Hemyock Castle

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Hemyock Castle ruins

Hemyock Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Hemyock in the English county of Devon . The castle was built for Sir William Asthorpe after 1380 as a fort . It was visually impressive, but not particularly practical; it had some systematic errors. In the 16th century it was already in ruins and after its use in the English Civil War in the middle of the 17th century it was demolished. Today, in the 21st century, the castle grounds are covered with fragments of the original castle; there is also Castle House , an 18th century house that was restored as a private home at the end of the 20th century.

history

11th to 15th centuries

The castle ruins are located in the Culm Valley in the Blackdown Hills , west of the village of Hemyock. <Emery577 /> The land belonged to the Hidon family in the 11th and 12th centuries and fell to the Dynham family through marriage in the 13th century . In the 13th century, a building was erected on today's castle grounds, which was protected by a spring-fed moat .

Sir William Asthorpe married Margaret Dynham in 1362 . This advantageous marriage made him a wealthy man and member of the local elite, but he was an outsider in Devonian society and so his position was rather precarious. In November 1380 he received royal permission to build a new castle on the site. This castle offered Asthorpe a certain protection, but was also intended as a showpiece that enabled him to impress others with his status and his authority.

The castle was built in the then modern style of a fort with an almost square floor plan, a round tower at every corner and a curtain wall to connect the towers . The exact construction of the castle is not known, but on the east side there was a gatehouse with twin towers and a portcullis and there were at least five more towers along the perimeter wall. Walls and towers were 1.4 meters thick and built from chert quarries with occasional pieces of iron slag from the medieval metalworks around the village. Originally they were painted with lime paint.

From the foundations of the walls one can conclude that there was another entrance on the west side, but that is not certain. An earth wall appears to have been piled up on the north side of the castle, either as a defensive device or to protect the castle from the eyes of travelers on a road that passed it on this side. While the castle was visually impressive, it wasn't particularly practical as the gatehouse was poorly planned and the towers had no usable space on the upper floors.

16th to 21st centuries

When the historian John Leland visited the castle at the beginning of the 16th century, it was already in ruins with only a few intact towers. In 1642 the English civil war broke out between the supporters of King Charles I and those of Parliament . Lord Poulett , a royalist , took the castle shortly after the fighting broke out. During the war, the castle was captured by the parliamentary armed forces and used as a prison. In 1660 King Charles II returned to the English throne and the castle was demolished.

At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, a building called the Castle House was built within the castle walls. Some parts of an earlier building from the 15th century have been integrated and building blocks from the walls and towers of the old castle have been reused. Towards the end of the 18th century, the upper parts of the towers were removed by a tenant of the area. A British Army officer General John Simcoe bought the property in the late 18th century ; he had Castle House rebuilt in the Gothic style , probably around 1800.

The castle ruins were restored from 1983; Some modern renovations were also carried out on the Castle House. In the 21st century, English Heritage has the ruin as a historical building II *. Grade listed and it is considered a Scheduled Monument .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James D. Mackenzie: The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure . Volume 2. Macmillan, New York 1896. p. 32.
  2. ↑ James D. Mackenzie: The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure . Volume 2. Macmillan, New York 1896. pp. 32-33.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006. Volume 3. ISBN 978-1-139449-19-9 . Chapter: Southern England . P. 577.
  4. ↑ a b Hemyock Castle . Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  5. ^ Context One Archaeological Services: Land to the East of 'Castle Dene', Culmstock Road, Hemyock, Devon: an Archaeological Excavation and Watching Brief Assessment Report . Context One Archaeological Services. Pp. 5-6. 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  6. ^ Context One Archaeological Services: Land to the East of 'Castle Dene', Culmstock Road, Hemyock, Devon: an Archaeological Excavation and Watching Brief Assessment Report . Context One Archaeological Services. 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  7. ↑ a b c d e James D. Mackenzie: The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure . Volume 2. Macmillan, New York 1896. p. 33.
  8. ^ A b Context One Archaeological Services: Land to the East of 'Castle Dene', Culmstock Road, Hemyock, Devon: an Archaeological Excavation and Watching Brief Assessment Report . Context One Archaeological Services. 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  9. ^ A b c English Heritage: Hemyock Castle Gatehouse and Curtain Walls, Hemyock . British Listed Buildings Online. Retrieved May 25, 2016.

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 54'45 "  N , 3 ° 13'53.2"  W.