Tiverton Castle

In 1106 Henry I granted the large and important manor of Tiverton to Richard de Redvers, who built the castle above the banks of the Exe; the Norman motte dates from that year. His son Baldwin de Redvers was created 1st Earl of Devon by the Empress Matilda during the Anarchy, probably in early 1141. The 7th Redvers earl died in 1262 without progeny, and the earldom passed to his sister Isabella de Forz, who became Countess of Devon in her own right and held Tiverton until her death in 1293.

Isabella de Forz died without surviving progeny, and her heir was found to be her second cousin once removed, Hugh de Courtenay, feudal baron of Okehampton and great-grandson of Robert de Courtenay by Mary de Redvers. Summoned to Parliament as Lord Courtenay in 1299, he was declared 1st Earl of Devon of the second creation in 1335. Tiverton was the principal seat of the Courtenay earls throughout the medieval period, among them William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, whose wife Catherine of York was a daughter of Edward IV and aunt to Henry VIII. Catherine's son Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter and 2nd Earl of Devon, was implicated in a plot and executed by Henry VIII in 1539.

After Henry Courtenay's attainder, Henry VIII granted Tiverton to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, whom John Leland recorded holding it in 1540. Under Edward VI it went to the king's uncle and Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, apparently by an exchange of lands with Russell. Somerset was executed by his nephew in 1552, and the king re-granted Tiverton to Sir Henry Gates, whose brother Sir John supported Lady Jane Grey's claim; Sir Henry thus fell under suspicion, and on Mary's accession in 1553 was tried for treason and attainted. He escaped execution and was pardoned that year, but his lands were not restored.

Mary gave Tiverton back to Edward Courtenay, the executed marquess's only son, and created him Earl of Devon under a new creation. He died in 1556 without progeny, and the manor and castle devolved on distant cousins descended from the four sisters of an earlier Earl of Devon, splitting the estate into four parts, and some of the heirs sold their shares. Roger Giffard, one of the earliest purchasers, made the castle his home, known for a while as Giffard's Court, and built the courtyard tower porch dated 1588 with his initials. About 1605 Sir Reynell Mohun sold his quarter to John West, a Tiverton merchant.

In the Civil War Tiverton was a Royalist stronghold. Major-General Massey took the town, the enemy marching away and leaving men to hold the castle and the church. Fairfax made his headquarters at Blundell's School and set his artillery on Skrink Hills about half a mile off; the culverin, the largest piece the New Model Army used, could throw a shot up to 2,000 yards.

John Rushworth's narrative, written at Tiverton at nine at night on 19 October 1645, has Fairfax sitting down before the castle and church on Friday the 17th and summoning them to surrender; refused, he planted his batteries, which were finished by the Saturday afternoon. The guns opened about seven on the Sunday morning and the defenders answered, but "did no execution upon us". After many shot a cannonier "broke the chaine of the Draw-bridge with a bullet", the bridge fell, and the soldiers "fell on without any further order from the Generall". Four attackers were killed; though the place was taken by storm, Fairfax ordered quarter for all left alive. Taken with it were the governor Sir Gilbert Talbot, Major Sadler, twenty officers, 200 common soldiers, four guns and 500 arms, with treasure divided among the troops. Rushworth judged the castle "verie strong, and the works all regular".

Parliamentarian troops demolished the bulk of the defences to prevent any military re-use. The Wests appear to have lived in the castle until it was dismantled, and later rebuilt part of it as a residence, and the remains were converted in the 17th century into a country house. On John West's death in 1728 the property passed through his daughter and co-heiress Dorothy to her husband Sir Thomas Carew of Haccombe, whose descendants sold Tiverton Castle in 1923. After several changes of hands Ivar Campbell bought it in 1960, and his nephew Angus Gordon inherited in 1985. The castle was listed Grade I on 12 February 1952 and is a scheduled monument, run as an independent historic house museum.