Newton St Loe Castle was a fortified manor house

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

 in the village of Newton St Loe, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England.

Details

Newton St Loe Castle was originally built as a fortified manor house, probably in the 12th century, surrounded by Newton Park

Newton Park

Newton Park is an 18th-century landscape garden, designed by the landscape gardener Capability Brown, and now owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.Newton Park was laid out on land containing the 14th century keep and gateway of St Loe's Castle, a fortified medieval manor house, Elizabethan farm...

, then a medieval deer park

Medieval deer park

A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...

. At the start of the 14th century, a keep

Keep

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

 was built on the site as part of a wider programme of work by the St Loe family, creating a rectangular, courtyard castle with four corner towers, protected by a ditch on three sides. In 1375 the site was inherited by Elizabeth, the last of the St Loe family, who married William, Baron Botreaux

Baron Botreaux

Baron Botreaux is a title in the Peerage of England, created in 1368.The title was created by writ of summons, by Edward III to William de Botreaux, 1st Baron Botreaux in 1368....

. Sir Walter Hungerford

Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford

Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford KG was an English knight, landowner, from 1400 to 1414 Member of the House of Commons, of which he became Speaker, then was an Admiral and peer....

 built a new gatehouse

Gatehouse

A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...

 at the castle during the first half of the 15th century, which features turrets, machicolation

Machicolation

A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...

s and an early gunport.

In the 19th century the castle and the surrounding park were heavily landscaped to produce the current country house and gardens; only the renovated keep and the gatehouse survive intact, although a nearby mound marks one of the corner towers of the 14th century castle. Today the site is leased by Bath Spa University

Bath Spa University

Bath Spa University is a university based in, and around, Bath, England. The institution was previously known as Bath College of Higher Education, and later Bath Spa University College...

 and both the keep and the gatehouse are scheduled monuments, holding a Grade 1 listed building status.