Revamp of city's castle enters 'home straight'

The multi-million pound revamp of a 900-year-old castle has entered its final stages after suffering expensive delays.

It is expected visitors will be welcomed back to Norwich Castle's newly-restored rooms in the spring of 2025.

The project - called Royal Palace Reborn - started in summer 2020, but has been hit by setbacks including the pandemic and the difficulties obtaining steel because of the war in Ukraine.

The scheme's leaders said shortcuts were "not an option", and they welcomed the recent removal of a crane that had long towered over the castle as a "key milestone" on the way to the project's completion.

The discovery of hidden Norman and Victorian features, plus the need to replace a leaking roof, meant the project missed its original target of opening in the summer of 2024.

Details such as replica medieval doors with elaborate metalwork have also been added, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Blacksmith James Spedding, from Holkham Forge, said the opportunity to work on the project had been "once in a lifetime".

He said: "It's been an awful lot of work, the joy of the project for us has been the collaborative nature - talking to historians and archaeologists.

"We basically used the same technique they used 900 years ago...

"We know that it works because there's still doors hanging there 900 years later."

The aim is to allow visitors to explore the original layout of the keep as it would have appeared when building work was finished in 1121.

Assistant head of Norfolk museums Dr Robin Hanley, project director, said: "It has been a very long journey but this was always going to be complex.

"It's exciting to be coming down the home straight.

"We've made discoveries that have required us to make changes but that is part of the responsibility we have – we can't take shortcuts.

"We are expecting construction work to finish in the new year and then we'll be working hard to open the new galleries."

It was initially expected the project would cost £20m, primarily funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, but it has now risen to £27.5m.

Norfolk County Council has had to spend an additional £4.7m on top of earlier boosts to the budget.

It will redirect £2.75m from money intended to be used in the development of an energy park in Great Yarmouth.

The remaining £1.99m will be taken from funding for highways projects.

The revamp includes restoring the original floor levels in the keep and recreating the great hall and the apartments of Norman kings.

Dr Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology, said: "We want these spaces to be as historically accurate as possible.

"It has been about 500 years since anyone has walked these halls – it is an absolute privilege and I can't wait to share that with hundreds of thousands of people."

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