marked.

For further information about the animals, visit my tip "animals in the castle". The castle's homepage will provide you with further details.