An interesting piece of history and some dubious tourism
Welcome to Farleigh Hungerford Castle.
Feeling ancient myself, I like to visit old things when I can. There’s something about looking at architecture, ruined or otherwise, that has stood, or crumbled, for centuries more than I’ve blundered around the planet. One of our last days out during this year’s break was at Farleigh Hungerford Castle. The ruin is on the border between Somerset and Wiltshire. By ruin, I don’t mean another English Heritage pile of rocks in the middle of a field surrounded by six square feet of protective metal fence. Whereas those do exist, this one has some walls to look at, a chapel and a crypt and an indoor display. There is an invaluable audio tour. Always get the audio tour, you pick up some fascinating facts you wouldn’t otherwise know. And sometimes the tour tells you things you wish you’d never heard. More of that later.
English castles have a somewhat romantic air to them. They always seem to conjure up visions of wealth, prosperity and happiness, even if you did have to sit over a hole for a toilet and basically relieve yourself into the castle grounds. I’ll take modern life and the flush toilet, thank you.
Sir Thomas Hungerford built the castle in around 1380. During its history, the family temporarily lost the castle in the Wars of the…
