14th Century Nunney castle
It was only in 1373 that John de la Mare obtained from King Edward III a licence to build a castle at Nunney although in 1259 Henry de Montfort had obtained from Henry III the right to hold a Market in Nunney and an Annual Fair which is now held on the first Saturday in August each year.
In 1577 John de la Mare’s heirs sold the Castle to Richard Prater who made various structural alterations.
In 1645 on 18th September, towards the end of the Civil War, two regiments under General Fairfax with two cannons (part of Cromwell’s New Model Army) besieged the castle, which was then held by Colonel Richard Prater on behalf of the King. The castle garrison consisted of only eight Irishman and once the wall was breached Colonel Prater surrendered. Soon after the fall of the Castle Parliament voted that all strongholds which had resisted them should be "slighted" i.e. partially destroyed and rendered indefensible. It is probable that the floors and partitions were removed at this time. Colonel Prater, on his surrender, offered to hold the castle for Cromwell. An offer which was refused and the castle was confiscated.
On Christmas Day 1910 much of the north wall, which had so long survived the damage done by the guns in 1645, collapsed.
In 1926 the Castle was put into the care of what is now English Heritage. It was then cleared of its thick growths of ivy and consolidated. To the present day English Heritage have maintained the Castle in its 1927 condition.
The castle proper consists of a single tall block within a very confined moated area, which suggests a reversion to the hall-keep of Norman days. Nunney is one of the earliest of these revivals and in many aspects is unique.
The moat is 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep in the centre and originally come right up to the castle walls.
A fixed bridge, on the site of the present one, originally came as far as the abutment now visible in the pit under the inner end of the bridge. Without the water defence the main entrance would have been very inadequately protected, as it had no portcullis or even provision for a draw-bar. The only other defence and would have been crossfire from loops in the flanking towers.
Outside the moat on three sides there originally stood a 12 feet high curtain-wall. The fourth side was said to be "defended by the brook"!
The servants had their rather dark living quarters on the first floor and the gentlefolk on the upper two where the lighting was much better. The stairs having been destroyed there is now no means of access to these upper stories. The positions of the windows and other holes for floor-joists clearly show the layout. No indications of partition-walls remain. They were probably timber-framed.
The Great Hall was on the second floor; a fireplace having been added in the 16th century.
On the third floor there were two solars or private chambers. Through one of these was a chapel; the altar-slab of which with its five consecration-crosses still exists.
The Castle as it looked in 1743
The Castle today by moonlight
The west side of the Castle showing where the wall, having been damaged by Fairfax's cannons in 1645, finally collapsed in 1910
