Stogursey Castle

King John dined in the castle

Stogursey, an old village to the east of the Quantocks, was chosen by William de Courcy as his principal base. William was a Steward to Henry I and both his son and his grandson married heiresses, making the de Courcys even more important. Their castle also grew in stature. Then the male line failed and the castle was inherited by Alice de Courcy. She entertained King John here in 1210, when her husband won 20 shillings from him ‘at play’. Later the Percys from Northumberland inherited the castle and it played a minor part in the Wars of the Roses. With the advent of more peaceful times, the Percys had no useful purpose for the castle as it stood, and did not think it was worth developing.

13th-century bridge uncovered as we cleared the vegetation

Time and neglect, and adaptation to more humble uses, reduced the castle to ruins beneath a mantle of vegetation. Only this later gatehouse survived in any recognisable form. This small dwelling had been formed inside the gate towers of the castle and their remnants still buttress it today. The Gatehouse has 17th-century roof timbers and was repaired in the 1870s; but like the rest of the castle, it too had largely disappeared beneath unchecked undergrowth and ivy by the time we found it. Clearing this and dredging the moat revealed the unsuspected 13th-century bridge. We also recovered some chain mail and other warlike fragments from the mud. The cottage makes a quirky but lovely Landmark, and it remains the only entrance to the castle’s grassy inner ward, scene of all those doings long ago. The castle ruins on the moated site are yours alone to explore, as is the little bridge from which to dangle your legs. Inside the gatehouse’s thick walls, the sitting room has an open fire.

Stage 1: 1066 - 1100

Stogursey Castle’s origins lie with William the Conqueror’s need to consolidate his new kingdom. He granted the manor of Stoke to William de Falaise who built a castle on the site as one of a chain running from Dunster to Montacute, to protect Somerset from invasion from the sea. It seems de Falaise did not build the typical motte (defensive mound) since the remains of a later, stone building have been found beneath the existing mound. Instead, his defences took the form of the ‘castle ringwork’, a hall or keep with a timber stockade, on a flat area defended by a strong bank and a ditch.

Stage 2: 1100 - 1150

Early in the 12th century, Stoke manor passed by marriage to the de Curci (later Courcy) family. William de Curci did rather well out of his marriage, with the fortified manor of Stoke a particular prize since castles could only be held with permission from the king. Stoke was made the ‘caput’ or head of the Honour of Curci, lands stretching across several counties but bound by allegiance to the same lord.

Stoke therefore became Stoke-Curci, and eventually Stogursey. It was probably de Curci who built the castle mound to strengthen his new seat. The mound filled the area of the original ringwork, constructed partly from the earth removed to deepen the ditch.

By now, as castle technology developed and stronger keeps were being built, mottes were less crucial to defences, but Stoke was still marshy in those days, and in flat countryside, so a mound would have offered both defensive observation and drier conditions. De Curci built a rectangular keep on the mound, probably of two or three storeys. It had stone foundations, so may also have had stone walls, the use of stone an indication of its strategic importance to the Normans. A stockade surrounded the mound; to the south east, and partly surrounding the mound, was a bailey (defensive enclosure), also stockaded and with its own deep ditch. Some years later, a second, larger bailey was added to the east, perhaps during the troubled years of the power struggles between Stephen and Matilda.

Stage 3: 1150-70

Henry II came to the throne in 1156 and proceeded energetically to consolidate Plantagenet rule across the realm. William de Curci III inherited Stogursey around the same time. He was also one of the king’s stewards and may have been authorised to strengthen Stogursey Castle, which now reached the peak of its strength, protecting the mouth of the River Parrett. Stone curtain walls were built around the mound, patched stretches of which remain today. A rectangular garderobe (or lavatory) tower appeared on the west side. The main entrance, then as now to the east, was probably defended by another tower. Fragments of a timber bridge from this period have been found, suggesting that the moat may by now have been filled with water (the leat system was extended soon after to power a mill, still referred to as ‘new’ in 1225).

Castles fulfilled domestic as well as military roles and Stogursey would have been permanent home to a constable and his household. Every so often de Curci and his retinue (otherwise in attendance on the king) would arrive to take up residence. The keep would have provided limited rather uncomfortable accommodation and evidence suggests that a main hall was also built on the western side of the inner ward, adjoining the garderobe tower. Other service buildings also sprang up as befitted the seat of one of the most influential families in England and a castle which, with Corfe, Sherbourne and Taunton, was one of the four regarded as vital for the defence of the south west.

