Compton Castle has been the home of the Gilbert family for 600 years, with a single break in the 19th century.
The building dates mainly from the 14th to 16th centuries and is one of the few fortified houses in Britain to survive without later alterations or additions. The great hall, buttery and solar were constructed in around 1350. In 1370 the house was enlarged with the addition of a larger solar, chapel, watch tower and kitchen. The fortifications date from the reign of Henry VIII when there was a serious threat of French raids. The completed defences with towers, gun-ports, loopholes, crenellated portcullis, lookouts and a twenty foot high curtain wall were not impregnable but they would withstand an attack from a roving shore party. The castle's location, hidden in a lush South Devon combe, was an added safeguard against surprise attack.
The major interest of Compton Castle is historical. In the 16th century three Gilbert brothers, John, Humphrey and Adrian were part of the closely related group of West Country gentlemen who represented the core of Elizabethan naval defence and who spearheaded the colonial expansion in North America.
Following Otho Gilbert's death in 1547 his widow married Walter Raleigh of Fardell and became the mother of Sir Walter Raleigh.
The eldest brother John Gilbert inherited Compton and a played an important role in the defence of the country at the time of the Spanish Armada and in the last decades of Elizabeth I's reign when England was almost constantly at war with Spain. He became Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Devon and Vice-Admiral of the Western Coast.
Humphrey Gilbert, the middle son, served in the defence of Le Havre in 1562-3 and in Ireland, where he was knighted by Sir Henry Sidney. In 1566 he wrote, 'A Discourse of a Discoverie for a new Passage to Cataia', which may have inspired Frobisher's voyages.
Sir Humphrey's great claim to immortality, however, lies in the part he played in the early English colonization of America. In 1578 he received the first Letters Patent for the 'planting' of a colony and he set sail from Plymouth the same year. This first enterprise achieved nothing but in 1583 Sir Humphrey led another expedition of five ships (including the Golden Hinde) from Plymouth.
He claimed Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I and later explored southward as far as Cape Breton. After losing his flagship, Sir Humphrey decided to return to England but was drowned when his tiny ship the 'Squirrel' foundered in bad weather off the Azores.
The youngest son, Adrian Gilbert, formed part of a group of adventurers which included his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, Philip Sidney, Martin Frobisher and John Hawkyns. The colony established in Virginia in 1585 by Sir Walter foundered but it marked the birth of Enlgish-speaking America 35 years before the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Compton Castle's medieval layout does little to recall the grand Tudor mansions, such as Harwick Hall, that were being built at this time. The adventurous Gilbert family were too busy elsewhere to build at Compton. In 1800 the estate was sold by the Gilbert family.
For the next century the building was neglected but in 1930 Commander Walter Raleigh Gilbert, 11th in line from Sir Humphrey Gilbert, bought back the property.
Commander and Mrs Gilbert meticulously restored the house and rebuilt the great hall, which had become ruinous in the 18th century. Their restoration work was completed by them after the National Trust were given the property in 1951.
30 Mar-29 Oct 2009: Mon,Wed & Thu 11:00-17:00 Also Open Bank Holiday Mondays. Last Entry 30 mins before close.
Tel: 01803 661906 Compton Castle Website
