Virtual Tour of Raglan Castle

The Fountain Court was an open area fronting the Grand Porch and Grand Stair. The porch was initially the work of Sir William ap Thomas, but it was much altered when the Fountain Court buildings were built by Sir William Herbert. The Fountain Court itself took its name from a pleasant marble fountain in the middle of the court complete with its White Horse statue and continually running water. Fragments of the fountain still survived in the 18th century. The Grand Stair is approached through an ornamented outer portal and it give some idea as to how the porch to the hall may have looked in the 15th century. The scroll motif, together with other carved stonework in the Fountain Court suggest that craftsmen working at Raglan in the later 15th century may have been masons from the West Country, possibly Somerset, where similar examples are found. A door on each side of the foot of the stairs led to ground-floor chambers, with a similar arrangement at the top of the staircase. The latrines, housed in the tower projecting from the back of the Grand Stair, were reached through doors visible in the adjacent first-floor rooms.

 

Below (3): additional views of the Fountain Court and two views of the Grand Stair.

 

 

 

Below: ornate window from the Apartments viewed from the Fountain Court.
Note the carved figure to the right of the window.

 

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