page_title: Taunton Castle
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Taunton Castle / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Taunton Castle
context_page_description: Taunton Castle is a castle built to defend the town of Taunton, Somerset, England. It has origins in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester. The current heavily reconstructed buildings are the inner ward, which now houses the Museum of Somerset and the Somerset Military Museum. The building was designated a grade I listed building in 1952.
context_section_description: Taunton was a typical Norman keep of the first half of the twelfth century, 50 feet (15 m) long by 40 feet (12 m) wide, in three stories, with walls some 13 feet (4 m) thick. This was let into the walls of an inner ward with a stone enceinte and, there was an outer bailey represented by the modern "Castle Green". Until the late 17th century the castle was still used as a prison.
  By 1780, many parts of the castle had fallen into a bad condition and were repaired in a Georgian style by Sir Benjamin Hammet, a banker of Lombard Street, London, and the Member of Parliament for Taunton. In 1786 he purchased the grant as bailiff and keeper of Taunton Castle in the names of his sons and his nephew. He put on a new roof, inserted many windows and recast many other details all round the castle. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Great Hall was used for public meetings.
  The outer ward is now occupied by two hotels, which have been crenellated, in order to be in keeping with the genuine battlements of the inner ward. But the great gate, opening into the enclosure, where they stand, is in part a genuine antique, having the arches of an "Early Decorated " gate-house of about the time of Edward I, though the superstructure is a restoration of 1816. In 1873 it was bought by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society and between 1899 and 1900 the Great Hall was repaired and refitted as their chief museum space.  In 1908-9 the Adam Library was created to house the society's growing collection of books.
caption: Rear of the castle
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