A man's home is his castle. That is just a phrase, but one hundred years ago Groton native William Bancroft took these words to heart. After years in the military followed by a political career as mayor of Cambridge, Bancroft set out to build his retirement villa on top of Gibbet Hill. Although he managed to partially complete it, funds came to an end before construction did and the structure he named Shawfieldmont never came to be. Bancroft abandoned his work in 1906, and in 1918 sold the property to Harold Ayers, who turned it into a sanitarium for tuberculosis and other long-term patients.
By 1930 the property was in the hands of the Groton Hunt Club, who used it not just for their fox hunts but for parties and dinners. Those good times came to an end in 1932, however, after a Fourth of July party gone wrong ended with a fireworks accident that burned the structure to the ground. All that remained is everything you can still see today - which are the parts made out of stone.
Two separate paths will take you up Gibbet Hill. We chose the Shattuck Street entrance for our first trip, then on a return visit parked along the Lowell Road side. Either way feels more like a walk in the park than an actual hike, with some paths consisting of not much more than some trampled down grass. We passed a fire tower from the Shattuck route, but unlike the fun loving people of New Hampshire who encourage you to climb their towers, Massachusetts does not allow you anywhere near this one.
But there is no need to brave rickety stairs for a nice view, just continue to the the west side of Gibbet Hill.
Just past that overlook is where our first glimpse of the castle poked through. The most eye catching part is its tower, and though it appears to be a stand-alone structure, original photographs show it was attached to the house with a roof wrapping around it.
In the main part of the house you will find this massive chimney, and where people would have once sat by its second story fireplace, weeds are now growing.
Even though it burned to the ground and sat exposed to 80 years of elements, somehow a few pieces of wood have survived all this time, some being just above my head where I'm poking around.
Here comes my favorite part of this story. After a plan was hatched in 2000 to clear these ruins and divide the property into dozens of house lots, Groton native and businessman Steven Webber purchased the entire 526 acres for $10 million. He kept a very modest 6 acres for himself, on which he built the themed restaurant Gibbet Hill Grill, then placed into conservation the rest of the land and castle remains, property he felt belonged to the people of Groton. This accomplished two things. Not only did it save the castle from the wrecking ball of housing development, but it opened this privately owned and previously off-limits area for visitation by the public, allowing everyone to enjoy the Bancroft Castle ruins for many generations to come.
References:
Brown, Jane Roy. Boston.com, The Boston Globe, 16 Oct. 2005, archive.boston.com/travel/articles/2005/10/16/saved_from_development_a_place_to_dream_dine/.
Savard, Rita. “Owner Dispels Stories of Ghosts at Groton's Gothic Castle.” Lowell Sun Online, 14 July 2006, www.lowellsun.com/ci_4052968
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