Enmore Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Enmore.
In the historic county of Somerset.
Modern Authority of Somerset.
1974 county of Somerset.
Medieval County of Somerset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST23923526
Latitude 51.11160° Longitude -3.08800°

Enmore Castle has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The original castle at Enmore is said to have been pulled down in the C18, and a large mansion, of which the present house is only a remnant, was built shortly before 1779. Collinson described a dry moat surrounding the building and Mackenzie accepts this as part of the defences of the earlier manor house There is a 1792 account of a drawbridge over this moat. Now there is no trace of a moat, but its course may be represented by underground brick-lined cellarage which encloses the house on the E, W and S sides (OS record card, 1964)
No evidence of a castle before the C18, nor of a moat. The Castle was built in the 1750s. A plan of c1833 shows stew ponds in the corners of the moat, the stables were underground and not in the castle building. Part of the moat does survive on the W side but it is not at its original depth of 16ft. Most of the castle was demolished in 1834-5 and is now mostly C20. Now divided into two parts but a large area of the underground section survives (Siraut, M., 1989, per corr). (Somerset HER)

Comments

The castle name is clearly a latter one relating to the C18 house, which was built in a castellated style. The medieval precursor house of the Malet's does seem to have been a sizeable house with reasonable evidence it was moated and a suggestion it had a gatehouse and it may well have had battlements and other architectural features reflecting the knightly status of the Malet family. How much this could be described as 'fortified' is a matter of debate and opinion. Called 'possible' by David Cathcart King who usually used that term for sites he had considerable doubts about.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1307522
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 191076.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 10508.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
Books
- Dunning, Robert, 1995, Somerset Castles (Somerset Books) p. 75
  Dunning, R.W. (ed), 1992, VCH Somerset Vol. 6 p. 38-9 online transcription
  Dunning, R.W., 1991, Some Somerset Country Houses (The Dovecote Press) p. 49-53
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 446 (possible)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 57 online copy
  Collinson, J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset (Bath) Vol. 1 p. 94 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1930-2, Notes and queries for Somerset and Dorset Vol. 20 p. 1071
  1762, London Magazine p. 439

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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.

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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.

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