Somerton Castle

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Somerton Castle 1726 by Samuel Buck

Somerton Castle is a ruined castle 1.6 km west of the village of Boothby Graffoe and south of Lincoln in the English county of Lincolnshire . The site is in the valley between Lincoln Cliff and the River Trent . While Somerton Castle is part of the Boothby Graffoe parish, it is part of the Waddington manor ; this part is often called the Manor of Somerton Castle . Antony Bek , the Bishop of Durham , had the castle built probably in 1281 and gave it to King Edward II in 1309. The French King John II was imprisoned at Somerton Castle from 1359 to 1360 after he was captured at the Battle of Poitiers was. The castle remained in the hands of the crown until King Charles I sold it to a private individual.

history

middle Ages

Antony Bek inherited Somerton from his mother, Eva de Gray , and had the castle built after he received a royal license to crenellate in 1281. In 1309, Bek presented the castle to King Edward II as a gift. When the king took office, the castle was found to be in poor condition: the roofing of the towers and the knight's hall had been stolen and the chapel on the west side of the castle was in poor condition. In 1334, John Crab , a military engineer, was appointed constable of the castle, and in the fall of that year King Edward visited the castle, presumably to approve repairs. Over the next two years, £ 222 was spent rebuilding the outer drawbridge and restoring part of the moat . The outer bailey in the southern part of the castle grounds was probably built around this time . After Crabbe's death in the winter of 1351/1352, Stephen Shawe was appointed constable and repair work was carried out on the residential buildings of the inner castle in the years 1359-1360 when the King of France stayed at the castle after he was captured in the Battle of Poitiers . Sir '' Saier de Rochford '', ancestor of the Rochford family of Stoke Rochford , an "important soldier in the wars with France" and High Sheriff of Lincolnshire , received two shillings a day for guarding the French king in Somerton.

In 1393 the castle was described as defective in "walls, gates, towers, bridges, moats, roofing, paving, glazing and ironwork" and the repair cost was estimated at £ 100. In 1408 King Heinrich VI. the castle to Sir Ralph Rochford , who was High Sheriff of Lincolnshire that year . He was to invest £ 112 12 s 9 d in repairing the castle over the next three years. The work included a. the repair of the roof of the Queen's Hall with the associated pantry and beverage chamber, as well as the repair of the "Chapel and the bedroom of St. Christopher". From 1415 to 1478 the Dukes of Clarence held the castle for the king. Then George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence , was executed. The castle was allowed to fall into disrepair during this period and suffered "wear and tear, decay and pillage" from those who had received it from the king.

Modern times

Somerton Castle in Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire, 1973

The castle was transferred by King Henry VII to the Duchy of Lancaster's property management and the castle and its lands were held by a De'Isney or Disney family . A 1601 report to the Duchy of Lancaster described the castle as "completely stripped of its facades and almost collapsed", but one of the four towers was almost at full height. The Corporation of the City of London bought the property from King Charles I in 1628 and then it fell to the Hussey family . The print produced by Samuel Buck in 1726 is dedicated to Sir Henry Hussey and shows the castle in much the same condition as it was described in 1601. Sir Henry Hussey bequeathed Somerton Castle to his aunt Jane Hatcher , who died in 1734, and then it fell to the Pochin family of Barkby , Leicestershire , who sold the castle to Sir Montague Cholmeley, 1st Baronet , of Easton in 1780 .

Somerton Castle from the southeast in 1850

Isaac Marfleet from Bassingham , who had previously rented the castle ruins, bought it in 1812 from Sir Montague Cholmeley, after which it fell to various of his descendants. Eventually it fell to the Battersby family , who sold the ruined castle and surrounding farmland in the mid-1970s.

Around 2010 Somerton Castle was placed on the English Heritage Heritage-at-Risk registry due to the degree of destruction of the masonry of the castle buildings and Graham Porter bought it. The architecture firm Hoare, Ridge & Morris from Snape , Suffolk was commissioned to draw up plans for the restoration of the castle. In addition, the North Kesteven authorities granted permission for additional construction work, such as: B. a new north wing behind the south facade and the conversion of the farm from the 19th century into apartments.

Architecture and visible remains

Floor plan of Somerton Castle by JS Padley, 1850
Cooling Castle, Kent, 1964 Ordnance Survey Map - for comparison with Somerton Castle

The layout and layout of the medieval castle appears to have had much in common with later 14th century castles such as Maxstoke Castle in Warwickshire , Wingfield Castle in Suffolk, and especially Cooling Castle in Kent . These castles are enclosed by moats and almost rectangular curtains with corner towers. The builders of Cooling Castle received royal permission to fortify it in 1381, and in front of the rectangular core is a trapezoidal outer bailey with corner towers open to the rear. This is the arrangement that shows Padley's floor plan, even though the towers are drawn as mounds in the corners. These open-back artillery towers began to appear in Europe around 1330 and must have been known to the constable of Somerton Castle, John Crabbe, who came from Flanders . In these towers, the artillery was housed on two or three floors and the open rear sides of the towers ensured ventilation of the powder vapor. These advanced defenses were likely placed in front of the main gate of Somerton Castle's inner bailey, and the towers gave the artillery an angle of about 270 degrees to the south.

Caister Castle from JD Mackenzie's The Castles of England: their story and structure

A similar layout was adopted for Sir John Fastolf's castle at Caister-on-Sea in the 1430s. Caister Castle, built in brick , has three rectangular courtyards, each surrounded by a moat and defended by open-backed towers in the outer bailey. One of the corner towers of the rectangular main castle in much higher than the other three.

Some clearly visible fences still surround the castle grounds, e.g. B. Parts of the moat. What has been preserved from the walls of the castle is integrated into the current farmhouse. The castle ruin is now an important building and is listed as a historical building of the first degree.

Gallery images

  • Somerton Castle today

  • Somerton Castle

  • Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley

  • Towers of Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley

  • Tower of Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley

  • Tower of Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley

  • Northeast tower

  • Northeast tower - inner vault

  • Northeast Tower - Interior Floor Plan

Individual evidence

  1. ^ HM Colvin (editor): The History of the King's Works . Volume II: The Middle Ages . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1963. pp. 838-839.
  2. ^ A b H. M. Colvin (editor): The History of the King's Works . Volume II: The Middle Ages . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1963. p. 838.
  3. ↑ a b Somerton Castle . Pastscape. Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  4. ↑ Edmund Turnor: 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 c d H. M. Colvin (editor): The History of the King's Works . Volume II: The Middle Ages . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1963. p. 839.
  6. ↑ a b Battersby Papers . Lincolnshire Archives. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  7. ^ Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire . Hoare, Ridge & Morris. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  8. ^ North Kesteven Planning 14/0292 / FUL . Lincolnshire Echo. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  9. ^ JAA Goodall: Somerton Castle . English Heritage , London 2011. pp. 312-313.
  10. ^ JAA Goodall: Somerton Castle . English Heritage , London 2011. pp. 351-353.

literature

Web links

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

Coordinates: 53 ° 7 ′ 1.2 ″  N , 0 ° 34 ′ 30 ″  W.