Ashperton Castle was constructed in the village of Ashperton in Herefordshire, probably by William de Grandison around 1292. Only the moat now survives.
The village of Ashperton had been owned by the de Monmouth family until 1270, when William de Grandison, the son of a Burgundian noble, inherited it. William did well for himself, creating a manor house there and was then granted a licence to crenellate from Edward I in 1292. The castle had an oval inner bailey, covering approximately 0.8 acres (0.3 hectares), surrounded by a wet moat, with an outer rectangular bailey to the east, containing a church and protected by a ditch.
The de Grandisons prospered, but whatever remained of the castle appears to have been torn down in the 18th century, leaving only the moat and some of the defensive ditchwork. In the 20th century, the site is proctected under UK law as a Schedule Monument.
Attribution
Images on this page come from the Geograph site, and are attributed as follows: “Asperton Castle”, by Philip Halling, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.