I short while back I posted a shot of Nunney Castle, the steam loco, it was actually named after the real Nunney Castle where we went yesterday. Nunney Castle was built near the village of Nunney in Somerset by Sir John Delamare. Delamare had been a soldier during the Hundred Years War with France, where he had made his fortune He obtained a licence to crenellate from Edward III to build a castle on the site of his existing, unfortified manor house in 1373 and set about developing a new, substantial fortification. The resulting castle centred on a stone tower-keep, measuring 60 feet by 24 feet (18 m by 7 m) internally and 54 feet (16 m) tall, designed with four, round corner-towers. The tower-keep had eight-foot (2.4 m) thick walls made from Lias Oolite ashlar stone and was designed around three floors. The corner towers had conical roofs and prominent machicolations. The ground floor of the tower-house included the kitchen and other service areas. The functions of the first and second floors are uncertain; one theory is that the first floor was another service area, with the hall on the second floor; another approach argues that the first floor formed the hall, and the second floor living accommodation; a minority view proposes that the first floor was an armoury The third floor was used as living accommodation for the owning family. The original design had a number of windows and fireplaces on the upper floors, but the hall would have been relatively dark and the stairs were inconveniently narrow. The tower-keep had a modest entrance, which was reached by a draw-bridge that lay across the surrounding moat which initially reached right up to the base of the castle. A simple, 12-foot (3.6 m) high bailey wall, with minimal defensive value, surrounded the moat, which was in contrast wide, 10-foot (3 m) deep, and would have been difficult for an attacker to drain. On the east side of the castle Nunney Brook was used as a line of defence rather than a bailey wall.