It’s near impossible to miss Norwich Castle when you’re visiting the City of Stories. This iconic piece of architecture has been a mainstay of our skyline for over 900 years and now, after 7 years of hard work, Norwich Castle Keep has been transformed into a Royal Palace Reborn, taking us back to 1121. Luckily, Eye Film– a Norwich-based multi-award-winning video production company- has been documenting its progress!
From the Castle’s foundations (quite literally) to the creation of a 20-metre-long tapestry (not to mention a pandemic!), Eye Film has followed all the ups and downs of this mammoth restoration project. Through interviews with key players, behind-the-scenes footage and historical context, their documentary, ‘The Castle, Rebuilding History’, is an incredible insight into what went on. And we can’t wait to watch it!
We spoke to Charlie Gauvain, Managing Director at Eye Film, to discover just how much work went into the production of this documentary!
Image: Beth Moseley
Eye Film’s documentary will show us Norwich Castle’s complete transformation- including a look at its foundations!
Back in 2016, we heard that Norwich Castle was applying for funding to restore the Castle to how it would have looked in 1121 when it was first completed. A mammoth task but, should they be successful, something that would transform the Castle and the Keep. As the Castle is literally on our doorstep, this was too good an opportunity to miss and so we set about trying to find out who we needed to talk to, to get permission to follow the story for a documentary.
After many, many months we managed to persuade John Davies, then Chief Curator at Norfolk Museums Service, to allow us to put together a treatment and trailer to pitch to broadcasters. It was 2018 before we completed this and we reached out to a number of different broadcasters to see if they would commission the film. Initially, BBC4 were interested in an hour version, then BBC2 wanted 5 x 30 minutes, before changing their mind to 3 x 1 hours. Excitement built and built, only to come crashing down when the head of BBC2 decided they were making something about Tudors and so, despite the Normans being quite a different period, the project was shelved.
At that stage, we had already committed ourselves, begun to film with the different people involved and I decided we just had to take this on as a passion project and keep going – filming when we could – before having to decide exactly what the end film would look like.
Over the past 7 years, this has remained a passion project funded by ourselves, a small crowdfunder, a tax credit and now C4 and a distributor have stepped in to help us complete the film. The end result is a 90-minute feature documentary (68 mins without ads) and a one hour cut for distribution around the world!
It’s the inside story of the transformation of Norwich Castle from those who have been involved. From the curators, architects and structural engineers to the volunteers creating a 20-metre-long tapestry, and the craftspeople recreating medieval furniture and ironworks. As well as getting an understanding of just why it took so long!
So many people played a part in this incredible project- including Tom Lefever, the structural engineer
We’ve condensed it into 68 minutes for the feature documentary and 52 for the one-hour version. As a result, so much of the story cannot be told and we’ve had to focus on the key elements and characters. This means we’ve had to lose scenes and storylines along the way – but we’re seeing how we might still be able to share those in additional social media materials released over the next few weeks and months.
The main one was trying to ensure that we complied with the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) the building contractors insisted on. Which also meant we had to make sure everyone else was as well.
Fortunately, as time went by, the team working on the site became used to us and us to them and so it became a productive working relationship, when they would let us know about key moments, so that we didn’t miss them. At times, some of them would even film some of what was going on for us on their phones.
One of my favourite moments was once the whole of the infrastructure had been removed and all that was left were the castle walls – right down to the foundation level. It was staggering to see what had been built 900 years ago – at no doubt huge cost to human life.
As filming went on, we also got to know the different characters involved in the project and it was a real privilege to get to see the master carpenter, Stephen, and the blacksmiths, James and Roger, at work.
Finally, filming the first people coming into the castle after the works had been completed was a moment which we had to have multiple cameras to capture – the results you can see in the film!
From its completion in 1121, the castle has marked Norwich out as an important medieval city
The key team were Tim Pestell, Curator of Archaeology, Erin Davidson, the architect, and Tom Lefever, the structural engineer. We also spoke to James Spedding and Roger Foyster from Holkham Forge, and interviewed Stephen Beatty, the master carpenter, Agata Gomółka, the assistant curator, as well as Matt Bidewell and Rob Hamiton from Morgan Sindall. But there are many, many more who have kindly given their time and allowed us to film them during our production.
There are a number of twists and turns along the way, particularly when Tim Pestell, early on, felt everything was on time and within budget, only for Covid to derail it all.
I particularly enjoy the history segments which help set the scene for the audience and explain why the castle was built and just how important it was – people have little concept of Norwich’s status in medieval times.
It’s also amazing to see what it was like in Victorian times after hundreds of years of surviving without a roof!
Stephen was our first choice by a long way and right from the beginning we asked whether he might be able to do so.
At that stage, it was impossible to know what he would be doing when we wanted to record, or who it was going to be for, so we were encouraged to come back when we knew. Fortunately, our timing was good and, despite a number of delays in when we could record, we managed to get a date in the diary in July 2025, and the afternoon recording will go down as one of my most enjoyable afternoons in filmmaking.
Not long at all. It’s in Cinema City in Norwich from Wednesday 6 August, the day before the castle reopens, and it’s on Channel 4 on Sunday 24 August at 7.30pm!
Eye Film’s documentary ‘The Castle, Rebuilding History’ is available to watch at Cinema City Norwich from Wednesday 6 August and on Channel 4 on Sunday 24 August at 7.30pm!
Norwich Castle Keep reopens on Thursday 7 August. You can visit daily from 10am – 5pm. Book tickets to Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery via their website– adults £15.30, children £13.05, under 4s FREE, family discount adult with paid child ticket £13.95.
