__NOTOC__ Somerton Castle is located approximately west of the village of

Boothby Graffoe Boothby Graffoe is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 223. It is situated approximately south from the city and county town of Lincoln, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, England and to the south of the city of

Lincoln, England Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, urban area of Lincoln, ...

. The site is on low-lying land between the

Lincoln Edge The Lincoln Cliff or Lincoln Edge is a portion of a major escarpment that runs north–south through Lindsey and Kesteven in central Lincolnshire and is a prominent landscape feature in a generally flat portion of the county. Towards its norther ...

and the

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversid ...

. Although Somerton Castle is in the parish of Boothby Graffoe, it is in the

Manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

of Waddington and this portion is often referred to as the ''Manor of Somerton Castle''. Antony Bek probably built the castle in 1281 and he gave it to

King Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to th ...

in 1309.

King John II of France John II (french: Jean II; 26 April 1319 – 8 April 1364), called John the Good (French: ''Jean le Bon''), was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which killed ...

was imprisoned at Somerton Castle between 1359 and 1360, having been taken prisoner after the

Battle of Poitiers The Battle of Poitiers was fought on 19September 1356 between a French army commanded by King JohnII and an Anglo- Gascon force under Edward, the Black Prince, during the Hundred Years' War. It took place in western France, south of Poi ...

. It continued as crown property until it was sold by

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

in 1628, since when the castle has continued in private ownership.

Medieval history

Antony Bek inherited Somerton from his mother, Eva de Gray, and built the castle after being granted a

licence to crenellate In medieval England, Wales and the Channel Islands a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within the ...

in 1281."Colvin" (1963), 838. In 1309 Bek gave the castle as a gift to

. The castle was found to be in poor condition at the accession of

, lead had been stolen from the towers and the great hall and the chapel, which were on the west side of the castle, were in poor repair. After the accession of Edward III in 1330, John Crabbe, a military engineer was appointed Constable of the Castle, and in autumn of 1334 King Edward visited the castle, presumably to authorise repair work. A total of £222 was spent during the next two years on rebuilding the outer drawbridge and remaking part of the moat – presumably this was the time when the outer bailey to the south of the castle was constructed. In late 1335 or early 1336 the Countess

Alice de Lacy Alice de Lacy, ''suo jure'' Countess of Lincoln, ''suo jure'' 5th Countess of Salisbury (25 December 1281 – 2 October 1348) was an English peeress. Life Born on Christmas Day 1281 at Denbigh Castle, Alice was the only daughter and heir of ...

of Bolingbroke, Countess of Lincoln, was held and raped at Somerton after being kidnapped from her castle at Bolingbroke by Baron Hugh de Fresne. They married later that year, although without royal authority and so, by order of Edward III, they were held captive in separate towers in Somerton Castle. Royal assent was granted on 20 March 1336, however de Fresne died in December 1336 and the countess Alice returned to Bolingbroke. After Crabbe's death in 1351/2, Stephen Shawe was appointed as Constable and regular repairs took place to the domestic buildings in the inner court. Further repairs and alterations took place in 1359-60 when King John II of France was held captive in the castle having been taken prisoner after the

. Sir Saier De Rochford, ancestor of the Rochford family of

Stoke Rochford Stoke Rochford is a small English village and civil parish south of Grantham in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 230 (including Easton, Lincolnshire, Easton). It has two notable Grad ...

, "an eminent soldier in the wars of France," and

High Sheriff of Lincolnshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilitie ...

, was allowed two

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

a day for the safekeeping of King John while at Somerton. By 1393 the castle was reported as being defective in ''walls, gates, towers , bridges, ditches, lead roofing , tiling, boarding, glazing and ironwork'' and would need the expenditure of £100 to repair. In 1408

King Henry VI Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne a ...

granted the castle to Sir Ralph Rochford, who was

in that year. He was to spend £112 12s. 9d on repairs during the next three years. The works carried out included making good the roof of the ''queen's hall'', with its buttery and pantry, and repairing ''the chapel and chamber of St Christopher''. The castle was held from the King by the Dukes of Clarence from 1415 until 1478, when

George, Duke of Clarence George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (21 October 144918 February 1478), was the 6th son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of English kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in th ...

was executed."Colvin" (1963), 839. The castle was allowed to fall into disrepair during this period and it suffered ''waste, dilapidation and strip'' from those who held it from the King.

