Ina Cottage

Ina Cottage is a large red brick house that was part of the Taunton Castle complex and formerly served as a gatekeeper's house. It dates from the late 18th century to early 19th century and was altered around 1860. The building has three storeys and features a pantile roof with projecting eaves. There are large brick stacks set diagonally on the left gable and a stringcourse above the ground floor. The façade has two windows per storey, mostly three-light casements with some leaded glass in the upper storey, all under cambered heads. As of 1974, the windows were boarded up.

To the right, there is a brick archway with roll moulding and a segmental head, topped with an ashlar keystone that features a finely carved Wyvern. A wrought-iron gate is also present. Inside the passageway, there are three 19th-century stop-chamfered beams. The corbels supporting the middle beam display early 13th-century stiff-leaf foliage, with the north side being a fine copy of the 'toothache man' from the south transept capital at Wells Cathedral. There is a single-light traceried window in the left wall, along with a wrought-iron gate that used to provide access to the Castle grounds. Ina Cottage is an interesting building with a significant place in the recent history of the Castle and forms a group with all the listed buildings on Castle Green.