With permission from the king, Boys surrendered the castle in April 1646 and was allowed to leave with all his men. In 1646 Parliament voted to demolish the castle; only the gatehouse was left standing though the 17th-century earthworks can still be seen. The castle is now in the care of English Heritage and is a scheduled ancient monument number 1007926. The castle stayed in the Packer family until the mid 18th century, when Robert Packer married Mary Winchcombe, and the property passed into the Winchcombe family tree. From 1833 to 1881 the manor and castle was owned by Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley, Layout Donnington Castle was originally built in a roughly rectangular form, though the west facade projected outwards irregularly. It was enclosed by a curtain wall, with a round tower at each of the four corners. Roughly halfway along the two walls running from west to east were two square towers. The courtyard enclosed by the curtain walls would probably have contained a hall, kitchens, and accommodation for guests. Measured from the inner sides of the curtain walls, the courtyard measured north to south and east to west. During the Civil War star-shaped defences were built around the castle to facilitate gun emplacements. Only the gatehouse, crested by battlements, survived the castle's destruction in 1646; standing three storeys high, it measures internally. Modern walls standing high outline the original layout of the demolished castle. The star-shaped earthworks added during the Civil War are still visible, surviving to a height of . In Popular Culture Donnington Castle appears in an episodee of The Saint called 'Little Girl Lost', first broadcast on 2 December 1966. The castle appeared in the Children's Film Foundation feature A Hitch in Time (1978), starring Patrick Troughton. The twin-towered gatehouse is depicted on the cover of the compilation album The Best of Tenpole Tudor : Swords of a Thousand Men (2001). Gallery See also Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of castles in England References External links Donnington Castle - Newbury History English Heritage page on Donnington Castle Investigation History Castles in Berkshire Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire Grade I listed castles English Heritage sites in Berkshire Ruins in Berkshire Scheduled monuments in Berkshire