The Gatehouse at Warwick Castle

The Gatehouse at Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV.

Since its construction in the 11th century, the castle has undergone structural changes with additions of towers and redesigned residential buildings. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey, it was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified, resulting in one of the most recognisable examples of 14th century military architecture.

In the 17th century the grounds were turned into a garden. The castle's defences were enhanced in the 1640s to prepare the castle for action in the English Civil War. Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, was a Parliamentarian, and Royalist forces laid siege to the castle. Warwick Castle withstood the siege and was later used to hold prisoners taken by the Parliamentarians.

Dungeons are Scary Places

Dungeons are Scary Places

"Dungeon" is a corruption of donjon, the French term for tower. Contrary to popular belief of the dank, dark basement pit, most prisoners were held in the castle's highest tower, passage to which was guarded by soldiers. Basement or pit dungeons did exist with famous prisoners immortalized in literature.

For six years Francois Bonivard was chained to a pillar in Switzerland's Château Chillon, near Montreux. In the early 1800s, romantic poet Lord Byron spent a night in the dungeon and wrote The Prisoner of Chillon. His name can still be seen carved into the third pillar.

The Château d'If near Marseille, France was the setting where Alexandre Dumas père's fictional character ... escaped to become The Count of Monte Cristo.

Medieval castles' stone walls, narrow windows and limited access points led many to be converted into prisons. The Tower of London and Paris' Bastille housed many political prisoners over the years.

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral

The cathedral was originally founded in 642 on an immediately adjoining site to the north. This building became known as the Old Minster. It became part of a monastic settlement in 971. Saint Swithun was buried near the Old Minster and then in it, before being moved to the new Norman cathedral. So-called mortuary chests said to contain the remains of Saxon kings such as King Eadwig of England, first buried in the Old Minster, and his wife Ælfgifu, are also housed in the present cathedral. The Old Minster was demolished in 1093.

Construction of the cathedral began in 1079 under bishop Walkelin and, on April 8, 1093, in the presence of nearly all the bishops and abbots of England, the monks removed from the Saxon cathedral church of the Old Minster to the new one, "with great rejoicing and glory" to mark its completion. The earliest part of the present building is the crypt, which dates from that time. William II of England and his older brother, Richard, Duke of Bernay are both buried in the cathedral. The squat, square crossing tower was begun in 1202 to replace an earlier version which collapsed, partly because of the unstable ground on which the cathedral is built. It has an indisputably Norman look to it. Work continued on the cathedral during the 14th century. In 1394 the remodelling of the Norman nave commenced to the designs of master mason William Wynford, this continued into the 15th and 16th centuries, notably with the building of the retroquire to accommodate the many pilgrims to the shrine of Saint Swithun.

Much of the sturdy limestone used to build the structure was brought across from the Isle of Wight from quarries around Binstead. Nearby Quarr Abbey draws its name from these masonry workings, as do many local places such as Stonelands and Stonepitts. The remains of the Roman trackway used to transport the blocks are still evident across the fairways of the Ryde Golf Club, where the stone was hauled from the quarries to the hythe at the mouth of Binstead Creek, and thence by barge across the Solent and up to Winchester.

After King Henry VIII seized control of the Catholic Church in England and declared himself head of the Church of England, the Benedictine foundation, the Priory of Saint Swithun, was dissolved (1539) and the cloister and chapter house were demolished, but the cathedral continued.

Corfe, A View From The Castle

Corfe, A View From The Castle

Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage.The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight kilometres (five miles) south-east of Wareham, and the same distance west of Swanage. Both the current main A351 road Lytchett Minster to Swanage and the Swanage Railway thread their way through the gap and the village.

The civil parish of Corfe Castle stretches across the width of the Isle of Purbeck, with coasts facing both the English Channel and Poole Harbour. It therefore includes sections of both the low lying sandy heathland that lies to the north of the castle, and the rugged Jurassic Coast upland to the south.
Burial mounds around the common of Corfe Castle suggest that the area was occupied from 6000BC. The common also points to a later Celtic field system worked by the Durotriges tribe. Evidence suggests that the tribe co-existed with the Romans in a trading relationship following the Roman invasion c. 50AD.
The name "Corfe" is derived from the Saxon word for gap.

From the 1796 Corfe Castle Census of the 96 men involved in local industries and living in the town, 55 were clay cutters. These men worked in the nearby pits at Norden supplying Purbeck Ball Clay to Josiah Wedgwood and other pottery manufacturers. Clay extraction continued to provide a major employment for the local population until the 20th century. there is a valley as well.

The castle stands above the village and dates back in some form to the 10th century. It was the site of the murder of Edward the Martyr in 978. During the English Civil War it was a Royalist stronghold and was besieged twice, in 1643 and again in 1646