We seem to have been out adventuring quite a bit, Watchet, Ilminster, and today in search of Down End/Downend Castle. Husband had been looking at maps of Somerset again, and came across the site of the castle in Down End or Downend, the parish of Puriton. Puriton is a village and parish right at the west end of the Polden Hills – we had explored it before as we’d often driven past a sign for it and had eventually gone to explore it. There’s a church dedicated to St Michael and All the Angels which is quite unusual round here.
We set off this afternoon in search of Down End, without much expectation of seeing a magnificent crenellated fortification – I think we would have heard about it earlier if it had been of significance. We turned off the main road and into a residential area – Down End, squished between the A38 to the west, the A39 to the south, and the M5 to the east. We crept around, by bungalows with well kept gardens, but there was no sign of anything resembling what had been the site of a motte and bailey castle. There was pasture land rising to the north, but it was semi-obscured by trees, but we reckoned it would have been a good site a thousand years ago to have some sort of fortification. Once home and having a cup of tea we discovered we were correct.
You can find a lot of information about it here:
https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/11447
It was a motte with two baileys, possibly built about 1100, possibly by the de Columbers, on the site of an old Viking settlement and fortification. It was excavated in 1908 – maybe it’s due for a new excavation – although it was “evaluated” in 2010. The area is so near the sea, that it’s not surprising the Vikings were all along the coast and hinterland. Supposedly they also visited our little village of Uphill – but that maybe just a local legend.
My featured image is of the fabulous Goodrich Castle in Ross-on-Wye, slightly older and definitely bigger than Down End Castle.
Lois Elsden 