in 1962 and the following year the ruins were closed to allow more extensive archaeological excavation by the Ministry. These were initially carried out by Biddle and Alan Cook, with support from local school children and from young offenders from the Borstal institution in Dover. The state took Camber Castle into guardianship in 1967, and the next year the government began a slow process of restoring the castle with the intention of eventually reopening it to the public, their efforts largely focusing on protecting the internal brick walls and wall-cores. Further excavations followed in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1977, the Department of National Heritage bought the castle from its owners. The government agency English Heritage took control of the castle in 1984 and a scheme to reopen the property to visitors was put forward in 1993. This included a final assessment of the archaeological work of the previous decades, and the castle finally opened to the public again in 1994. As of 2015, the castle is open to visitors through guided tours organised by the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. The site is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building. Architecture and landscape Landscape Camber Castle now lies on the Brede Level, a wide, reclaimed area of land between the modern towns of Rye and Winchelsea, about from the sea. The surrounding pasture land is flat and only just above sea level, marked with numerous ridges formed by the retreating coastline over the centuries. On the eastern side of the fortification is Castle Water, a large, 20th-century gravel pit that is now flooded to form a wetland nature reserve. A defensive earthwork runs around the south and east sides of the castle; this was probably originally topped by a stone wall and designed to protect the castle from the sea, which would have then been much closer. The remains of a raised causeway, which once linked the isolated castle to the mainland, leads away for a short distance to the south-west from the earthwork before petering out. Marks from the holes that were dug to provide the materials for the infilling of the bastions in the early 17th century also survive around the outside of the castle. Architecture The three-storey castle itself has changed little since its completion in 1544, an incorporates elements from all of the three phases of building work in 1512–14, 1539–40 and