As is evident from the plan of the Keep tower above, the Roundheads did quite a bit of damage to it (probably aiming their cannons from what is now the Gumbrook car park), knocking down the northwest corner turret and collapsing part of the basement vault. The tower is now roofless and floorless, apart from the Guards' Hall, but the then Ministry of Works (now British Heritage) did a competent job of shoring up the remains and repointing the ashlar facing. One can now climb the spiral stair to the top floor and view town and country from what remains of the parapet. This keep tower was built at the same time as the Parish church, about 1365, and is rather a throwback, as Norman keeps of this type were then out of fashion, the crusaders' concentric style with its emphasis on gatehouses, and aggressive rather than passive defence, being the norm. There is not much to say about the remaining details, apart from that they are well appointed and built of accurately carved limestone ashlar. It had the standard layout -- a barrel-vaulted basement, a forebuilding (entrance lobby, kitchen, chapel, and private chamber, the Lord's bedroom), a garrison hall, a Great Hall, a Solar, and a garret. The chapel itself is the most attractive surviving room, with a good double lancet east window containing stained glass by William Morris, or somebody from his Kelmscot studio. Note that the entrance in the forebuilding rises two storeys, with a balcony from which the portcullis and drawbridge are operated that opens from the Guard Hall and faces the backs of any attackers who might have managed to break in. Being self-contained, the keep does not have access to the wall walks on the curtains walls of the Inner Ward.
The South Tower, or Watch Tower, is included in the plan shown above. It housed the captain of the garrison and his officers. This building has been fully restored (late 1800s -- British Heritage would not allow such a thing now) and is used as a clubhouse for the town Rotarians. It is private property with no public access, although the rest of the castle is under the charge of British Heritage, which levies a nominal fee for entry to the Inner Ward. Opening hours are standard, that is to say, often inconvenient.
Bucking convention, this castle guide starts with the particular and leads to the general. Next to be described are the Inner and Outer Wards, the three gatehouses, and whatever remains of the other buildings, which sad to say, is not much. Most prominent is the inner gate, which had its defences and top floors slighted by the Cromwellians. It must be said that the gatehouse was once four storeys tall and rather impressive, if simple enough in design. Now it is a squat structure that is difficult to envision in its complete state. The entrance passage is groin vaulted and had no less than three portcullises; there was once probably a drawbridge, but the dry moat facing the Outer Ward was filled in in the 18th Century. On one side is the porter's lodge (ticket office, where one can buy guidebooks and pick up slick pamphlets of the sort British Heritage produces en masse), on the other a guardroom with arrow loops facing the passage (which also has a series of mourtrières, or murder holes, along the vault, from which the proverbial boiling oil could be thrown upon intruders. It is more likely to have been boiling water, as the expense of oil would have been considered an extravagance.) Under the guardroom is a vaulted cellar, often said to be a dungeon and torture chamber, but was more apt to have been a supply room. A subterranean door, now blocked, led into what was the dry moat as a sally port for the defenders. A spiral staircase in the southwest corner connects all the floors of the gatehouse -- nothing fancy about this. The single room over the entrance passage housed the machinery for the portullises and was the principal guard room. It is now a museum devoted to Northern castles, and has a small exhibit over the porter's lodge of old hand guns. Above this floor was the main chamber, a sort of mini-great hall, that was the domain of the castellan. It was unroofed for many years, but now has a modern concrete roof. From there upwards, there is now nothing left of what would have been the castellan's quarters.
Town Gate is at right angles to the Inner Ward gatehouse, and is a rather simple affair consisting of a vaulted entrance passage with the requisite portcullis and two small guardrooms. Two storeys above this housed servants and on top is a fighting platform with a machicolated outer parapet that has been sadly mauled. For some reason, the outer moat was never continued in front of this gatehouse, making it seem a rather feeble defence. Perhaps the town folk were considered sufficient to provide resistance were it necessary, and it is known that the Village Green was once stockaded as a protection for cattle and other animals. North of this gatehouse is another tower, again used to house servants. It is three storeys tall, but of no great interest either militarily or aesthetically. Roof and floors have been missing for the last two hundred years. It is called Arnold's Tower, but I have been unable to discover, after diligent research, who Arnold was.
The Outer Ward once contained most of the domestic and utilitarian adjuncts of a castle -- stable, bakehouse, workshops, and the all-important brewhouse. All of these buildings were demolished by Sir Charles de Courtenay to provide materials for his alms house and the chantry chapel at the Parish church. There is nothing here now but an empty expanse of grass, mud, and tarmac, surrounded by ruinous low curtain walls. It is used now for the annual sheep fair, and the rest of the time as the town car park. All the more impressive, then, is the Outer Gatehouse leading to Low Bridge and the main road to Laxminster. It is rather similar to Town Gate in design, but is completely intact and was never despoiled by the Roundheads. It also faces a wet moat and has a drawbridge (long ago replaced by a fixed structure). A whimsical Compton-Ginnett added effigies of armed soldiers to the parapets, rather similar to what was done at Alnwick Castle, home of the Dukes of Northumbria. Strong and simple is the description of this building, a prominent landmark to travellers rounding Fairwood Forest on their way up the valley. Oddly enough, its function now is as a muniment room for the town council; indeed, it holds all the Parish Registers dating before 1950.
The Inner Ward was a more elaborate section of the castle. Apart from the Keep, Gatehouse, and Watch Tower, little remains of the buildings that used to surround the courtyard. Parts of the Great Hall, which had a Solar, Dining Hall, buttery, pantry, and kitchen wing, still stand in a ruinous condition, the Kitchen Wing being the most complete above the foundations apart from a couple of gables. British Heritage has tidied up these remains, which are situated on the south side of the ward just north of the Watch Tower. Destruction of this once-impressive structure was not due to Cromwell, but rather to a disastrous fire that occurred in 1745 while Sir Anselm Compton was holding a gala feast in honor of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who was heading south from Scotland that year to try unsuccessfully to reclaim his throne!