Affeton Castle

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Affeton Castle, the former gatehouse

Affeton Castle is a converted gatehouse from the late Middle Ages the village of East Worlington in the English county of Devon . It used to be part of a fortified Affeton mansion on the valley side of the Little Dart River . The house, built in 1494, was destroyed in the English Civil War in the 1640s and the gatehouse was also derelict at the beginning of the 19th century. Sir George Stucley, 1st Baronet , had it restored from 1868–1869 and used it as a shooting range. In 1956 it was converted into a residence for Dennis Stucley, 5th Baronet . The castle with a floor area of ​​18 meters × 6.7 meters is classified as historical building II * by English Heritage . Grade listed.

history

Affeton Castle was originally part of a large fortified mansion that the Stucley family had built from gray quarry stone around 1434. The Stucley family acquired the Affeton estate through the marriage of Hugh Stucley , Sheriff of Devon, to heiress Catherine de Affeton in 1448. It was approximately 18 meters by 6.7 meters and formed an important part of the fortifications of the house. It contained a high arch, which is now partially bricked up to accommodate a smaller house entrance door. In the past, people and vehicles were let into the courtyard there.

One of the most famous residents of the former mansion was Sir Lewis Stucley († 1620), a traitor from Elizabethan times . In the English Civil War the mansion was destroyed to the ground; it has been looted several times. The Stucley family was almost ruined in the Civil War because they campaigned for the royalist cause and sold much of their lands, several thousand hectares in total. Dennis Stucley died childless in 1855 and his possessions fell to George II Buck (1731–1791). They then remained in the Buck family through George Stucley Buck (1755-1791), George Pawley Buck (1782-1805) and Lewis William Buck (1784-1858).

Affeton Castle from the public road

A large farmhouse, then called Affeton Barton , was later built over the foundations and basements of the fortified mansion, leaving the gatehouse as the only original building left. At the beginning of the 19th century, however, this gatehouse was a ruin without a roof, which J. Stucley describes as a “hollow shell filled with charred wood”. A tree grew on top of the tower. Parts of the wall of the old spiral staircase had to be removed at some point in order to save a donkey that got stuck in the stairwell and had to be roped down. The owners of the estate, who lived sometimes in Hartland Abbey and sometimes in Moreton House at the end of the 18th century , still occasionally hunted or inspected the leased farms in Affeton Castle, but could only stay with the farmers in Affeton Barton, too when the family resided for a time at Cobley Farm on the Affeton estate.

Sir George Stucley, 1st Baronet , (1812-1900) restored the gatehouse from 1868 to 1869 . His name was Stucley George Buck until his appointment as first baronet, and he then used the renovated gatehouse as a shooting range for hunting grouse in the nearby Affeton Moor on his property. Around this time the building got its current name. The castle was inherited by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Stucley (1836-1911), then Sir Edward Stucley (1852-1927) and Sir Hugh Nicholas Granville Stucley, 4th Baronet (1873-1956), who lived at Moreton House.

The 4th Baronet left Affeton Castle to his son, Sir Dennis Stucley, 5th Baronet , (1907-1983) in 1947 . In 1956 Moreton House was sold and Affeton Castle became the headquarters of the Baronets Stucley. Sir Dennis had two bathrooms built into the castle that originally didn't have any. Sir Hugh George Copplestone Bampfylde Stucley, 6th Baronet , (* 1945) now lives in the castle, which - unlike the other family residence, Hartland Abbey - is not open to the public. He had an extension built in which there are children's rooms and additional bedrooms.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Affeton Castle, East Worlington . Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England (=  Greater Medieval Houses ). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 1-139-44919-2 , pp. 486 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 53 (English, 384 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ John Lambrick Vivian (editor): The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Herald's Visitations of 1531, 1564 and 1620 . HS Eland, Exeter 1895. p. 721.
  5. ^ Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England (=  Greater Medieval Houses ). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 1-139-44919-2 , pp. 486–487 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  6. ↑ JH Stucley: A Letter Note to Affeton : "The house was never called a castle before my grandfather [the 1st Baronet], when he changed his name to Stucley, decided to renovate the gatehouse and use it as a shooting range."
  7. ^ Rosemary Lauder: Devon Families . Halsgrove, Tiverton 2002. ISBN 978-1-841141-40-4 . Pp. 148-149.
  8. ^ A b c d Dennis Stucley: A Devon Parish Lost, A new Home Discovered in Transactions of the Devonshire Association . Issue 108 (1976). Pp. 1-11.
  9. ^ A b Rosemary Lauder: Devon Families , Halsgrove, Tiverton 2002. ISBN 978-1-841141-40-4 . P. 149.

Web links

Commons : Affeton Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 30.2 "  N , 3 ° 46 ′ 19.9"  W.