Ed Sheeran's 'Castle on the Hill': Repairs begin on Framlingham Castle

Conservationists who are specialists in rope access will spend about three weeks removing vegetation and making good the walls

Conservationists have begun high-level repairs on an 800-year-old castle that inspired an Ed Sheeran song.

Vegetation needs to be cleared from the walls of Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, while flints will be rebedded and mortar joints refilled.

Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen of England at the castle in 1553 and it inspired Framlingham-based Sheeran's 2017 hit Castle on the Hill.

The work by specialist contractors is expected to last three weeks.

The castle featured in Sheeran's Castle on the Hill video

Sheeran's song features lyrical references to the castle, which also makes an appearance in the accompanying video.

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It spent 53 weeks in the Top 100 after he released it in January 2017.

The 12th Century castle walls are 10.5m (34ft) high and 2.3m (7.54ft) thick and remain open to the public

Framlingham Castle - a brief history

• Built in the 12th Century by the Bigod family, they later challenged King John, resulting in the 1215 Magna Carta

• King John laid siege to Framlingham Castle in 1216

• It passed to the Howard family in 1483 and Mary Tudor in 1552

• The castle buildings were demolished in the mid-17th Century and a workhouse was built inside

• The Ministry of Works (forerunner of English Heritage) took over guardianship of the castle in 1913

Source: English Heritage

The castle's site manager Kirstie Horne said the work was "vital to the maintenance and survival" of the ancient building.

"If these fortresses are to survive for future generations to enjoy, we need to defend them today - not from sieges or cannonballs but from weeds and damp, the wind and the rain," she said.

The conservationists will rebed loose masonry and use bespoke lime mortars to repoint the joints

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