England · Partial ruin
Wareham Castle
Wareham Castle was a motte-and-bailey castle sited in the south-west corner of the older Anglo-Saxon town defences at Wareham, Dorset. A small square stone keep stood on the motte with inner and outer baileys guarded by a stone curtain wall and surrounding ditch; much of the site survives today as earthworks integrated into the town.
Its prime
1137
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1137
What Wareham Castle looked like in its prime.
A large grass-covered circular motte occupies the south-west corner of rectangular town earthworks, its summit dominated by a compact square stone keep built of rubble with pilaster buttresses at the corners. Below the motte lie the traces of inner and outer baileys enclosed by a stone curtain wall roughly 1.5 metres thick in places and protected by a surrounding ditch; the town’s long earthen ramparts form a rectangular perimeter with four entrances and streets running beside them.
Its story
The story of Wareham Castle.
Robert Beaumont controlled Wareham Castle in 1118, when he passed it to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who carried out work on it in 1137. The motte-and-bailey stood in the south-west corner of the older Anglo-Saxon town defences, known locally as the Walls, with a small square stone keep on the motte and inner and outer baileys behind a stone curtain wall and ditch.
After King John, Wareham passed to the Earls of Clare, who paid it little attention, and the outer bailey ditch was filled in early in the 13th century. In the Civil War the Royalists under Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, took the town in 1643; Parliament retook it in 1644, when soldiers led by Sir Ashley Cooper forced their way through the West Gate in the walls. Much of the site survives as earthworks within the town.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1137.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Wareham Castle, including the full exterior approach. 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 Wareham Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Wareham Castle.
The families that held Wareham Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Clare
The Earls of Clare held Wareham after King John's reign, though they paid the castle little attention.
From the archive
Wareham Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
WAREHAM A St. Mary's. B Trinity. C St. Martin's. H Castle. I Bowling Green.
1897 · J. D. Mackenzie, The Castles of England, vol. 1 (1897)
Public domain
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