| Walton Castle | |
| Location: | Clevedon, North Somerset |
| Coordinates: | |
| Built: | 17th Century |
| Restored: | 1984 |
| Restored by: | Margarita Hamilton |
| Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Designated: | 22 July 1987[1] |
| Reference #: | 33170 |
Walton Castle is a 17th Century, Grade II listed castle set upon a hill in Clevedon, North Somerset,[2] on the site of an earlier Iron Age hill fort.[3]
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The Domesday Book records the site as belonging to "Gunni The Dane", however the structure that occupies the site was built sometime between 1615 and 1620 by John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett.[4] The castle was designed as a hunting lodge for Lord Poulett, a Somerset MP. The English Civil War saw the decline of Poulett's fortunes, and by 1791 the castle was derelict and being used as a dairy by a local farmer.[5]
In the early 19th century, the manor of Walton in Gordano, including Walton Castle was bought by Philip John Miles[6] who also held properties and extensive estates elsewhere including Kings Weston House, Leigh Court, Cardigan Priory and Underdown in Ledbury, Herefordshire, whence his family had originally come.
The Castle passed through the Miles family by descent and in 1975, the castle's owner, Sir William Miles, the 6th Baronet, offered to give the ruin to the public if some money could be found to preserve it. The estimate for this rose from £6,000 to £46,000 and the plan fell through, as did a plan to set up a trust.
In 1979, Sir William Miles's daughter and his son-in-law, Martin Sessions-Hodge, spent £100,000 restoring the ruin and moved in. They spent over a year turning it into a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house but, in 1984, they sold, as the costs and impracticalities of such a building were troublesome for a young family with three children.
In 1984, the castle was purchased by Margarita Hamilton, who made further alterations to the Castle, though some of these had to be reinstated due to problems with unauthorised removal of crenellations on this listed building.[7][8] Hamilton regularly hosted charity events at the Castle in the late 1990s but sold in the face of complaints from nearby residents. She eventually sold to South African Stephen Lumb for £3.5million. In 2009 comedian Bill Bailey was guest of honour at an event designed to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.[9]