Somerton Castle

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Overview

History

Bibliographic Sources

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18th c. view
19th c. view
Ground plan
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Venue Type & Location

Private Residence

Site Name: Somerton Castle
Location: near Lincoln
County: Lincolnshire
Location Type: Town - near town at determined location

Overview

Located 8 miles SW of Lincoln in lowlying countryside E of the River Brant, the castle was built on a quadrangular plan, with 4 circular towers at the corners and inner and outer defensive moats. The entrance was likely at the S through a gatehouse. The great hall at the SW corner of the inner bailey had 'a stone porch with a great door and two windows above' (Ruddock, Boothby Graffoe 16). The buttery, pantry and great kitchen were adjacent.

A Jacobean house still occupies the site, incorporating the vaulted ground storeys of NE and SW towers and the SE tower and sections of the S curtain wall. The moats, now drained, also remain.

Performance History

Not a Venue after all!

Current Status

Privately owned and inaccessible.

History of the Venue

1281 Anthony Bek, later bishop of Durham, granted licence to crenellate.

1309 Given to Edward II but granted to Bishop Bek for life. The Castle remained in royal possession until the 19th c., initially in the care of constables and subsequently leased to tenants.

1359--60 King John of France imprisoned at Somerton.

from late 14th c. Not consistently used as a residence.

by early 16th c. Decayed and ruinous.

16th c. Lease sold to Sir George Bromley.

late 16th c. Lease sold to Edward Disney.

ca. 1616 New residence on the site incorporating the surviving SE tower built for Thomas Disney (Lincolnshire Buoldings 28).

ca. 1662 L-shaped W wing added by Sir Charles Hussey. Inner moat likely filled in for addition of farm buildings.

19th c. Sold to the Marfleet family.

1849 NW tower demolished.

Bibliographic Sources

View a list of abbreviations.

  • Allen, Thomas. The History of the County of Lincoln, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London & Lincoln: John Saunders, Junior, 1834.
  • Bishop of Nottingham. 'Somerton Castle: Its Builder, Character and Royal Prisoner' Journal of the British Archaeological Association 46 (1890): 1–7.
  • Bishop Suffragan of Nottingham. 'Somerton Castle' Archaeological Journal 39 (1882): 180–3.
  • Blagg, Thomas Mathews . ‘Somerton Castle' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire 37 (1933): 49–60 .
  • Colvin, H.M., R. Allen Brown and A.J. Taylor, eds. The History of the King's Works: The Middle Ages. 2 vols. London: HMSO, 1963.
  • King, David J. Cathcart. Castellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands. 2 vols. Millwood, NY, London and Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus International Publications, 1983.
  • Leach, Terence R. Lincolnshire Country Houses & their Families. 2 vols. Lincoln: Laece Books, 1990–1.
  • Mackenzie, James D. The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1896.
  • Members of the Society. Lincolnshire Buildings: A List of Amendments and Additions to Pevsner's Lincolnshire. np: The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 1980.
  • Pettifer, Adrian. English Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge: The Boydell P, 1995.
  • Platts, Graham. Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire. History of Lincolnshire IV. Lincoln: History of Lincolnshire Committee, 1985.
  • Ruddock, J. G . Boothby Graffoe and Somerton Castle . Lincoln: J. Ruddock Ltd., 1980.
  • Thompson, Michael. Medieval Bishops' Houses in England and Wales. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.
  • Trollope, Edward. 'Somerton Castle and its Builder' Associated Architectural Societies Reports and Papers 4 (1857): 83–91.
  • Turner, Thomas Hudson, and John Henry Parker. Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, from Richard II. to Henry VIII. 3 vols (vol 3 in 2 pts). Oxford: John Henry and James Parker, 1851–9.