England · Restored
Bickleigh Castle
Bickleigh Castle is a fortified manor house complex on the banks of the River Exe in Devon, England, composed of buildings from several periods arranged around a central courtyard. Surviving elements include an early Norman gatehouse, a medieval chapel, the 15th-century Old Court and other domestic ranges; much of the main castellated block was demolished in the 1640s. The site is now used for events and is open to the public by appointment.
Its prime
1600
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1600
What Bickleigh Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact fortified manor grouping of red-brown rubble stone ranges clustered around a central courtyard beside the River Exe. The principal front is a rectangular three-storey block with projecting square corner towers/turrets, tall mullioned windows and a low parapet/roofline punctuated by tall chimneys and a flag. A separate three-storey Norman gatehouse with a central carriage arch leads into the courtyard; a small stone chapel sits close to the river and remnants of a moat and curtain wall enclose the site.
Its story
The story of Bickleigh Castle.
Bickleigh Castle is a fortified manor house on the banks of the River Exe in Devon, once considerably larger, a water castle whose surviving buildings sit around a central courtyard, from an early Norman gatehouse to a medieval chapel and the 15th-century Old Court. The Old Court was built in the mid-15th century as a magistrates' court for Thomas, 6th Earl of Devon, who was executed after the Battle of Towton in 1461.
In the 15th century the Courtenay family built a mansion on the site, incorporating some of the earlier buildings, and the Courtenays and Carews lived there until the English Civil War. A carved overmantel of about 1550 records the families' darkest hour: the trial and execution of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, Sir Nicholas Carew and Henry Pole at the Tower of London in January 1539, after the alleged 'Exeter Conspiracy'.
The Carews' Royalist sympathies, and the castle's use as a stronghold in the war, brought a "slighting" that destroyed the main manor house and inner keep. The Carews owned the estate until 1924; restoration followed in the 1920s and 1930s under Francis Harper and Lt Col Jasper Henson. Sir Thomas Carew's 18th-century fish ponds, made from the remnants of the Norman moat, survive in the grounds, and the castle now serves principally as a wedding venue.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1600.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Bickleigh Castle, including 4 interiors: gatehouse carriage arch into the courtyard, old court, great hall interior, chapel interior with 15th-century wagon roof and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Recreate Bickleigh Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Bickleigh Castle.
The families that held Bickleigh Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Courtenay
Built a mansion on the site in the 15th century; the family lived at Bickleigh until the English Civil War.
Carew
Lived at Bickleigh from the 15th century and owned the estate until 1924; slighted for their Royalist sympathies in the Civil War.
Nearby
