Listed Building record MDO6598 - Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth

The remains of a Tudor artillery fort, built around 1541. Bastion earthworks were added in around 1623, and the castle was abandoned in 1644-5. Sections of outer wall remain, the earthworks have been landscaped as public gardens. The ruins of this fort and its associated earthworks are visible on recent aerial photographs. Part of the fort appears to have broken off and now lies on the forshore below (MDO29864).

As described. <> Sandsfoot Castle (674773), a roofless ruin, is of Portland stone rubble with a facing of ashlar. It was built probably in 1541 as one in a series of coastal forts and, with Portland Castle, served to defend the anchorage between Weymouth and Portland. <5-6> The castle comprised a tall rectangular main block of two storeys over a basement, with a taller gate-tower integral with the landward end and a single-storey octagonal gunroom adjoining the other end facing the sea. The walls remain in places to nearly the original height, but much of the facing has been robbed, while the gun-room has finally disappeared as a result of coastal erosion in recent years. The castle was held for the King in the Civil War but abandoned as being of no further military importance in January 1644-5. It continued in use as a storehouse, however, at least as late as 1691. There are remains of a defensive earthwork consisting of a bank with an outer ditch at approx. 100ft from the north west, north east, and south west walls. From the north corner projects an elongated five-sided earth bastion; the west corner is destroyed. The defences probably formed bastion-fortifications, which, on comparative dating, may be assigned to c.1623 when orders were given for repairing the castle. The survey made in that year confirms that a bank and ditch already existed; the statement that there were then only two corners (points) leaves in question whether the earth-work defences ever completed the rectangular enclosure on the seaward side before erosion. Nothing of the stone superstructure specified in the report survives. <6> Sandsfoot Castle (name confirmed). The defensive earthworks now form part of landscaped public gardens. Resurveyed at 1/1250. on MSD. See ground photographs. <7> It is marked on an 1840 Tithe Map. <10> Detailed description of the history of the castle. <8> Notes on the state of the castle in 1623. <9> A two storey rectangular structure with an octagonal gun platform looking seawards. <11> Some of the stone used to build Sandsfoot Castle came from Blindon Abbey in Dorset. The castle was surrendered to Parliamentary forces by Colonel Ashburnham in 1644. (note this is a different version of the castle's abandonment to the other sources). The castle was run by Humphrey Weld for a long time for the government until its abandonment and the castle then began to fall into the sea. The site contains a number of photographs of the castle. (10) The ruins of this fort and its associated earthworks are visible on recent aerial photographs (1). Part of the fort appears to have broken off and now lies on the forshore below (MDO29864). These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

Record last edited

Dec 3 2022 6:37AM