These photographs provide a fascinating glimpse into how Norwich Castle is being transformed - to recreate when the iconic building was a royal palace.

The beloved museum - and its Norman keep - are in the midst of the major £13.5m National Lottery Heritage-funded Royal Palace Reborn project.

The 900-year-old keep's medieval floors and rooms will be rebuilt to reflect how it would have looked in Norman times.

And as the pictures, by our photographer Denise Bradley, show, the keep already looks very different from when the public last walked within its walls.

Gone is the wooden floor, trodden on by generations of visitors.

And, higher up, the wooden balcony, which had been in place since Victorian times, has been carefully removed.

Before new floors are put in place, it means the keep can be seen at its full height for the first time in more than a century.

Hannah Jackson, Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn project manager for Norfolk Museums Service, said: "It's a sight which nobody has seen for 130 years - since the 1890s, when the building was changed from a prison to a museum.

"That was the last time you could see the full height of the keep."

One familiar sight, however, is the well, where generations of children made wishes while dropping pennies. It can be seen poking through metal bars, with its shaft carefully wrapped for protection as work continues around it.

But the revamp work goes beyond only the keep. The building which once housed the castle's cafe is gone - to make way for a new structure which will house fully accessible toilets.

The front desk has been removed, as has the staircase which used to lead up to the keep behind it.

And the corridor which used to take visitors from the entrance into the rotunda is gone.

New shops, a cafe/restaurant and an educational space are taking shape to the right, but on the left new views of the exterior of the keep have been opened up. They will be retained when a glass-roofed atrium is created.

Construction company Morgan Sindall has also tunnelled through a three-metre thick wall to create a new north west entrance to the keep - making it accessible from ground level.

When the project is complete - in 2023 - nationally important medieval treasures will go on show in a new gallery in partnership with the British Museum.

And high on the battlements a new fully accessible walkway will give panoramic views across the city - and people will be free to head up whenever they want, rather than having to book a guided tour.

The huge tower crane on the castle's mound is required to take material in and out of the Grade I listed building, due to weight restrictions on the bridge over the Castle Gardens.