Sherborne, Dorset, England

The old Sherborne Castle was built by Roger De Cain, Bishop of Salisbury in the early 1100's near Castleton in Dorset. Bishop Roger was the Chancellor to King Henry I.

The sturcture is surrounded by a moat and had extensive earthwork defences. Towers were at each corner of the rectangular shape. On the northern edge it had a North Gate and Barbican which was the main entrance to the castle. There were twelve buildings making up the inner bailey.

Sir Walter Raleigh obtained the lease for Sherborne Castle in 1594 and built another building on the property. This was Sherborne Lodge. The English Civil War brought the original castle to ruin. Subsequently Sherborne Lodge became known as the Castle.

The original kitchen is still here along with the Tudor kitchens that were built later. These kitchens were used to prepare banquets. Quite a large portion of the curtain walls still stand. There is enough of the southwestern Gatehouse left to see the details of the original building.

Through the early and mid-18th century Robert Digby laid the present castle gardens, including the 1753 lake designed by Lancelot Brown, which separates the old and new castles. The ruins of the old castle are part of the gardens, being conspicuous amongst the trees across the lake.

INTERESTING FACTS

Prince William of Orange entertained at Sherborne Castle in 1688.
George III visited in 1789.
The Castle became a Red Cross Hospital for wounded soldiers during WWI.
It was the Commando Headquarters for the D-Day landings during WWII.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

HOME