Barnstaple Castle stood near what is now the centre of the town of Barnstaple, Devon (grid reference SS557332 ). When it was built, it was on the western side of the fortified town and commanded a good view of both the town and its important river crossings. The castle was built on top of an early medieval cemetery.
Barnstaple Castle was founded in the 11th or 12th century; it was first mentioned in a 12th-century document. It is uncertain who founded the castle: if it was early it could have been built on the instruction of William the Conqueror as he subdued south-west England or if it was a later construction it could have been built for Juhel (Joel) of Totnes, who held the castle in the early 12th century. [1] Juhel also established Barnstaple Priory around 1107. [2] [3]
King Stephen granted the castle to Henry de Tracy, one of his supporters. In the 12th century, stone buildings were erected on top of the motte, possibly during Henry de Tracy's tenure. The castle descended through his family to another Henry de Tracy, [4] who held the castle in 1228 when Henry III ordered the Sheriff of Devon to make sure that the walls of the castle did not exceed 10 feet (3.0 m) in height as recorded in the Close Rolls for that year. [5] [6]
By the time of the death of the last Henry de Tracey in 1274, the castle was beginning to decay. According to an inquisition from 1281, building materials had been removed from the castle without permission and by 1326 the castle was a ruin. [5] According to John Leland's Itinerary, published in 1542, "There be manifest ruins of a great castle at the north west side of the town a little beneath the town bridge, and a peace of the dungeon yet standith." [7] Adam Wyat recorded that part of the castle walls blew down in a storm in 1601. [8]
The castle site was excavated in 1927 and 1975. The 1975 excavation revealed the presence of one hundred and five graves at the location. The excavation report, published in 1986, shows that the artefacts recovered at the location showed that the graves were most probably of Christians. Now only the tree covered motte remains. [9] [10]
Since 1950, the castle has been designated a scheduled monument, which is intended to protect important archaeological sites. [10] [11] The site is referred to simply as "Castle Mound" locally. [12]
Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle overlooking the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle was within the edge of Warwickshire while most of the town belonged to Staffordshire.
Barnstaple is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from which it earned great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and other trades developed such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. A Victorian market building survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns.
Okehampton Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle in Devon, England. It was built between 1068 and 1086 by Baldwin FitzGilbert following a revolt in Devon against Norman rule, and formed the centre of the Honour of Okehampton, guarding a crossing point across the West Okement River. It continued in use as a fortification until the late 13th century, when its owners, the de Courtenays, became the Earls of Devon. With their new wealth, they redeveloped the castle as a luxurious hunting lodge, building a new deer park that stretched out south from the castle, and constructing fashionable lodgings that exploited the views across the landscape. The de Courtenays prospered and the castle was further expanded to accommodate their growing household.
Wallingford Castle is a medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire, adjacent to the River Thames. Established in the 11th century as a motte-and-bailey design within an Anglo-Saxon burgh, it grew to become what historian Nicholas Brooks has described as "one of the most powerful royal castles of the 12th and 13th centuries". Held for the Empress Matilda during the civil war years of the Anarchy, it survived multiple sieges and was never taken. Over the next two centuries it became a luxurious castle, used by royalty and their immediate family. After being abandoned as a royal residence by Henry VIII, the castle fell into decline. Refortified during the English Civil War, it was eventually slighted, i.e. deliberately destroyed, after being captured by Parliamentary forces after a long siege. The site was subsequently left relatively undeveloped, and the limited remains of the castle walls and the considerable earthworks are now open to the public.
Lydford Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lydford, Devon, England. The first castle in Lydford, sometimes termed the Norman fort, was a small ringwork built in a corner of the Anglo-Saxon fortified burh in the years after the Norman conquest of England. It was intended to help control Devon following the widespread revolt against Norman rule in 1068. The Norman fort had been abandoned by the middle of the 12th century.
Castle Toot, or Cleobury Castle, was a motte castle by the River Rea in the town of Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. It is a scheduled monument, first listed in 1951.
Groby Castle is situated in the large village of Groby to the north-west of the city of Leicester, England.
Hen Domen Welsh, meaning "old mound", is the site of a medieval timber motte-and-bailey castle in Powys, Wales. It is the site of the original Montgomery Castle, and was built by Roger de Montgomery in 1070. From 1105 the castle was the home of the de Boulers (Bowdler) family, and it is from Baldwin de Boulers that Montgomery gets its Welsh name, Trefaldwyn "The Town of Baldwin". When the castle was rebuilt in stone (1223–1234), it was decided to rebuild it on a rocky promontory a mile to the southeast—the location of the current town of Montgomery, Powys. The Hen Domen site has been extensively excavated.
Juhel de Totnes, Latinised to Judhellus filius Aluredi, "Juhel son of Alured") was a soldier and supporter of William the Conqueror (1066–1087). He was the first feudal baron of Totnes and feudal baron of Barnstaple, both in Devon.
Philip de Braose, 2nd Lord of Bramber was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and Marcher Lord.
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.
Stockport Castle was a promontory castle in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The castle was in the medieval town, overlooking a ford over the River Mersey. It was first documented in 1173, but the next mention of it is in 1535 when it was in ruins. What remained of the castle was demolished in 1775.
Wakefield Castle, Lowe Hill or Lawe Hill was a castle built in the 12th century on a hill on the north side of the River Calder near Wakefield, England. Its name derives from the Anglo Saxon hlaew meaning a mound or cairn, possibly a burial mound or barrow. The mound, situated a quarter mile from the river, was separated from the town by flat swampy land and was seen as a good site for a fortification.
Penstowe Castle, also called Kilkhampton Castle, was a medieval fortification built near Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England, possibly during the years of the civil war in the 12th century known as the Anarchy.
From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large feudal barony with its caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the Middle Ages. In 1236 it comprised 56 knight's fees or individual member manors. The feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum, later commuted to scutage.
South Cerney Castle was an adulterine castle of Motte and bailey construction built in South Cerney, Gloucestershire in the mid-12th century. Today only slight earthwork remains and they are a scheduled monument.
Trowbridge Castle was a castle in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. It is thought to have been a motte-and-bailey castle, and its influence can still be seen in the town today. Fore Street follows the path of the castle ditch, and town has a Castle Street and the Castle Place Shopping Centre.
Plymouth Castle was a castle built in the early 15th century to defend the town and harbour of Plymouth in Devon, England. By the end of the 16th century it had ceased to have any military function and fell into disrepair, being almost completely demolished by the 19th century. Only a small fragment of an outer gatehouse remains.
Llanthomas Castle Mound was built by the Normans after the 1066 Norman conquest of England but before 1215. It is a first-generation motte and bailey castle design; the building materials were earth and timber.
Weston Turville Castle is a motte-and-bailey in Buckinghamshire, England. It consists of a mound with two enclosures (baileys). The castle was built in the 11th or 12th century and first mentioned in 1145. It was held by Geoffrey de Turville in 1173–74 when it was demolished (slighted) on the instructions of Henry II.
51°04′51″N4°03′46″W / 51.08083°N 4.06289°W
