Sherborne Castle

More stately home than fortified castle, Sherborne was built by Sir Walter Raleigh beginning in 1594. The story goes that Raleigh was journeying to Plymouth when he saw the Sherborne estate, which was then only a 12th century hunting lodge in a deer park owned by the church. He admired Sherborne so much that Queen Elizabeth I "persuaded" the church to grant the estate to the crown on a 99 year lease, which she promptly made over to her favourite, Raleigh.

Raleigh built a new house around the core of the old hunting lodge (now the "old castle"). He called the four-story rectangular house Sherborne Lodge. Although Raleigh lived here for only a decade, one amusing tale of his time at Sherborne has survived. It seems that as Raleigh sat and looked out over his gardens to the Dorchester road, he lit his pipe. A servant, not familiar with this new habit of smoking, thought that his master was on fire and threw a glass of ale over him!

After Raleigh's execution in 1616 Sherborne was purchased by the Digby family, whose descendants have owned it ever since.

The Digbys wasted little time in putting their own stamp upon Sherborne. In the 1620s they added four wings to Raleigh's simple rectangle. Shortly after, Sherborne saw action in the Civil War, when Parliamentary troops reduced the "old castle" to rubble. It is only at this point that the name "Sherborne Castle" came to be used to describe the house that Raleigh and the Digbys had built.

Sherborne Castle

The house has entertained royalty on more than one occasion; Prince William of Orange stayed here in 1688, and George III in 1789. By that time the house had been surrounded by 20 acres of landscaped gardens and a 50 acre lake designed by Capability Brown. On the verge of the lake are huge cedar trees dated to over 250 years old.

The interior of Sherborne Castle is replete with family portraits, fine art, furniture, and porcelain collected by the Digby family over their centuries of residence here. The ceilings show off excellent Jacobean plasterwork, but even more intriguing are the original kitchens built by Raleigh.