Tag Archives: castles
Catching up on castles and stuff – #amwriting
Gosh, it’s been a while since I posted. I have a wonderful excuse – I wrote a book. Well, that’s a little bit of a cheat. I wrote the first draft of it years ago, but it wasn’t right. So now that I’m learning the art of editing, I ditched half of it, totally re-wrote […]
A-Z Blogging Challenge – Theme day!
This will be my third year of doing the A-Z blogging challenge. One letter of the alphabet per day, excluding three Sundays, and each letter will be about…… Abbeys and Cathedrals of the UK Since I managed with castles last year, I thought I would take my other great architectural love and expand on it. […]
Chirk Castle – how to survive a civil war
A family trip to Chirk Castle cleared up a mystery that’s sat around in my head for a while. I’ve often wondered why the castle survived intact into the modern era when so many others are ruined and stripped of their stone following the English Civil War when Parliamentarians opposed King Charles and the country […]
Twisted perceptions – Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey
I had it the wrong way round. I had a memory of Chepstow Castle being gigantic and lots of walls to climb. Perhaps it was huge for a small child, but visiting it again, it seemed less than what I recalled. On the other hand, Tintern Abbey, which I remember as lacking much turned out […]
By the river
Another trip down memory lane. This time it is due to Goodrich Castle. So much has changed since my last visit over 30 years ago. I wrote a little about that during the A-Z blogging challenge. Back then there was no entrance fee, you could walk right into the ruin. The ground was grassy and […]
Ashby-de-la-Zouch #AtoZchallenge
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 […]
Vantage point – visiting a castle – #AtoZchallenge
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 […]
Raglan: the slighting of a Welsh castle #atozchallenge
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 […]
From motte to moat #atozchallenge
Who hasn’t built a sandcastle on a beach? Well, if you’re like me, when you do, you dig out a circle and pile the sand high, then when the tide rises, you watch the little circular ditch fill with water. Eventually, the castle disintegrates, eroded by the waves. When the Normans brought along their motte […]
A-Z blogging theme reveal
So, my chosen theme for the A to Z blog challenge is…. drum roll… fanfare…. Castles. Was that an anti-climax? It could easily have been cathedrals. I’m not an architect, nor a historian, but I love impressive old buildings. I’m in awe of the manpower and ingenuity that went into building such vast structures at […]
The Quiet Writer 