Qualla: Powderham Castle

Powderham Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Maypm, CC BY-SA 4.0. Powderham takes its name from a Dutch word. Polder means reclaimed marsh, and the manor of Powderham is literally 'the hamlet of the reclaimed marsh-land.' That is where Sir Philip Courtenay built his medieval house, sometime after 1390, on flat ground on the west bank of the Exe estuary where the smaller River Kenn flows in. The Courtenays are still there. Six hundred and thirty years and counting, in the same family, on the same patch of drained marsh.

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Image: Maypm | CC BY-SA 4.0

Powderham Castle: The cadet branch that became the earls

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger Cornfoot, CC BY-SA 2.0. The main line of the Courtenay family, the Earls of Devon, lived at Tiverton Castle in the 14th and 15th centuries. Powderham belonged to a junior cousin branch known as 'Courtenay of Powderham,' built by Sir Philip Courtenay, fifth or sixth son of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Dev...

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Image: Roger Cornfoot | CC BY-SA 2.0

Powderham Castle: Never quite a castle

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Manfred Heyde, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 'castle' in Powderham Castle is a stretch. The original building was a fortified manor house, not a true castle with keep and moat. The label 'castle' was not attached to the property until the 17th century at the earliest. It did have a curtain wall and yard on the east side...

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Image: Manfred Heyde | CC BY-SA 3.0

Powderham Castle: The Civil War siege

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. In December 1645 the English Civil War came to Powderham. The castle was garrisoned by 300 Royalist soldiers under Sir Hugh Meredith. A Parliamentary detachment under Sir Thomas Fairfax, the senior commander of the New Model Army, tried to capture it and was at first repulsed. Th...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Powderham Castle: Unicorn horn and Brussels weavers

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Manfred Heyde, CC BY-SA 3.0. Upstairs at Powderham, in a case that has long delighted visitors, sits a narwhal tusk. For centuries, narwhal tusks were sold as 'unicorn horns,' said to detect poison when it touched them. Medieval and Renaissance kings paid extraordinary sums for them. The Powderham tusk is pr...

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Image: Manfred Heyde | CC BY-SA 3.0

Powderham Castle: Coldplay played here

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Manfred Heyde, CC BY-SA 3.0. Powderham has a strange second life as an entertainment venue. The 1993 Merchant Ivory film The Remains of the Day used the staircase hall, music room, and master bedroom as locations. Rock band Status Quo performed concerts in 2003 and 2009. Westlife played their Turnaround Tour...

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Image: Manfred Heyde | CC BY-SA 3.0