Dunster Castle, Somerset

House entrance
House entrance
National Trust
I first visited Dunster Castle some years ago but this account is from April 2019. Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo-Saxon period. After the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century, William de Mohun constructed a timber castle on the site as part of the pacification of Somerset. A stone shell keep was built on the motte by the start of the 12th century, and the castle survived a siege during the early years of the Anarchy. At the end of the 14th century the de Mohuns sold the castle to the Luttrell family, who continued to occupy the property until the late 20th century.

The castle was expanded several times by the Luttrell family during the 17th and 18th centuries; they built a large manor house within the Lower Ward of the castle in 1617, and this was extensively modernised, first during the 1680s and then during the 1760s. The medieval castle walls were mostly destroyed following the siege of Dunster Castle at the end of the English Civil War, when Parliament ordered the defences to be slighted to prevent their further use. In the 1860s and 1870s, the architect Anthony Salvin was employed to remodel the castle to fit Victorian tastes; this work extensively changed the appearance of Dunster to make it appear more Gothic and Picturesque.

Following the death of Alexander Luttrell in 1944, the family was unable to afford the death duties on his estate. The castle and surrounding lands were sold off to a property firm, the family continuing to live in the castle as tenants. The Luttrells bought back the castle in 1954, but in 1976 Colonel Walter Luttrell gave Dunster Castle and most of its contents to the National Trust, which operates it as a tourist attraction. It is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument. (source: Wikipedia).

The interior of the house is interesting and various rooms on the ground and first floors can be seen. The gatehouse and other castle parts remain, but if you are expecting a medieval castle, look elsewhere!

The site has a number of pleasant walks curving around the hill. The top of the hill (above the house) is flat and laid as an open lawn. Below the hill is an old watermill to the south and the village of Dunster to the west. A folly tower tops a nearby hill to the north-east.

There are foot entrances from the village, but if arriving by car, the car park entrance is on the A39 north of the village.

House from below
House from below
Mill interior
Mill interior
House front
House front
Room
Room
Ceiling
Ceiling
Room
Room
Room
Room
Conservatory
Conservatory

Hall, Devon

front Privately Owned

Unusually, the name of this property is just ‘Hall’. I visited Hall under the ‘Invitation to View’ scheme.  The present house was built in the Victorian period on the site of two earlier houses.  Only ground floor rooms are open to visitors and these have some interesting contents, including some carved wood panels from one of the earlier houses.  At the back of the house is the service or North wing, unused since the 1940’s and mostly in a derelict condition. The tour concludes in the impressive Great Hall, of medieval appearance but built as the last phase of the house construction.

Most of the numerous outbuildings predate the house. There are walled gardens, one of which once contained heated greenhouses. A medieval barn remains in a perilous condition and there is in interesting granary raised on pillars to deter vermin.

Great Hall on left
Great Hall on left
Cows in front of Hall
Cows in front of Hall
Former Orangery
Former Orangery
Walled garden
Walled garden

Clevedon Court, Somerset

Entrance front National Trust

The house is of medieval origin, remodelled in Tudor times by the Wake family and further modernised in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Elton family. The floor plan is somewhat irregular. The principal downstairs room is the double-height Great Hall. A fine staircase leads up to the Thackeray Room which commemorates the house’s literary connections. Also on this floor is the large State Room, now set up as a bedroom. Adjoining it is the restored Chapel, with a fine rectangular stained-glass window with reticulated tracery.

Downstairs on the east side of the screens passage is the Justice Room, originally a medieval buttery for beer butts, and now a museum room for a collection of colourful Nailsea glassware. From the screens passage, another passage leads to a triangular courtyard. beyond is the Old Kitchen, a much altered double height room now used as an exhibition space. The Old Kitchen predates the other parts of the house.
Outside, a steeply terraced garden with summerhouses rises behind the house to the wooded land beyond.

Great Hall
Great Hall
State Room
State Room
Chapel window
Chapel window
Glasswork display
Glasswork display
Rear of house
Rear of house
View from top of garden
From top of garden

Holdenby, Northants.

House frontage Privately Owned

I visited Holdenby some years ago but have no record of the details. The recent visit was in April 2019.  The core of the house is the remains of the kitchen wing of a vast Elizabethan palace, restored and extended in the Victorian era.  Two unusual arches, once part of an entrance court, stand in the grounds.  The house is open to the public on only a few days of the year. The tour includes the entrance hall, the boudoir (sic) the piano collection room which contains a number of antique pianos and other instruments, the Pytchley Room (with sporting pictures), the Ballroom, the Inner Hall, the Library and the Dining Room.

The grounds include smaller areas of formal garden, a kitchen garden, a primitive-looking replica wattle & daub cottage and a falconry.

Below the house is an interesting church, now in the care of a preservation trust.

Nearby church
Nearby church
Church wall painting
Church wall painting
Church altar
Church altar
Ornamental Tudor arch
Ornamental Tudor arch
Replica cottage
Replica cottage