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Farleigh Hungerford Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Farle Mountford; Farley Hungerford

In the civil parish of Norton St Philip.
In the historic county of Somerset.
Modern Authority of Somerset.
1974 county of Somerset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST80095762
Latitude 51.3167° Longitude -2.287°

Farleigh Hungerford Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Farleigh Hungerford Castle is an enclosure castle built between the late 14th century and early 15th century and situated on high ground on the south bank of a bend in the River Frome. The castle includes an inner court and outer court with natural man-made defences surrounding it. The inner court lies at the north west end of the castle and comprises a hall with curtain wall and towers. The inside of much of the keep was divided into living quarters, which included a hall and kitchen, seen now as wall footings and substructures, while the northern corner was devoted to the garden. The north east and north west towers are ruined down to basement level, but the south west and south east towers remain upstanding in part. The curtain wall stands to full height in some places and is ruinous elsewhere. The outer court is formed by a curtain wall which abuts the hall and encloses an area of circa 3000 square metres. In the outer court is a chapel, the Priest's House, and the site of the stables. Both the chapel of St Leonard and the Priest's House are still intact. The chapel, of mid 14th century date, was the parish church which was originally outside the defences whilst the Priest's House is east of the chapel and dates to the early 15th century. Whilst the north and east sides of the castle were naturaly defended by the steep scarp the west and south sides were defended by a moat. From the reign of William II to Edward III, Farleigh was held by the Montfort family and their original manor house was on the site of the castle. In 1369-70 the manor was bought by Sir Thomas de Hungerford who fortified the manor house and built the hall in 1380-90. His son, Sir Walter Hungerford, added the outer court in 1420-30 including the moat. Although the castle is said to have prospered for about 300 years, it was described as in a 'very ruinous' state by 1701. The chapel features an exquiste wall painting of St George standing, one of only four such known examples in England. (PastScape)

A royal pardon and licence to crenellate was granted in 1383 Nov 26 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling   Listing   I. O. E.
Maps >
OS getamap   Streetmap   Old-Maps   Where's the path      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   V. O. B.   EarthTools          
Air Photos > 
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Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio      

Sources of information, references and further reading

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
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Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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