Stage 4: 1216-30

But Stogursey Castle was now to be superseded by a new castle to protect the crossing of the Parrett, built by King John at Bridgewater as he sought absolute control over the English territories that were all that remained to the English Crown. Stogursey and its owners lost control over the area as a consequence. The de Curci line had petered out, Stogursey passing through Alice de Curci, a wealthy widow, to her second husband Warin FitzGerold, John’s chamberlain. In 1210, the king came to stay with FitzGerold at Stogursey; they no doubt enjoyed good hunting on the Quantocks and then, royal accounts record, the king lost 20 shillings gambling. Although FitzGerold was a loyal signatory to the Magna Carta in 1214, two years later his monarch became suspicious of him and ordered the constable of Stogursey to hold the castle directly for the king, with extra men to defend it in case FitzGerold tried to regain it. Fortifications seem to have been strengthened again. In 1224 Stogursey was held for the rebels against the regents of the young Henry III and besieged. It did not fall, but there is evidence of much patching and repair afterwards. Timber was provided for the repair of domestic buildings and a gatehouse with at least one semi-circular tower was built on the east side of the site.

Stage 5: 1300-1325

Passing through the hands of various owners through the troubled 13th century, Stogursey came to rest in 1309 with the Fitzpaynes, a family of rising importance in the west. The castle was to remain in their hands until the late 17th century. Robert Fitzpayne set about ‘modernising’ his small castle, whose outer bailey had by now disappeared, possibly becoming the castle garden. Defences to the inner ward were strengthened, including a twin-towered gatehouse, a new bridge and a semi-circular tower built against the western wall. A stronger, more compact castle resulted.

Stage 6 1450-1550

According to local tradition, in 1455 or 57 (accounts vary) Stogursey once again became caught up in national events as the rallying point for the Lancastrian cause in the south-west. It was reputedly besieged, overthrown and destroyed, never to be repaired as a fortified site again. Yet there is no written or archaeological evidence of such cataclysm. Certainly the gatehouse defences were improved around this date and then in the 1490s accounts show the gatehouse and a ‘new’ tower were extensively repaired. The advent of the Tudors brought more peaceable times, however, and in common with fortified manors across the country, from now on Stogursey was to pass gradually into domestic and agricultural use.

The later years

In 1670 a major sale of the Earl of Northumberland’s (as the Fitzpaynes had become) lands took place to offset debt. Stogursey Castle and 27 acres were sold as a tenanted farm, known as Mill Farm from its association with the old mill. The castle buildings gradually fell into dereliction as the site became increasingly cultivated. Mr Percy Caple lived in the cottage from 1919 until 1963, a great gardener who produced hundred-weights of potatoes from the former inner ward. In 1963 Mill Farm was sold but the cottage remained empty and was left to decay. Local conservationists got the local Council involved, who were advised on the site by architect John Schofield, who had worked on the Old Hall at Croscombe, another Landmark. When the Council’s plans failed, he suggested an approach to Landmark, who acquired the castle site.

The cottage itself had already had emergency support put in: the floors were weak, lintels cracked and sagging, windows and doors boarded up against vandals. The walls had deteriorated and the west wall was coming away from the main body of the building and had to be tile-stitched back in. The north gable had to be largely rebuilt and the north-west corner, which was suffering from subsidence, underpinned. Once the walls had all been repaired they were rendered (except for the south elevation where the masonry is of higher quality) and lime-washed to distinguish the 17th-century work from the mediaeval walls that contain it.

The 19th-century tiled roof was replaced with thatch, which is how it was roofed originally. The 19th-century roof timbers were kept, but extended to deepen the eaves. New elm gutters were fitted and the chimneys were rebuilt.

Nearly all the 17th-century window oak frames survived and needed only minor repairs and re-glazing. 19th-century windows were repaired and renewed; the only entirely new window is that which lights the stairs. The 17th-century windows were reglazed with rectangular panes, while those for the mediaeval arrow-loops of the gatehouse tower are diamond-shaped.

Inside a new oak stair was made in the original 17th-century turret, whose brickwork also needed much repair. The ground floor is much as we found it with old doors and paved floor. The walls were all re-plastered and limewashed. Upstairs, a bathroom was created by blocking a 19th-century door. The ceiling was removed in the south bedroom to show a surviving 17th-century truss, which forms part of the partition with the bathroom. Floorboards were renewed with second-hand timber. Plumbing and wiring were completely renewed and the digging of the septic tank provided archaeologists the opportunity to examine the structure of the mound and establish the ground level beneath it.

The bridge was perhaps the most exciting discovery of all. Trial holes revealed the masonry to be mainly intact and when the mud had all been dug away, an almost-complete bridge from about 1300 was revealed, which was repaired, repaved and repointed. It would have been impossible to put back a true drawbridge so the gap was bridged instead with a new section of oak. The main dredging of the moat happened in 1983 when a number of finds were made including an archer’s wrist band, leather shoe soles and sections of chain mail. Once the moat was cleared, the leats bringing water to the moat from Stogursey Brook could be re-opened and the castle stood guarded once more by water and ready for adventure.