I’ve had a breather and it’s time for a little reflection on the A-Z challenge – the 26 posts on castles I wrote for April’s blogging challenge. This year was my second attempt – I participated last year on the theme of inspiration and with this in mind, I chose what I thought was a […]
So to the last day of the A-Z challenge and I’m fortunate to have the perfect castle for my choice of theme – Ashby-de-la-Zouch – the name even looks AtoZ ish. Ashby is a small town in Leicestershire, the county of my birth. The manor house was given to the Zouch family in return for […]
The urban castle is a different breed to the rural one. It’s been assaulted not by weapons, but by its surroundings and that includes how society changes around it. Ruins have a beauty about them and with light and shadows, they transform the hard rock into architectural sculptures. However, castles were built for a less […]
And so arrives the dread X. It so happens xylo is a Greek word related to wood and this leads me to building materials. As I’ve mentioned in a few posts, castles weren’t always made with stone. The early ones utilised wood and lots of earthworks. Even though stone was popular with the Romans, the […]
I began with Alnwick, a castle that has stayed in one family for 700 years and near the end of the alphabet I reach Warwick, which has had 36 different owners and during a period as crown property, seven monarchs oversaw its ownership. Warwick began life in William the Conqueror’s time as a wooden motte […]
You might have guessed I’ve visited a few castles in my time. I’ve plenty still to go! What I have noticed over the years is visiting a castle involves two positions: looking up and looking down. When you’re a small child, castles are huge. Even as an adult, one who’s lived in big cities with […]
Although I lived in Kent for a few years, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t explore the county very much. A dismal failure on my part. I completely missed Upnor castle. Upnor is a late entry to the castle collection – 1559. Built on the banks of the Medway river, its location was strategic to […]
It’s one castle I’ve always wanted to visit and I finally got that chance last year. On a sunny, wind swept day, my family and I headed out to the craggy outcrop and climbed. And climbed. How they managed to build that castle on such a challenging terrain amazes me. The huge uneven steps and […]
Slight scheduling error – this is today’s post! Many castles are actually fortified manors. Manor houses were built during the times when Feudal laws existed in England, and throughout Europe, and they were administrative centres as well as homes. Stokesay Castle is a gorgeous example of the mix of manor house and defensive castle. Built […]
Are all castles owned by great lords, built by kings? Not necessarily. Money is a prerequisite, certainly. Having good connections too. Raglan castle, which is sited near the Wye valley in South Wales, was owned by William ap Thomas who fought with Henry V at Agincourt and was constructed in a later medieval style using […]
The Quiet Writer 