Taunton Tour: Taunton Castle

This has to be both one of my favourite places in Taunton and one of the least visited. While I love the Castle and I really like the fact that Taunton both has a castle in the town centre and such a really nice looking castle at that, the museum inside it hardly ever changes its exhibits, so it is a bit boring really.

I first visited the Castle with my school back when I was 11 or so and not long after that, myself and my brother started attending a club that the museum's curator ran on Saturday mornings. It was a really good club and the kids who attended got to do all kinds of cool stuff, like mount insects on cardboard, go on a fossil hunting daytrip to a quarry and I remember a wonderfully educational presentation given by a friend's Mum, who was a friend of the curator and one of the top Egyptologists in the country.

It's a shame really that there is so little left of the Castle, as it used to be MUCH bigger than what is now left of it. The main culprit to blame for its current state is Oliver Cromwell, as Taunton fought on the side of the crown during the English Civil War and once Parliament had won, they set about ruining many of the strongholds that had opposed them and so the grand old Keep of Taunton's Castle was 'slighted', which is to say it was destroyed! What is left of it can be seen in the gardens of the Castle Hotel these days, but it's not much to look at.

There is a map on the wall (just out of view on the right side of the photo) which shows the modern town map in black and white, with a colour overlay that shows just how big the Castle used to be. These days what used to be the old Bailey is now Castle Green (though most of it is in fact a Car Park and not really very green at all), an area surrounded by historic buildings that either were part of the old castle structure, or designed to look like they were.

In the foreground of the photo can be seen the sword in the stone, which just about every kid in town has tried to pull forth a time or two. I know I have. Alas it seems I'm not fated to be King of the Britons, which is probably for the best!