Newton St Loe Castle

Visited June 2022

Location	Newton St Loe, Nr. Bath
Entrance Fee	No
Railway Station Nearby	Bath Spa
Parking	Yes
Facilities	University Campus- restricted access
Map

The gatehouse across the walled garden
The castle keep

Review

This is not really an official review as this castle has no official public access, so I am not encouraging anyone to take their kids here. However, the castle is on the campus of Bath Spa University, and we visited on one of their official open days as one our 'kids' is now the age when considering a move to higher education and was interested in the university.

I have included it on this site purely for information and to show some of the pictures we took; it is a beautiful campus with not only a castle but a lake and loads of green space, and the castle building is in working order and is used for lectures.

The gatehouse
Detail of the door to the gatehouse
Looking up at the gatehouse
Side view of the gatehouse and garden
Vaulted ceiling 1
Window in the gatehouse passage
Vaulted ceiling 2 with views to the stable building
The stable building
Detail of the immaculate garden

Newton Castle was a fortified manor house built in the 14th century by the St.Loe family who had owned the lands since the Norman invasion. The castle keep dates from that time, and the gatehouse was added later in the 15th century. The land surrounding it was once a deer park.

The castle originally had four corner towers and was surrounded by walling and a ditch, but only the keep and gatehouse survive, along with the stables.

The castle keep
Keep view 2
Gargoyle on the keep
View from the tower room
The keep viewed across the lake
Across the lake 2

In 1761 work started on a new mansion at the site, which is today part of the university campus. Renowned landscape designer 'Capability' Brown was commissioned to landscape the park, and his design, with its lake, summer house and circular walk is still mostly intact today.

The estate was bought by the Duchy of Cornwall during the war, and was then leased to a college of higher education, which in turn became Bath Spa University.

The gardens are beautifully managed and the circular walk around the lake is a real asset to the students on the campus. The university bills itself as having one of the most beautiful campuses in the UK and I can't find anything to disagree with that statement.

Just please wait until your children are old enough to join an official open day before you visit the castle!

Information board
Steps leading to the grassy area behind the keep
Fossil detail on the wall
The lakeside summer house
View of the lake

More info: Bath Spa University

Category: Somerset

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Kids

Build A Castle

You need 2 bowls and some newspaper. Grease the bowls with olive oil.
One bowl should be deep, this is the motte. Glue the scraps of newspaper onto the bowls.
You need a thick covering of newspaper- the final layer should be white paper.
Once the bowls have dried, paint them in green, with a blue 'moat' around the bailey.Then remove the bowls.
Use strips of corrugated paper to make the pallisade.
Create some buildings out of cardboard- we used lentils to make a roof.
Use corrugated card to make the keep, and use moss to make some bushes in the bailey.
A couple of cardboard drawbridges, and you're done! History homework sorted!

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Thanks to Braincode for the great template