Castlefacts³

Strangways, Abbotsbury

Has been described as a Questionable Artillery Fort

There are no visible remains

Name	Strangways, Abbotsbury
Alternative Names	Abbotsbury Castle
Historic Country	Dorset
Modern Authority	Dorset
1974 Authority	Dorset
Civil Parish	Abbotsbury

Buildings marked as Abbotsbury castle are on the first edition OS map. (Dorset HER)

Arthur Oswald states, in his book 'Dorset Country Houses' that there was a blockhouse built by Henry VIII here, no other references and later house built on supposed site is demolished. (Wilton)

The seaside house 'Strangways' or latterly 'Abbotsbury Castle' had been built as a summer residence around 1765 by William's grandmother, the 1st Countess of Ilchester (née Elizabeth Strangways Horner), in the Gothic style recently made fashionable by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. (Poulson 2008)

Gatehouse Comments

The blockhouses of Henry VIII are well recorded in royal records so unlikely there was a royal blockhouse here. A private C16 blockhouse might be a possibility but who and how funded are major questions. Most likely a fanciful suggestion made to give kudos to the mildly Gothick Abbotsbury Castle house, rebuilt after a fire in 1913 but demolished in 1934.Not to be confused with Abbotsbury Castle an Iron Age hill fort at SY55588657 not suggested as the site of medieval occupation.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record

www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MWX3839&resourceID=1012

OS Map Grid Reference	SY558847
Latitude	50.6610794067383
Longitude	-2.62579989433289
Eastings	355820
Northings	84780