It was a cold January day when I walked into the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset. The castle was built by Thomas Hungerford at the end of the 14th Century, and almost doubled in size by the end of the 15th Century after his son, Walter, added the outer walls which brought the village church into the castle grounds.

The original castle had a tower in each corner as shown in the illustration below.

When Walter Hungerford increased the boundary and took the church into the castle grounds the village church was converted into the family chapel and mausoleum.

The church was very cold with several ornate chest tombs where important deceased Hungerford family members were entombed.

After leaving the church I found some steps leading to the crypt underneath which was created after 1600 to hold coffins of Hungerford family members.

The lead coffins were body shaped, and some had faces on. I thought they were a bit creepy.

The Priest’s house below, was built in 1430 to house priests but was used as a farmhouse from the 1600’s until 1959.

Reflections of windows on the glass has made the photo below a bit odd, they shouldn’t be there!

The figure on the left is wearing ‘part armour’ over a thick buffalo hide jacket, which pikemen would have worn in preparation for battle. They had to wear the armour to the battle site and it was very heavy so preferred to rely on the leather to protect them rather than full armour.The figure on the right is wearing the armour of a mounted trooper from about 1620. It all looks very uncomfortable.

I went back outside to have a good look at the ruins.

The River Frome can be seen from the castle windows.

The castle had chambers that were for ‘withdrawing’, the name which went on to be shortened to ‘drawing room’ in stately homes.

Although it was very cold I needed my sunglasses as the low winter sun was very bright.

I read all about The Lady Tower before having a good look at it.

It was thought that the 3rd wife of Lord Walter Hungerford was locked in this tower for several years and fed through a window at night by villagers, and she wrote to Thomas Cromwell to complain about it.

There wasn’t much left of the garderobe (toilet).

It was a very interesting visit and my humans wondered why they had not visited before as it is only 20 miles from our home.

600 years ago the castle inhabitants would have made and drunk mead, so before leaving I sampled some in the shop. It was very sweet and warming.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle belongs to English Heritage and is open on Saturdays and Sundays. There is an entrance fee, but as we are members of CADW (Welsh Heritage) we visited for free. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

For more information see:https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/farleigh-hungerford-castle/

Horace the Alresford Bear 11/1/2026