Sydney Gardnor JarmanA Handbook of St. Mary’s Church, Bridgwater (1885) An interesting relic of the church [St Mary’s] may now be found at ‘the Castle’, a quaintly built residence in Queen Street, the property of Mr Hook of ‘the Golden Key’ [The Dragon House on Fore Street]. Here may be seen the old south door, which was replaced by a modern one at the time of Mr. James’ restoration [of the church]. There is no ornamental work about it except a neat beading around the panels, but a very interesting feature of it is the massive hinge, of true ecclesiastical type, some five or six feet long. A smaller doorway opens in the centre, and the bracket and wheel around which a weight used to run (down through a kind of box on the outside) to close the small door, are still to be seen. The original fastening and lock also remain, the latter being fixed with nuts and bolts. The door was placed in its present position by the late Mr. John Board, who built the house, of Portland cement, in a style as near as possible his idea of what William de Briwere’s famous Castle of Bridgwater was some four of five centuries previously, the site of which was where King’s Square now stands not a stone’s throw away.
John and Jack LawrenceA History of Bridgwater (2005) One of the recesses carried a statue of Napoleon (p.152)
In November 2018 the Scaffolding came down and the exterior of the building was again seen in its former glory:
Pictures of the back of Castle House in July 2008
Visit Summer 2012
Kindly Supplied by Rita and Alan Jones
The Outside of the House, looking from the east.Looking down into the burnt out roof.The ruined shell of the front of the house.The ruined shell of the front of the house.Looking down into the middle section of the house.The garret room at the back of the house.The Ground Floor at the back of the house.
Visit July 2015
The House in its protective scaffolding and temporary roof.Scroll corbel.Decorative strap work.SAVE’s experiment to repair a damaged section of wall decoration – centre – compare to the old decayed part of the left.The left hand cement window frame, in a very bad state of repair.Its corbel suitable unhappy about the situation.The right hand window frame is in better condition.Its face is broken though.A reminder of the size of SAVE’s task in conserving the building.The side wall was not decorated like the front. It is rubble constructed of red Wembdon sandstone, blue lias from the Poldens and yellow Ham stone, with the occassional brick. The materials (except the brick) are charastic of those of Bridgwater Castle and Castle House stands in its former south eastern corner.Inside, it can be seen that the rubble sits on top of a large section of brick, indicating that the stone was simply reused, rather than representing an older building. The sheer quantity of rubble stone used in Castle House might indicate an older medieval or post medieval building was demolished in order to clear the site and was at hand for the builders in 1851.The front of the roof was covered in slate…… but the back was Bridgwater tile. Note the television aerials.The turret at the front once contained the spiral staircase to reach this garret.Decoration at the front parapet.A damaged face at the center of the parapet decoration.The center of the building requires a lot of work.Note the rubble and brick construction.The original concete roof portion.The new concrete roof portion and skylight, part of SAVE’s conservation work.A brick arch, holding up a concrete roof, covered (on the outside) by Bridgwater tiles.More rubble stone construction. The grotesques surrounding an empty neiche. Two neiches once contained statues. A lauging grotesque.The section above the front door in a bad way.Cement scroll and decorative face, in a good state of preservation.The downstairs front room and fireplace.The staircase. Note the concrete skirting board.Detail of the fireplace.
