page_title: Somerton Castle
section_title: Architecture and visible remains
hierarchical_section_title: Somerton Castle / Architecture and visible remains
caption_attribution_description: A plan of Caister Castle, taken from: Title: "The Castles of England: their story and structure ... With ... illustrations and ... plans" Author: MACKENZIE, James Dixon - Sir, Bart Contributor: MACNAIRN, J. Shelfmark: "British Library HMNTS 10369.v.7." Volume: 01 Page: 348 Place of Publishing: London Date of Publishing: 1897 Publisher: W. Heinemann Issuance: monographic Identifier: 002322661 Note: The colours, contrast and appearance of these illustrations are unlikely to be true to life. They are derived from scanned images that have been enhanced for machine interpretation and have been altered from their originals. If you wish to purchase a high quality copy of the page that this image is drawn from, please order it here. Please note that you will need to enter details from the above list - such as the shelfmark, the page, the book's volume and so on - when filling out your order. Explore: Find this item in the British Library catalogue, 'Explore'. Open the page in the British Library's itemViewer (page: 348) Download the PDF for this book Click here to see all the illustrations in this book and click here to browse other illustrations published in books in the same year. Please click on the tags shown on the right-hand side for other ways to browse the illustrations.
context_page_description: Somerton Castle is located approximately one mile west of the village of Boothby Graffoe in Lincolnshire, England and to the south of the city of Lincoln, England. The site is on low-lying land between the Lincoln Edge and the River Trent. Although Somerton Castle is in the parish of Boothby Graffoe, it is in the Manor of Waddington and this portion is often referred to as the Manor of Somerton Castle. Antony Bek probably built the castle in 1281 and he gave it to King Edward II in 1309. King John II of France was imprisoned at Somerton Castle between 1359 and 1360, having been taken prisoner after the Battle of Poitiers. It continued as crown property until it was sold by Charles I in 1628, since when the castle has continued in private ownership.
context_section_description: The medieval castle appears to have most in common in its plan and layout with later castles of the 14th century and early 15th century such as Maxstoke Castle in Warwickshire, Wingfield Castle in Suffolk and, in particular Cooling Castle in Kent. These castles are set in moats with roughly rectangular curtain walls between corner towers. Cooling Castle was licensed  to crenellate in 1381, and in front of the rectangular inner bailey is a trapezoid-shaped outer bailey with open-backed corner towers. This is the arrangement that is indicated in Padley's plan, even though the towers are shown as mounds at the corners. These open-backed artillery towers started appearing in Europe around 1330 and would have been familiar to John Crabbe, the Constable of the Castle, who came from Flanders. In these towers the artillery would be placed on two or three floors and the open backs to the towers gave ventilation from the fumes released by igniting gunpowder. This forward defence is likely to have been placed in front of the main gate to the inner bailey of Somerton Castle, and the towers would have given the artillery a sweep of about 270º to the south of the castle. 
  A similar layout was adopted for Sir John Fastolf's castle at Caistor by Great Yarmouth in the 1430s. Caister Castle, built in brick, was laid out with three rectangular baileys, each of which was surrounded by a water-filled moat and fortified with open-back towers in the forward bailey. One of the corner towers of the rectangular inner bailey is much taller than the other three.
  Some prominent and visible enclosures still surround the site, including parts of the moat. What remains of the castle walls are incorporated into the present farmhouse. The castle has been recognised as an important building and has been classified as a Grade I listed building.
caption: Caister Castle from  J. D. Mackenzie's The Castles of England: their story and structure
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