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This review has been stimulated by the re-excavation of Blechingley Castle which produced evidence for an unusual high quality masonry building constructed before 1100, possibly before 1080. It attempts to summarize in a Surrey publication that which is relevant to the early de Clare ownership of Blechingley. The high status of Richard fitz Gilbert's ancestry, his education at the court of the count of Flanders and his relationship to the duke of Normandy are emphasized as explanations for the exceptional nature of the early building. The landholdings in Surrey and Kent and the tenurial positions of Blechingley and Tonbridge are compared. As a consequence of the review, it is argued that Blechingley was probably the first choice of caput of Richard fitz Gilbert and that its status was reduced only after the subsequent acquisition of Tonbridge and Clare. It is speculatively advanced that the earthworks at Blechingley could represent a campaign position of the Norman army in the winter of 1066-7.