SKCOXl) SUMMER MEETING. XXXlii. 



MR. C. S. PRIDEAUX said that a fortnight, which he had also 

 spent there in digging, seemed to prove that a Norman house 

 of some sort had been erected on that spot. He had taken 

 away three barrowloads of pottery. It was debased spun 

 pottery, very crude and rough. He had also found a bronze 

 implement and a quantity of hewn stone. He called attention 

 to the following names in the vicinity which supported the 

 theory that there had once been a castle at that spot: Castle 

 Brow, Castle Drang, Knights' Mead, Castle Mill, Spy way, &c. 



The REV. R. G. BARTELOT said 



Once possessed of Poorstock, King John started building operations 

 with great vigour. On April 7th, 1205, the Sheriff of Devon was ordered 

 to deliver at Bridport one hundred-thousand nails " for building our houses 

 at Poorstock;" and on November 13th, the Sheriff of Dorset was ordered 

 to be repaid " what he had laid out on the repair of the King's houses at 

 Poorstock and for stocking the manor thereof." On June 1st, 1206, the 

 sum of 104 was ordered to be paid for work done on the King's houses 

 at Poorstock, and fifty pounds more in 1208; and on February 18th, 1207, 

 one barrel of wine was ordered to be sent there by the King. He also had 

 one tun of wine carried there on July 6th, 1207, and three barrels of 

 Anjou wine on March 21st, 1208. Nor was Poorstock only an expense, 

 for on March 31st, 1208, the King received in his Chamber by the hands of 

 Robert Peverell 130 of the issue of the lands and appurtenances which the 

 said Robert had as custos of Poorstock. The place where this castle stood 

 is still visible above Nettlecombe, near Bridport. Huge mounds, covered 

 with grass, now mark the site of the old Norman keep and the inner and 

 outer wards, enclosing an acre or more of hill-top and dominating the 

 whole stretch of fertile hill and vale from the ancient British fortress of 

 Eggardon on the East to Shipton Beacon, Golden Cap, Hardown Hill, 

 Pillesdon Pen and Lewesdon Hill on the South, West and North. The 

 excavation of the ruins of Poorstock Castle would bring to light most 

 interesting details concerning this Dorset home of that sovereign, whose 

 erratic rule endowed succeeding generations with the Great Charter of all 

 Englishmen. King John was visiting at Poorstock on August 25th, 1205, 

 to inspect his new building. Two years later he appears to have kept his 

 house-warming there, March 29th and 30th; visiting there again on 

 September 8th, 1207, and doubtless made merry with the wine which the 

 Sheriff of Dorset had procured at his orders. Again in 1210 the King 

 spent September 27th, at Poorstock; this time with larger retinue, for 

 three tuns of Anjou wine had been maturing in Poorstock's capacious 

 cellars ! In 1213 he paid a summer visit to this delightful spot, from 

 July 29th to 31st, this being probably his last sojourn in the castle which 

 uvved its existence to the most cruel of English sovereigns. On the death 



