Bampton Castle was in the village of Bampton

Bampton, Oxfordshire

Bampton, also called Bampton-in-the-Bush, is a village and civil parish in the Thames Valley about southwest of Witney in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Weald....

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

 .

Differing accounts of its origin exist. One states that in about 1142 AD during the reign of Stephen

Stephen of England

Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...

, Matilda

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...

 built a motte castle. Another states that in 1314–15, during the reign of Edward II

Edward II of England

Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke

Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was a Franco-English nobleman. Though primarily active in England, he also had strong connections with the French royal house. One of the wealthiest and most powerful men of his age, he was a central player in the conflicts between Edward II of England and...

, obtained a license from the king to "make a castle of his house at Bampton."

The castle was demolished before 1789 but parts of its structure have been incorporated into a house, Ham Court, which is a Grade II* listed building.

There used to be an RAF communications station nearby which was called RAF Bampton Castle

RAF Bampton Castle

RAF Bampton Castle was a non-flying Royal Air Force station in Oxfordshire. It was the home of numbers 2 and 81 signals units, which dealt with High Frequency radio communications. It's now a business centre and all of the antennas have been removed....

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The castle (as it was in the 1360s) is the primary setting for the fictional medieval mystery series written by Mel Starr, the first of which is "The Unquiet Bones, the first chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon."