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Richmont Castle, East Harptree
Also known as, or recorded in historical
documents as; Estharpetre; Harpestre
In the civil parish of East Harptree.
In the historic county of Somerset (Modern Authority of Bath and North East Somerset, 1974 county of Avon).
Medieval castle mentioned in the reign of Stephen and destroyed during the reign of King Henry VIII. Parts of the curtain wall survives for a length of 30m and in places it is 3m thick and 2.2m high. Post mortum inquisition of Thomas de Gourney in 1343 records 'he held nothing of the King in chief, etc., but rendered 6s. 8d. yearly to the King for licence to crenellate (karnellandi) the castle of Estharpetre' Coulson writes "writ of Certiorari produced a new inquisition which omitted this detail [the yearly fee] (August 1347). There is no enrolment as calendared, so the licence was probably cancelled for non-payment. It was probably a Hanaper fee, due to be collected by the sheriff, wrongly entered as annual." I would add the speculation that perhaps the death of Thomas was the reason for the none payment and that 'yearly' is an error for 'to be paid this year'.
This site has been described as a;
Masonry Castle
Timber Castle.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry footings remains.
A Royal licence
to crenellate was
granted in 1343? but
then revoked.
This site is a scheduled
monument protected by law.
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is ST562558
PastScape number;
197292
Books
- Prior, Stuart, 2006, A Few Well-Positioned Castles: The Norman Art of War (Tempus) p68-109
Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses Vol3 (Cambridge) p695 [Where date is given as 1343]
Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern) p77
Dunning, Robert, 1995, Somerset Castles (Somerset Books) p45
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p225 [slight]
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p443
Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
Garlick, Tom, 1972, Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p22-3
Pevsner, N., 1958, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth) p188
Potter, K.R. (ed), 1955, Gesta Stephani, the Deeds of Stephen (London: Nelson)
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p67-8
Journal Articles
- Coulson, C., 1994, 'Freedom to Crenellate by Licence - An Historiographical Revision' Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol38 p121
Russell, J.R., 1984, ‘East Harptree, Richmont Castle’ in Iles, R., ‘Avon Archaeology 1983’ Bristol and Avon Archaeology Vol3 p61-2
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents
- This section is far from complete and the secondary
sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Calendar of Inquistions, Edward III Vol8 p287 No434
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/dorseteng.html#somerset19]
Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p427, 430
Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol5 p85, 107
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