Somerton Castle
Somerton Castle | ||
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Grid reference SK9536158739 | | |
Site information | ||
Owner | Private | |
Open to the public | No | |
Site history | ||
Materials | Limestone |
Somerton Castle is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the village of
Medieval history
Antony Bek inherited Somerton from his mother, Eva de Gray, and built the castle after being granted a
By 1393 the castle was reported as being defective in walls, gates, towers , bridges, ditches, lead roofing , tiling, boarding, glazing and ironwork and would need the expenditure of £100 to repair. In 1408
Later history
The Castle was transferred to the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster by Henry VII [6] and the Castle and its lands were held by De’Isney or Disney family. A Duchy of Lancaster Survey of 1601 described the castle as being utterly defaced and fallen almost downe to the ground, but one of the four towers was standing almost to its full height.[6] The property was bought from the Charles I in 1628 by the Corporation of the City of London and it then passed to the Hussey family. The print produced by
The property and estate were bought from Sir Montague Cholmeley, 1st Baronet in 1812 by the Isaac Marfleet of Bassingham who had been previously leasing the castle; the property then passed on to several of the family's descendants,[8] until it passed to the Battersby family, who sold the castle and surrounding farmland in the mid-1970s.
About 2010, due to the deterioration of the fabric of the castle buildings, Somerton Castle was put on the
Architecture and visible remains
The medieval castle appears to have most in common in its plan and layout with later castles of the 14th century and early 15th century such as Maxstoke Castle in Warwickshire, Wingfield Castle in Suffolk and, in particular Cooling Castle in Kent. These castles are set in moats with roughly rectangular curtain walls between corner towers. Cooling Castle was licensed to crenellate in 1381,[12] and in front of the rectangular inner bailey is a trapezoid-shaped outer bailey with open-backed corner towers. This is the arrangement that is indicated in Padley's plan, even though the towers are shown as mounds at the corners. These open-backed artillery towers started appearing in Europe around 1330 and would have been familiar to John Crabbe, the Constable of the Castle, who came from Flanders. In these towers the artillery would be placed on two or three floors and the open backs to the towers gave ventilation from the fumes released by igniting gunpowder. This forward defence is likely to have been placed in front of the main gate to the inner bailey of Somerton Castle, and the towers would have given the artillery a sweep of about 270º to the south of the castle.
A similar layout was adopted for
Some prominent and visible enclosures still surround the site, including parts of the moat. What remains of the castle walls are incorporated into the present farmhouse. The castle has been recognised as an important building and has been classified as a Grade I listed building.[3]
Gallery
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Somerton Castle viewed from road
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Somerton Castle today
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Somerton Castle
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Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
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Towers at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
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Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
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Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
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North East Tower- Interior vaulting
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North East Tower - plan of interior
References
- ^ "Colvin" (1963), 838-9
- ^ a b "Colvin" (1963), 838.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Somerton Castle (326074)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Turnor, Edmund; Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham Containing Authentic Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, William Miller (1806), p. 143
- ^ a b "Colvin" (1963), 839.
- ^ a b ”Colvin”, 839
- ^ Battersby Papers, Lincolnshire Archives
- ^ Battersby papers, Lincolnshire Archives
- ^ http://risk.historicengland.org.uk/register.aspx?id=46205&rt=1&pn=12&st=a&ctype=all&crit=south+west[dead link]
- ^ "Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire". Hoare, Ridge & Morris LLP. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ North Kesteven Planning 14/0292/FUL
- ^ Goodall 2011, pp. 312–313.
- ^ Goodall 2011, pp. 351–353.
References
- Goodall, John (2011). The English Castle 1066-1650. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300110586.
Literature
- Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989), The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, Yale University Press. pg 660.
- Blagg, T.M., (1933), Somerton Castle Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 37 p. 49-60
- Colvin H. M. ed. (1963), The History of the King's Works, Vol.ii : The Middle Ages, H.M.S.O. pp 838–39.
- Padley J.S. (1851) Selections from the ancient monastic ecclesiastical and domestic edifices of Lincolnshire [1]
- Trollope E., (1857a) Trollope, E., 1857, The Captivity of John, King of France, at Somerton Castle, Associated Architectural Societies' reports and papers (Lincoln, York, Northampton, Bedford, Worcester, Leicester and Sheffield) Vol. 4 p. 49-64
- Trollope, E., (1857b), Somerton Castle and its Builder Associated Architectural Societies' reports and papers (Lincoln, York, Northampton, Bedford, Worcester, Leicester and Sheffield) Vol. 4 p. 83-91 [2]
- Trollope, E.,(1882), Somerton Castle, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 39 p. 180-3
- Turner T Hudson (!851/1877) 2nd ed. Some account of the Domestic Architecture of England, from the Conquest to the End of the 13th Century. Parker, Oxford & Londonpp.pp172–3. [3] Contains 'Notes on Somerton Castle' by Edward James Willson.
External links
- Media related to Somerton Castle at Wikimedia Commons
- "Somerton Castle", Lincolnshire History Project, Magicjon.fsnet.co.uk (web archive)
- "Somerton Castle", Society for Lincolnshire History and Archeology (web archive)