Walton Castle: A Seventeenth-Century Hunting Lodge in Clevedon
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page5 sections
History
Walton Castle is a seventeenth-century hunting lodge in Clevedon, North Somerset, United Kingdom, built by John Poulett between 1615 and 1620 to resemble a medieval castle. Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett, was a Somerset Member of Parliament.
Landholding and decline
The Domesday Book, William I’s survey of English land and resources completed in 1086, lists the Walton holding as belonging to Gunni the Dane. Poulett’s fortunes declined during the English Civil War, the 1642–1651 conflict between Royalist and Parliamentary forces. By 1791, the castle was derelict and being used as a dairy by a local farmer.
Ownership and restoration
In the early nineteenth century, Philip John Miles bought the manor of Walton in Gordano, which included the castle. The property then passed by inheritance through the Miles family. In 1975, Sir William Miles offered to transfer the ruin to the public if funds could be raised for its preservation. The plan fell through when the estimated cost rose substantially, and a separate proposal to establish a trust also failed.
In 1979, Sir William’s daughter and her husband, Martin Sessions-Hodge, spent more than a year restoring the ruin. Rai and Margarita Hamilton bought the castle in 1984 and made further alterations; a restoration that year was credited to Margarita Hamilton. Walton Castle received Grade II listing on 22 July 1987, a designation for buildings of special architectural or historic interest that provides statutory protection. Unauthorized removal of crenellations later led to some alterations being reversed.
Remains
Walton Castle stands on a hill in Clevedon, on the site of an earlier Iron Age hill fort, a fortified settlement built on elevated ground.
House and crenellations
The ruin was converted into a house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. The castle has crenellations, the notched battlements along the top of a wall.
