Nether Stowey Castle

Castle Hill would have been well known to Coleridge although it had not then been excavated. On this windswept hill, a small outlier of the Quantock Hills, a stone keep was built probably in the early 12th century. It was the head of the honor or barony of Stowey and here the baronial courts would have been held and knights would have been summoned in times of trouble. The castle would have commanded views of the hills, the sea and all roads in the area. However, it would have been a most uncomfortable dwelling place and unsurprisingly was abandoned before the end of the Middle Ages for the comforts of a large manor house by the church east of the village.