Later history

Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire

The Castle was transferred to the estates of the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of ...

by Henry VII ”Colvin”, 839 and the Castle and its lands were held by De’Isney or Disney family. A Duchy of Lancaster Survey of 1601 described the castle as being ''utterly defaced and fallen almost downe to the ground'', but one of the four towers was standing almost to its full height. The property was bought from the Charles I in 1628 by the Corporation of the City of London and it then passed to the Hussey family. The print produced by

Samuel Buck Samuel Buck (1696 – 17 August 1779) and his brother Nathaniel Buck (died 1759/1774) were English engravers and printmakers, best known for their ''Buck's Antiquities'', depictions of ancient castles and monasteries. Samuel produced much ...

in 1726 is dedicated to Sir Henry Hussey, and this print shows the castle as in much the same state as described in 1601. Sir Henry left Somerton Castle to his aunt Jane Hatcher, who died in 1734 and it then passed to the Pochin family of

Barkby Barkby is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. It is situated north-east of Leicester, and only a short way from Leicester's urban sprawl in Thurmaston and Syston. Nearby villages are Beeby and ...

in Leicestershire, who sold the castle to Montague Cholmeley of Easton in 1780. Somerton, Boothby Graffoe,

The property and estate were bought from

Sir Montague Cholmeley, 1st Baronet Sir Montague Cholmeley, 1st Baronet (20 March 1772 – 10 March 1831) was a British politician and baronet. Early life and family Montague Cholmeley was born on 20 March 1772, the eldest son of Montague Cholmeley, of Easton, and Sarah Sibthorp ...

in 1812 by the Isaac Marfleet of

Bassingham __NOTOC__ Bassingham is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,425. The village is situated approximately south-west from the city and c ...

who had been previously leasing the castle; the property then passed on to several of the family's descendants, until it passed to the Battersby family, who sold the castle and surrounding farmland in the mid-1970s. About 2010, due to the deterioration of the fabric of the castle buildings, Somerton Castle was put on the

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

''Buildings at Risk'' register, and Ridge & Morris of Snape in Suffolk were commissioned as architects to draw up plans for the restoration of the castle Planning consents were granted by

North Kesteven North Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England. The district is located to the east of Nottinghamshire, north-east of Leicestershire and south of the city of Lincoln. Its council, North Kesteven District Council, is bas ...

District Council for additional building work, which included a new wing extending to the northwards behind the south front and also the conversion of the 19th-century farm buildings into dwellings.North Kesteven Planning 14/0292/FUL
/ref>

Architecture and visible remains

Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire 3

The medieval castle appears to have most in common in its plan and layout with later castles of the 14th century and early 15th century such as

Maxstoke Castle Maxstoke Castle is a privately owned moated castle dating from the 14th century, situated to the north of Maxstoke in Warwickshire, England. History It was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345 to a rectangular plan, ...

in Warwickshire,

Wingfield Castle Wingfield Castle in the parish of Wingfield in Suffolk, England is a fortified manor house which was the ancestral home of the Wingfield family and their heirs, the de la Pole family, created Earls and Dukes of Suffolk. It is now a private hou ...

in Suffolk and, in particular

Cooling Castle Cooling Castle is a 14th-century quadrangular castle in the village of Cooling, Kent on the Hoo Peninsula about north of Rochester. It was built in the 1380s by the Cobham family, the local lords of the manor, to guard the area against French ...

