Beaumys Castle

Beaumys Castle was a 14th-century fortified manor house in Berkshire’s parish of Swallowfield. It began as a manor granted to Sir Nicholas de la Beche in 1335, and by 1338 he had licence to crenellate, turning it into a defensible residence. The castle stood within earthworks measuring roughly 130 metres by 110 metres, encircled by a water-filled moat. Access came from the north-west through an entrance protected by the moat. After de la Beche’s death, his widow Margery remarried Thomas Arderne, who died in 1347. The castle became the scene of violent events in the same year. John de Dalton and a band of followers forced their way inside, killing the nobleman Michael de Poynings. They terrified Lionel, the young son of King Edward III who was staying at the castle, and stole goods worth about £1,000. They also seized Margaret, a wealthy widow, and compelled her to marry Dalton. The manor was later divided in 1420, leaving only the earthworks as a scheduled monument. Today the remains consist of low earthworks and traces of the moat that once surrounded the rectangular site. The scheduled monument covers the footprint of the vanished manor house. Visitors can walk the perimeter of the former defences and see where the entrance once stood. The landscape still shows the scale of the original enclosure. The site offers a quiet reminder of the castle’s turbulent past.