Nunney Castle Nunney in Somerset on another grey day...
Built by a soldier returning from fighting abroad, Nunney Castle is as much the realisation of an ideal as a stronghold intended for serious defence.
It was built by a knight called John de la Mare under a royal licence issued in 1373.
Nunney Castle was extensively modernised in the late 16th century, probably by Richard Prater, a rich Londoner who bought the castle sometime after 1560.
The castle remained in the possession of the Prater family until the Civil War, when it was besieged and ruined by order of Parliament.
The shell of the tower was taken into state guardianship in 1926 and cleared of plants and rubble. At the same time both the moat and the medieval drawbridge pit beneath the far end of the bridge were re-excavated.
Now free to wander around at your leisure it is managed by English Heritage
