Pembridge Castle

SO 41 NE WELSH NEWTON CP PEMBRIDGE CASTLE

4/173 Pembridge Castle

25/2/66

GV I

Former border castle, now farmhouse. Late C12 or early C13 keep, C13 foundations to gate house, curtain walls and undercroft to chapel, C17 domestic buildings, substantially restored and rebuilt early C20. Coursed and squared sandstone rubble, ashlar dressings, slate roofs. Rectangular in plan with curtain walls and gate house to south angle, circular keep to west, chapel block and small circular tower to north and further quadrant-shaped tower to east with bartizan, the domestic buildings towards west of courtyard with hall block to north-west and kitchen block to south-west. Gate house: two storeys and basement. Segmental pointed arch to entrance with chamfered jambs and grooves for portcullis flanked by two round towers with lancet windows. Four storey keep with two moulded string courses, C20 crenellated parapet, loop windows, small pro- jecting garderobe, now with inserted C20 window. Chapel block: two storeys with undercroft, two (4-light C17 square-headed wooden framed windows, one with chamfered mullions, the other with ovolo moulded mullions (probably imported). Hall block to north-west: two storeys with project- ing porch and tall 2-light traceried window with traceried transom light- ing staircase to right. Curtain walls with C20 crenellated parapet, mainly loop embrasures and cruciform loops to north-east wall. Corbelled circular bartizan to east. Interior: C15 fireplace with moulded jambs and square head, herringbone brickwork to back in north-west wall of upper room of gate house. Chapel contains imported furnishings, wooden screen and panelling. Moated site. The castle belonged to the Wakes and then the Mortimer family in the C14 and C15. It was Royalist during the Civil War and suffered greatly during the siege of 1644 when largely ruined. During the early C20 the castle belonged to Thomas Bartlett, a doctor and antiquarian and bishop of a little known Anglo-Orthodox sect, who restored it to its present state. (RCHM, p 250).

Listing NGR: SO4880019289