I recently made a return visit to Nunney Castle in Somerset with a few friends who were interested in seeing the castle ruins. The castle was built in 1373 for Sir John Delemare in the style of a French chateau. It fell foul of Fairfax and his thugs in 1645, who, following a tip-off, which turned out be bogus incidentally, attacked the castle thinking it was harbouring a large cache of arms.
After our visit we decided to call into the George Inn, a former coaching inn located in Church Street close to the castle. Built in the 17th century it was often used as a courthouse for travelling judges. A ‘listed’ metal beam attached to the inn spans Church Street and was used in the 1600s as a 'hanging beam' to despatch the condemned. This macabre relic is now a support for the inn’s pub sign. Over the years it has been the source of some rather strange and chilling encounters. For it is said, that on occasion eerie sounds of creaking, taut ropes, supposedly supporting dead-weights have been heard emanating from it. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that theses sounds must be attributed to the bodies of the condemned as they gently swing from side to side.
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