The medieval past of a pair of Norfolk landmarks has been revealed in amazing 3D recreations.

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Over the past four years, a National Lottery-supported project called Paston Footprints has created a representation of what Gresham Castle might have looked like in the Middle Ages and of Oxnead Hall in its full glory in Stuart times.

The buildings were both owned by the Pastons, one of England's most famous medieval families.

Today the Gresham Castle site lies in the middle of a field south of Lower Gresham. It cannot be visited directly but can be seen clearly from the road.

James Mindham, the Dilham-based computer-based artist who built the 3D models, said: “We assembled as much certain information as we could for both sites from archaeology, written information and observation, but ultimately these reconstructions are our idea of how these great buildings may once have looked.”

Gresham Castle was built by Sir Edmund Bacon and was acquired by the judge William Paston as he sought to improve his status as an owner of manors in north Norfolk.

Around the time of the Wars of the Roses, when the Pastons reclaimed the castle from a local landowner, it had been demolished almost to ground level. Only the moat and the flints of about a metre of the wall survive today.

The family obtained the manor of Oxnead in the early 15th century, but the great hall was built in Tudor times by Clement Paston.

Poor management and huge debts from the English Civil War led to their family , however, and the final Paston owner, the second Earl of Yarmouth, found no way to restore family fortunes.

Most of the manor's contents were sold off and the main hall fell into ruin.

Peter Stibbons, who co-coordinated the computer-based rebuilds for the Paston Footprints project, said: “Gresham and Oxnead now join the earlier two images of Paston Hall and Bromholm Priory to further the Paston story.

"We have been fortunate to have someone like James working locally with the combined skills of archaeology, research and high-grade artwork, especially in the specialist area of three dimensions.

"His work will be the basis of on-going understanding of Norfolk’s rich history," Mr Stibbons added.