England · Partial ruin
Someries Castle
Someries Castle is a 15th-century fortified manor house in the parish of Hyde near Luton, Bedfordshire, built by Sir John Wenlock. Although always called a castle, the surviving fabric is principally the brick gatehouse which incorporates a chapel and lodge; the main mansion was never fully completed and was partly demolished in the 18th century.
Its prime
1470
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1470
What Someries Castle looked like in its prime.
A low-profile 15th-century fortified manor of early red brick, dominated by a projecting brick gatehouse that incorporates a chapel and adjoining lodge; the surviving masonry is exposed English-made brickwork rather than dressed stone. The mansion comprised enclosing brick ranges around a central courtyard with nearby formal garden earthworks visible in the surrounding groundplan; roofs and timber fittings would have completed the ranges at the building's prime.
Its story
The story of Someries Castle.
Sir John Wenlock and the Building of Someries, 1430–1471
Someries takes its name from William de Someries, an earlier resident of the site, though the term "castle" is a misnomer for what was in fact a fortified manor house. Sir John Wenlock acquired the site in 1430 and began building a new brick mansion, regarded as one of the first brick buildings in England. The house was left unfinished by Wenlock, as the Tudor historian John Leland later noted; work halted after his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, and his ghost is reputed to haunt the site.
The Rotheram Family, Demolition and Reuse, 15th–19th Centuries
The site passed to the Rotheram family, and the unfinished mansion was partly demolished in the 18th century. What survives is the brick gatehouse, incorporating a chapel and lodge. Earthworks on the site, once thought to belong to an earlier manor house, are now considered part of the 15th-century mansion's formal garden, and bricks salvaged from the mansion were reused in nearby 19th-century farm buildings.
Scheduled Monument and Public Access, 1924–2008
Someries has been a scheduled monument since 1924. The site closed to the public in February 2007 so that the structure could be made safe, work that saw it surrounded by scaffolding which damaged the original brickwork; it reopened in 2008.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1470.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Someries Castle, including 3 interiors: gatehouse passage, chapel (within gatehouse), lodge rooms (within gatehouse). 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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Clans who held Someries Castle.
The families that held Someries Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Wenlock
Site acquired by Sir John Wenlock in 1430; he began building the mansion.
Rotheram
The site passed to the Rotheram family.
Nearby
