Berry Pomeroy Castle
| Berry Pomeroy Castle | |
|---|---|
| Totnes, Devon, England | |
The gatehouse
|
|
 Berry Pomeroy Castle
|
|
| Coordinates | 50°26′56″N 3°38′12″W / 50.4490°N 3.6366°WCoordinates: 50°26′56″N 3°38′12″W / 50.4490°N 3.6366°W |
| Grid reference | grid reference SX839623 |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | English Heritage |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Site history | |
| Materials | Stone |
Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th century. By 1547 the family was in financial difficulties and sold the lands to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Apart from a short period of forfeit to the Crown after Edward's execution, the castle has remained in the Seymour family ever since, although it was abandoned in the late 17th century when the fourth baronet moved to Wiltshire.
After lying in ruins for a hundred years, in the 19th century the castle became celebrated as an example of the "picturesque", and it became a popular tourist attraction, a status which it retains today—aided by its reputation of being haunted. Between 1980 and 1996 the castle was subjected to extensive archaeological excavations that clarified much of its history and overturned previously held beliefs regarding its age and cause of destruction.
Berry Pomeroy Castle is located about a mile north-east of the village of Berry Pomeroy in South Devon. It occupies a limestone outcrop that overlooks the deep, wooded, narrow valley of the Gatcombe Brook.
The de la Pomeroy family held the large feudal barony of Berry Pomeroy from shortly after the Norman conquest of England, as the Domesday Book of 1086 records. Early documents refer to a "capital messuage" at Berry, signifying the caput of the manor, which manor in turn was the caput of the barony, which consisted in 1166 of almost 32 knight's fees, each equating approximately to a single manor. Although Henry Pomeroy enclosed a deer park here in 1207, the first reference to a castle does not appear until 1496, when Elizabeth, widow of Richard Pomeroy, was assigned a third of both the castle and the capital messuage. The document makes it clear that these were on different sites; the messuage is now thought to have been on or near the site of Berry House in the nearby village.
...
Wikipedia