Castle House is a house in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. Castle House is associated with two important Sedgemoor families, the Boards and the Ackermans; John Board (1802-1861) who extended his family's brick company into cement in 1844, and his grandson William Ackerman who joined the company in 1871 and is credited with the first ‘true’ Portland cement.’ Built in 1851 to resemble a Tudor gatehouse, the construction uses panels of prefabricated

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

, with significant further usage of concrete throughout the building.

Building

The house was built in 1851 for William Ackerman. Much of the building is made of brick but it was one of the first buildings to make extensive use of

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

for pre-cast

. The house is two storeys high and designed to look like an ornate Tudor gatehouse. Bays to the sides of the building form stairwells. The building includes many ornamental, and some structural uses of concrete demonstrating "an innovative interpretation of traditional masonry features in concrete". It was designated as a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 16 December 1974. Inside, the building includes more concrete features, such as the staircase, the handrails and the window frames.

Renovation

Castle House was a finalist in the 2nd BBC television series Restoration in 2004 and was supported by friends of

Joe Strummer John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, formed in 1976. The Clash' ...

. It is included in the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

produced by

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

, and English Heritage provided funding for the restoration project. In 2012 a grant of £300,000 was made by

NNB Generation Company Nuclear New Build Generation Company (NNB GenCo) is a subsidiary created by EDF Energy to build and then to operate two new nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom. The new plants are to be Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C and will eventual ...

(part of

Électricité de France Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...

) as part of monies paid to the local community for the development of

Hinkley Point C nuclear power station Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (HPC) is a two-unit, 3,200MWe EPR nuclear power station under construction in Somerset, England. Hinckley was one of eight possible sites announced by the British government in 2010, and in November 2012 ...

to the SAVE Trust for the restoration of Castle House. It was planned to transfer the building to the Bridgwater carnival once restoration was complete. In 2018 the scaffolding was finally removed as restoration of the façade was completed. Planning permission to convert the building into three flats had been obtained.

References

{{reflist Houses completed in 1851 Grade II* listed buildings in Sedgemoor Bridgwater Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset Grade II* listed houses in Somerset 1851 establishments in England