Newman’s Castle in Bellville, Texas.
Chason Gordon / Chron
There are clues that Newman’s Castle in Bellville, Texas isn’t a historical one. It could be the central air conditioning or the castle walls that feature cement instead of stones, with lines literally drawn in to make them look like blocks. Or perhaps it’s merely the castle’s presence in Texas, which doesn’t exactly have a history of medieval architecture.
But Newman’s does have one thing in common with your archetypal castle: it’s a bit difficult to maintain.
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“Imagine owning a normal 2,000-square-foot home, but like five times that for a castle,” co-owner and tour guide Chad Welty told Chron.
It’s an attraction like nothing else in Texas. Attackers looking to lay siege to the castle would have to cross a moat, penetrate the hand-operated 3,000-pound drawbridge, and traverse an estate that includes a chapel, courtyard, great hall and even a dungeon. All they’d find inside, however, are surprised tourists, a couple of resident ducks, and no treasure.
Located a few minutes from downtown Bellville, the castle was the creation of Newman’s Bakery owner Mike Newman. After a short stay in Europe inspired him, he broke ground in 1998 and worked on it for several years, finally moving into the completed project in 2007. “I had no idea when I was building it I would let other people come onto the property and tour it,” Newman told Chron a few years ago.
Maintaining a giant castle with medieval parts
After his death in 2024, nephew Chad Welty and Welty’s wife, Amanda, took the helm as castle keepers. But keeping that castle is no easy task.
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“There’s always a faucet that goes out, a bathroom issue, weeding that needs to be done … and clearing the land for a new septic system, which led to erosion issues,” he said. Then there’s the walls themselves. “Cement’s super permeable, so there are leaks.”
Among the most involved contraptions is the drawbridge across the moat, which defenders historically would draw up to slow down invading enemies, though in this case, they tend to keep it up. That’s because it’s raised with a medieval-style treadwheel–or a giant hamster wheel, as they call it on the tour. As you can imagine, with a nickname like that, doing so is a little precarious.
The so-called “hamster wheel” for the drawbridge.
Chason Gordon / Chron
“The drawbridge itself is not super safe to lift with that giant hamster wheel, so we just have it secured. I’m going to strengthen it to support the weight of that wheel better and build a different system underneath it to lift up the bridge,” Welty said. Not that anyone is getting into the place unwanted.
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“We have other doors and gates out front that we can lock everything up, and then a whole bunch of security cameras out there, too.”
Inside, some of the elongated dining hall tables are as thick as you’d imagine a castle table would be, and moving them around to do interior repairs is no easy task. “I lift pretty regularly, but I can’t go to the end of that thing and deadlift it up off the ground. It’s too heavy,” Welty told Chron.
“All the stuff built out there is built stout. For the big tables, I literally have to use my car jack to jack them up, so I can put some rollers underneath the legs and move it around.”
Let’s not forget the trebuchet
That said, Welty has been thoroughly handling these issues over the years, and each repair is done with an eye toward the castle’s look. You can’t just slap aluminum siding on and call it good.
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Nowhere is this more evident than the giant trebuchet, a catapult-like medieval siege weapon that uses a massive counterweight to sling a heavy projectile outside. Welty fired it once years ago (not at the castle), but hasn’t since he took over as it needs to be fixed.
The trebuchet, pointed toward the castle.
Chason Gordon / Chron
“Right now I’m working on the sling to fire it, and I’m building it kind of like they built it back then,” he said. “Once I get it put together and feel it’s safe enough to use, I’ll start firing it for the public again.”
No, it’s not a historical castle
Newman’s Castle regularly offers tours, rents out rooms overnight on AirBnb, and can be booked for an array of special events, like weddings, wine tastings, photo shoots and birthday parties. The public is always a bit incredulous when first encountering the castle, and two questions regularly come up.
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“The primary question we get is ‘Why is this here?’ It’s a really random thing to find in the middle of the country, in the middle of the woods,” Welty said. Others often mistakenly think it’s a historical castle that’s been in the area for hundreds of years, as if Texas has a similar history to England.
Chason Gordon / Chron
“How many hundreds of years has this been here?” is regularly asked on tours, he says. “I just laugh when they ask that question, and say, ‘No, it’s like 30 years old.'”
The repairs, maintenance and the castle’s age all prompt one other question: How long would the castle’s walls hold up against a medieval-style attack?
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“Not long,” jokes Welty. “Medieval castles had about 10-foot-thick walls. Ours are about 10 inches wide.”