Nunney Castle

Nunney Castle. A Medieval Masterpiece. , This impressive tower was the architectural centrepiece of a castle built by a knight called John de la Mare under a royal licence issued in 1373. The tower formerly stood within a larger courtyard enclosed on three sides by a wall and on the fourth by the brook., Sir John was a figure of relatively modest means who was beginning to enjoy royal favour. The new castle displayed his growing power in the locality. The tower is laid out on a four-lobed plan and encircled by a moat. On each corner, there is a turret formerly capped by a conical roof. Inside the tower was a kitchen on the ground floor, a hall on the second floor and withdrawing chambers above. with a chapel inside a corner tower. , Nunney Castle was extensively modernized in the late 16th century, probably by Richard Prater, a rich Londoner who bought the castle sometime after 1560. The castle remained in the possession of the Prater family until the Civil War, when it was besieged and ruined by order of Parliament. The shell of the tower was taken into state guardianship in 1926. Five years later, the moat was re-excavated.