King Square in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

within the English county of

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

was laid out with large

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

houses between 1770 and 1800 on the site of

Bridgwater Castle Bridgwater Castle was a castle in the town of Bridgwater, Somerset, England. The stone castle was built around 1220 and contributed to the development of the town. It was surrounded by a moat and included a watergate giving access to the quay. ...

. It is also the site of the Bridgwater War Memorial

History

The site of King Square was previously occupied by

. It was laid out with large

houses between 1770 and 1800. During the later part of the 17th century John Harvey developed the site of the castle. In 1721 the remains of the castle, the house and the land was sold to

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, (6 January 16739 August 1744) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 until 1714, when he succeeded to the peerage as Baron Chandos, and vacated ...

who developed an industrial centre in the town and demolished the last of the buildings. Much of the site was built on in the 1720s to create the Georgian Castle Street. In 1734 Chandos sold the whole of the redevelopment area to Thomas Watts, who sold it the following year to John Anderton, whose descendants continued to clear old buildings and construct new ones. King Square was built between 1807 and 1814, with many of the buildings incorporating stone from the old castle, although further study would be needed to say how much of their cellars and foundations are in situ castle walls. In 2008, during sewer renovation work, a section of the curtain wall of the castle and a tunnel used to transport goods from the port were discovered.

Architecture

Bridgwater War Memorial is a Grade II* listed war memorial located on King Square. It was designed by John Angel in the mid-1920s. The green figure of the memorial is allegorical, representing "''Civilization'' as a seated female, holding a globe in one hand and with the book of knowledge on her lap." . Number one on the southern side is a house of

flemish-bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

brick with a Roman tile roof. Numbers One to Seven and eight and nine are part of a terrace with similar construction, listed separately. Numbers 10 to 14 are on the east side. Numbers 11 and 12 are on the west side of the square, as is the larger number 24, while 16 and 17 are on the north.

References

{{reflist, 30em Grade II* listed buildings in Sedgemoor Bridgwater Streets in Somerset Garden squares