Tucked away in a deep wooded valley, Berry Pomeroy Castle is the perfect romantic ruin with a colourful history of intrigue.
Within the 15th-century defences of the Pomeroy family castle, looms the dramatic ruined shell of its successor, the great Elizabethan mansion of the Seymours. Begun in around 1560 and ambitiously enlarged from around 1600, their mansion was intended to become the most spectacular house in Devon, a match for Longleat and Audley End. Never completed, and abandoned by 1700, it became the focus of blood-curdling ghost stories, recounted in the audio tour.
The location of the castle makes it ideal for walkers who can explore the nearby beautiful woodland or you can enjoy a light lunch, home made cake or restorative cup of tea in the cafe. Within a short drive are Totnes Castle and Dartmouth Castle, making it an ideal day out for families.
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/berry-pomeroy-castle/
Berry Pomeroy Castle Berry Pomeroy, nr Totnes TQ9 6LJ
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Photo by Richard Croft https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4661269
Berry Pomeroy is now known to be a later 15th-century fortress on a previously unused site, adapted into a mansion in several stages between about 1560 and about 1610. It was previously wrongly believed to be a castle of Norman origin, transformed into a Tudor mansion by Protector Somerset between 1547 and 1552. Versions of these misconceptions are still perpetuated in many publications and websites.
The transformation of our knowledge of the castle’s history resulted from the series of archaeological excavations, covering about half its surface area, begun in 1980 and effectively completed by 1996, latterly under the direction of Stewart Brown. The results of these, together with thorough surveys of the standing structure, specialist reports on the finds, rediscovered wall-painting, gunports and dendrochronology, and an exhaustive documentary history by Jean Manco, were published by the Devon Archaeological Society in 1996.
Much new light has also been shed on the later 17th-century use and history of the castle by the comprehensive room-by-room inventory of the property made on Sir Edward’s death in 1688, recently rediscovered in its complete form, and by the Revd John Prince’s manuscript biography of Sir Edward Seymour IV. The latter is contained in a second, unpublished manuscript volume of Prince’s Worthies of Devon, seemingly first noticed during the compilation of the 2011 English Heritage guidebook to the castle.
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/berry-pomeroy-castle/history/research/
S Brown (ed), ‘Berry Pomeroy Castle’, Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society, 54 (1996 for 1998), 1–335.
http://www.devonarchaeologicalsociety.org.uk/devon-archaeology/
Devonshire Association Berry Pomeroy Castle (1915) By Mr H. Michell Whitley. (Read at Exeter, 21st July, 1915.)
Amongst the castles of Devon, two stand out pre-eminent for the magnitude of the ruins and beauty of situation, Berry Pomeroy and Okehampton.
Each is built on a rocky spur of the hills, overlooking a lovely valley, and each is encircled with finely timbered woods, and this is especially the case with Berry Pomeroy, which is renowned for the magnificent trees overshadowing the glen through which the approach road runs.
https://devonassoc.org.uk/devoninfo/berry-pomeroy-castle-1915/
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Historic England Berry Pomeroy Castle was a defended residence into which was built a Tudor Castle. The first house was built in the late 15th century as a residence for the Pomeroys. Such houses were often the homes of local landowners, and generally comprised a hall, private chambers, service rooms, kitchens and accommodation for retainers arranged around a single or double courtyard. Usually such houses were built of stone and served as both homes and venues in which to entertain. The defended residence at Berry Pomeroy is unusual not only as a rare survival of this class of monument, but as a defended example and because it exhibits a number of architectural features which are good examples of the military technology of the time. Within the earlier defended residence, a Tudor mansion was later constructed and this forms much of what remains visible today. The mansion was constructed in two stages. The earlier stage, which involved the demolition of much of the interior of the 15th century residence, was itself remodelled and enlarged as part of the later prodigy house which was never completed. The earlier stage is of interest because it appears to have been a pioneering example of the high compact unadorned houses that became a feature of later Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture. Berry Pomeroy, in its present form, is a particularly impressive ruin in its Tudor manifestation, and is associated with a notable county family descended from the Great Protector Somerset. Recent excavations have added to our understanding of the site.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017855
[1961] Berry Pomeroy was acquired by Ralf de la Pomerai in 1066. There is no evidence of a castle here before c.1300, although a Crown survey of 1292 recorded a manor house. In c.1300 the de la Pomerais built the existing fortified castle and in 1548 Sir Thomas Pomeroy sold it to the Lord Protector Somerset whose son, Sir Edward Seymour, built a great mansion within the walls and lived there from 1575 to 1593. Sir Edward Seymour's son, Edward (died 1613) was also responsible for some of the building. Sir Edward Seymour (1633-1708) moved to Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and Berry Pomeroy Castle was abandoned and in ruins by early C18. It is now Scheduled Ancient Monument.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1108571
Wikipedia Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th century. By 1547 the family was in financial difficulties and sold the lands to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Apart from a short period of forfeit to the Crown after Edward's execution, the castle has remained in the Seymour family ever since, although it was abandoned in the late 17th century when the fourth baronet moved to Wiltshire.
After lying in ruins for a hundred years, in the 19th century the castle became celebrated as an example of the "picturesque", and it became a popular tourist attraction, a status which it retains today—aided by its reputation of being haunted. Between 1980 and 1996 the castle was subjected to extensive archaeological excavations that clarified much of its history and overturned previously held beliefs regarding its age and cause of destruction.
