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Date of photo: 2007	Photo  © Jo Turner
The Princess Arms was situated on Castleton Road. This Grade II Listed former Inn is now called Raleigh Lodge. The beam above the door probably indicates a former carriageway, with the line in the stonework just to the right indicating the extent of the building. The listing gives no date for it but Pevsner tells us it is 19th century but it reportedly was built in 1625, a more realistic date if it was a former inn. Historic Towns Survey give a blanket 17th-19th century much as Pevsner gives for the row of buildings. It seems likely it was just a house by the end of the 19th century owned in 1841-1850 by the Brittan family then the Jelfs’, Edwin Norman in 1898-1899 and then Captain and Mrs Willie Vizard. The earliest directory I have for 1851 lists no inn on Castleton Road. (The similarly Grade II Listed Middle House has a 17th century stone front.)
Source: Steve Turner
Listed building details:
Adjoining Middle House and with right hand end bay in the same block. Left hand two bays have slightly higher roof-line. Stone slate roof, 2 gabled dormers with lead-glazed casements. 5 and 3-light stone mullioned windows those to ground floor having hood moulds, those above having transomes. Gable end facing Castle Park has cartouche with carved fleur-de-lys. Doorway on this side is modern in Tudor style. 2 window bays on this side and another, lower wing behind. Formerly an Inn. Church of St Mary Magdalene, Churchyard walls, piers and gates, Lattice House, Garden Wall and piers to Lattice House, Middle House and Raleigh Lodge form a group with the gates at the entrance to Sherborne Castle in Sherborne Rural District.
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