Barnstaple Castle supporter of King Stephen. In 1228, Henry III ordered the Sheriff of Devon to reduce the castle walls to a height of , as recorded in the Close Rolls for that year. By the time of the death of the last Henry de Tracey in 1274, the castle was beginning to decay. The fabric of the castle was used in the construction of other buildings and by 1326 the castle was a ruin. The remaining walls blew down in a storm in 1601. Now only the tree covered motte remains. Barnstaple Castle Barnstaple Castle stood near what is now the
Barnstaple Priory town of Barnstaple, and today the parish church, and the Chapel of St Sabinus, which is not identifiable today but which may have been located in the crypt of the surviving St Anne's Chapel, next to the parish church. Juhel stated in his foundation charter that he intended himself to enter the priory as a monk and hoped "quickly to pass to the glory of my maker". Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the priory was leased by King Henry VIII, later granted absolutely, to William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham(c. 1510-1573), the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd