Somerton Castle

Coordinates: 53°07′04″N 0°34′34″W / 53.1177°N 0.5760°W / 53.1177; -0.5760
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Somerton Castle
Grid reference
SK9536158739
Site information
OwnerPrivate
Open to
the public
No
Site history
MaterialsLimestone

Somerton Castle is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the village of

Battle of Poitiers. It continued as crown property until it was sold by Charles I in 1628, since when the castle has continued in private ownership.[1]

Medieval history

Antony Bek inherited Somerton from his mother, Eva de Gray, and built the castle after being granted a

Battle of Poitiers. Sir Saier De Rochford, ancestor of the Rochford family of Stoke Rochford, "an eminent soldier in the wars of France," and High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, was allowed two shillings a day for the safekeeping of King John while at Somerton.[4]

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

George, Duke of Clarence was executed.[5] The castle was allowed to fall into disrepair during this period and it suffered waste, dilapidation and strip from those who held it from the King.[5]

Later history

Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire in 1973

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

Samuel Buck in 1726 is dedicated to Sir Henry Hussey, and this print shows the castle as in much the same state as described in 1601. Sir Henry left Somerton Castle to his aunt Jane Hatcher, who died in 1734[7] and it then passed to the Pochin family of Barkby
in Leicestershire, who sold the castle to Montague Cholmeley of Easton in 1780.

Somerton Castle from the S.E. in 1850

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

Buildings at Risk register,[9] and Ridge & Morris of Snape in Suffolk were commissioned as architects to draw up plans for the restoration of the castle [10] Planning consents were granted by North Kesteven District Council for additional building work, which included a new wing extending to the northwards behind the south front and also the conversion of the 19th-century farm buildings into dwellings.[11]

Architecture and visible remains

Plan of Somerton Castle by J. S. Padley, 1850
Cooling Castle, Kent OS map 1964 – for comparison with Somerton Castle.

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.

Caister Castle from J. D. Mackenzie's The Castles of England: their story and structure

A similar layout was adopted for

Sir John Fastolf's castle at Caistor by Great Yarmouth in the 1430s. Caister Castle, built in brick, was laid out with three rectangular baileys, each of which was surrounded by a water-filled moat and fortified with open-back towers in the forward bailey. One of the corner towers of the rectangular inner bailey is much taller than the other three.[13]

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

  • Somerton Castle viewed from road
    Somerton Castle viewed from road
  • Somerton Castle today
    Somerton Castle today
  • Somerton Castle
    Somerton Castle
  • Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
    Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
  • Towers at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
    Towers at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
  • Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
    Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
  • Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
    Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley
  • North East Tower- Interior vaulting
    North East Tower- Interior vaulting
  • North East Tower - plan of interior
    North East Tower - plan of interior

References

  1. ^ "Colvin" (1963), 838-9
  2. ^ a b "Colvin" (1963), 838.
  3. ^ a b Historic England. "Somerton Castle (326074)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b "Colvin" (1963), 839.
  6. ^ a b ”Colvin”, 839
  7. ^ Battersby Papers, Lincolnshire Archives
  8. ^ Battersby papers, Lincolnshire Archives
  9. ^ http://risk.historicengland.org.uk/register.aspx?id=46205&rt=1&pn=12&st=a&ctype=all&crit=south+west[dead link]
  10. ^ "Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire". Hoare, Ridge & Morris LLP. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  11. ^ North Kesteven Planning 14/0292/FUL
  12. ^ Goodall 2011, pp. 312–313.
  13. ^ Goodall 2011, pp. 351–353.

References

  • Goodall, John (2011). The English Castle 1066-1650. Yale University Press. .

Literature

External links