in Kent. These castles are set in moats with roughly rectangular curtain walls between corner towers. Cooling Castle was licensed to

crenellate A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

in 1381, and in front of the rectangular inner bailey is a

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

-shaped outer bailey with open-backed corner towers. This is the arrangement that is indicated in Padley's plan, even though the towers are shown as mounds at the corners. These open-backed artillery towers started appearing in Europe around 1330 and would have been familiar to John Crabbe, the Constable of the Castle, who came from

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

. In these towers the artillery would be placed on two or three floors and the open backs to the towers gave ventilation from the fumes released by igniting gunpowder. This forward defence is likely to have been placed in front of the main gate to the inner bailey of Somerton Castle, and the towers would have given the artillery a sweep of about 270º to the south of the castle. Plan of Caister Castle (1897)

A similar layout was adopted for

Sir John Fastolf Sir John Fastolf (6 November 1380 – 5 November 1459) was a late medieval English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He has enjoyed a more lasting reputation as the prototype, in some part, of Shakespeare's charact ...

's castle at Caistor by Great Yarmouth in the 1430s.

Caister Castle Caister Castle is a 15th-century moated castle situated in the parish of West Caister, some north of the town of Great Yarmouth in the English county of Norfolk (). The castle had a 100 ft (33 m) high tower and was built between 1432 and 1 ...

, built in brick, was laid out with three rectangular baileys, each of which was surrounded by a water-filled moat and fortified with open-back towers in the forward bailey. One of the corner towers of the rectangular inner bailey is much taller than the other three. Some prominent and visible

enclosures Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

still surround the site, including parts of the

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

. What remains of the castle walls are incorporated into the present farmhouse. The castle has been recognised as an important building and has been classified as a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Gallery

File:Somerton Castle-Geograph-1055631-by-Richard-Croft.jpg, Somerton Castle today File:Somerton Castle-Geograph-1055605-by-Richard-Croft.jpg, Somerton Castle File:Finials on arches in tower at Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire 04.png, Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley File:Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire 03.png, Towers at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley File:Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire 01.png, Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley File:Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire 02.png, Tower at Somerton Castle. Illustration by James Sandby Padley File:Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, 02.png, North East Tower- Interior vaulting File:Somerton Castle, Boothby Graffoe, 03.png, North East Tower - plan of interior

References

Literature

*Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989), ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Yale University Press. pg 660. *Blagg, T.M., (1933), ''Somerton Castle'' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 37 p. 49-60 *Colvin H. M. ed. (1963), ''The History of the King's Works, Vol.ii : The Middle Ages'', H.M.S.O. pp 838–39. *Padley J.S. (1851) ''Selections from the ancient monastic ecclesiastical and domestic edifices of Lincolnshire'

*Trollope E., (1857a) Trollope, E., 1857, ''The Captivity of John, King of France, at Somerton Castle'', Associated Architectural Societies' reports and papers (Lincoln, York, Northampton, Bedford, Worcester, Leicester and Sheffield) Vol. 4 p. 49-64 *Trollope, E., (1857b), ''Somerton Castle and its Builder'' Associated Architectural Societies' reports and papers (Lincoln, York, Northampton, Bedford, Worcester, Leicester and Sheffield) Vol. 4 p. 83-9

*Trollope, E.,(1882), ''Somerton Castle'', The Archaeological Journal Vol. 39 p. 180-3 *Turner T Hudson (!851/1877) 2nd ed. ''Some account of the Domestic Architecture of England, from the Conquest to the End of the 13th Century''. Parker, Oxford & Londonpp.pp172–3.

Contains 'Notes on Somerton Castle' by

Edward James Willson Edward James Willson (1787–1854) was an English people, English architect, antiquary, architectural writer, and Mayor of Lincoln, England, mayor of Lincoln in 1851–2. Life Born in Lincoln, England, Lincoln on 21 June 1787, he was the eldes ...

External links

*
"Somerton Castle"
Lincolnshire History Project, Magicjon.fsnet.co.uk (web archive)
"Somerton Castle"
Society for Lincolnshire History and Archeology (web archive) {{Portal, England Castles in Lincolnshire Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire Grade I listed castles North Kesteven District Ruins in Lincolnshire