Bridgwater Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Bridgewater

In the civil parish of Bridgwater.
In the historic county of Somerset (Modern Authority of Somerset, 1974 county of Somerset).

Castle, built in 1202 by William de Briwere. It passed to the king in 1233 and in 1245 repairs were ordered to its motte and towers. It was mostly destroyed by Parliamentarian forces in 1645. The site was identified by excavation, and the course of the moat is visible in the cellars of nearby buildings. The only surviving remains of the castle that can be identified with certainty are the Water Gate and the remains of the curtain wall on either side of it, the latter now incorporated in the walls of modern buildings.

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle
Masonry Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is ST29873717

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 190958, 191046

County Sites and Monuments Record number; 12419, 11839 et al

• Web site links
  • http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=12419
• Books
  • Prior, Stuart, 2006, A Few Well-Positioned Castles: The Norman Art of War (Tempus) p68-109
    Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern) p69
    Dunning, Robert, 1995, Somerset Castles (Somerset Books) p14[plan] p28-30
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p225 [slight]
    Dunning, R.W. (ed), 1992, VCH Somerset Vol6 p206-7
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p441
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p194
    Michael Aston and Roger Leech, 1977, Historic towns in Somerset Vol2 p13-17
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p576
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Greswell, 1907, in Powell, Ancient Borough of Bridgwater (Bridgwater) p43-60
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p45-7
    Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol1 (London) p558
• Journal Articles
  • Sidaway, Chris, 1991, 'Bridgwater Castle, West Quay' Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol135 p169-170
    Croft, R.A., 1988, 'Somerset Archaeology 1988' Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol132 p225
    Ellis, P., 1985, 'Excavations at Friarn Street and West Quay' Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol129 p74-80
    1977, 'West Quay 1973' Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol121 p101-5
    Aston, M. (ed), 1976, ‘Somerset Archaeology 1974-75’ Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol120 p73
    M Langdon, 1972, CBA: Group 12 (Wessex) and Group 13 (South West): Archaeological review Vol7 p57
    Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280]
    Dilks, T.B., 1940, 'Bridgwater Castle and demesne' Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol86 p96-105
    Parker, G., 1877, Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol23 p33-5, 46-7
    1856, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol12 p377
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/dorseteng.html#somerset9]
    Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p422
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p162