Dorset Holiday - Corfe Castle

[Horus]

Corfe Castle is located close to the town of Pool on the south coast of England and is in the county of Dorset. It was not very far from where we were staying so it was featured on our ‘to visit’ list while we were in the area, we actually visited it twice because Corfe is more or less the starting point for a very picturesque ‘Steam’ railway that goes all the way to the coast and terminates very centrally in the lovely seaside town of Swanage, but I will write that one up later.

Corfe Castle is like many around our island a ruin, it is now under the control of ‘The National Trust’ who specialise in maintaining these sites around the country. The main castle entrance is in the pretty little town of Corfe, but parking there is difficult, fortunately there is a very large pay & display car park out of the town and from that point a very pleasant walk takes you around the castle boundary and an inclined path eventually raises you to the level of the castle entrance. The castle proper is constructed on a prominent mound that looks like it has some human input although it may all be a natural prominence.

The car park with view of the castle


The walk up to the entrance


Note the entrance bridge and the collapsing walls and towers


This particular feature on the castle wall is the outside Loo It's correct name is a 'Garderobe' (Sp) it is French for 'Bog' and would have dumped the Poo straight into the outer area of the castle surrounds


After paying your admittance you cross into the castle grounds which at one time had a large ‘curtain’ wall surrounding the entire area, these must have been very impressive when the castle was in regular use, although nowadays much of the walls have collapsed as a result of age, but also as a result of being blown up during the ‘English Civil War’ when the castle was under attack by Parliamentary forces.

The entrance


Inside the grounds


Inside the castle there are a few artifacts such a as a working 'Trebauche' (Sp) used to hurl rocks during sieges.

And these stocks used to punish vandals and hooligans as shown here


It is quite a steep but steady climb upwards from the entrance to the actual castle buildings which must have been very impressive although much is now in ruin. From the top you have some spectacular views around the countryside and a very good one of the town below and of the railway station.

The town of Corfe and the railway station


You also get some good sightings of the steam locomotive crossing the bridge on its way from Norden towards Swanage, for anyone able bodied it is well worth the climb to the top.

The train to Swanage


As you can appreciate it is difficult to describe a castle ruin and what you did there, so I will give you a brief history of the castle and then let the photographs tell their own story.

There has been some sort of fortification on this site for over a thousand years, in 976 AD it is thought that ‘King Edward the Martyr’ was murdered by his stepmother ‘Elfrida’ at the site of the Old Hall.

In 1086 AD a few years after the Battle of Hastings (1066) ‘William the Conqueror’ swapped a church in Gillingham for the land on which he started to build Corfe Castle.

In 1106 AD King Henry 1st fought a battle against his older brother ‘Robert of Normandy’ and after he beat him in battle he locked him up in the castle keep.

In 1138 during the reign of King Steven, his cousin ‘The Empress Matilda’
attempted to claim the throne by raising an army against him, the castle which was in the hands of one of her supporters ‘Baldwin de Redvers’ was attacked by King Steven. Anyone who is familiar with the TV series ‘Cadfael’ which starred Derek Jacobi will recall that the series was set within this historic period when King Steven & the Empress Matilda were feuding over the crown of England.

In 1199 AD to 1214 AD King John imprisoned his French niece ‘Princess Eleanor of Brittany’ and many of her knights in the castle, she survived but many of her knights did not and about 22 of them died there.

1220 AD to 1294 AD was a fairly peaceful time and subsequent Kings such as Henry 3rd and Edward 1st carried out much building work to improve the castle and modernise the defences of the castle.

1572 AD the last royal owner of the castle Queen Elisabeth 1st sold Corfe to one of her court favourites ‘ Sir Christopher Hatton’.

In 1635 the castle was sold to the Lord Chief Justice ‘Sir John Bankes’ who’s family stayed true supporters of King Charles during the English Civil War, even though all of the surrounding land in the county of Dorset was under the control of Parliamentary forces.

1643 to 1646 under the control of a woman who became known as ‘Brave Dame Mary Bankes’ the castle held off two sieges during the English Civil War. It was finally captured due to treachery from within the castle itself,

1646 to 1663 the castle was looted and partially demolished by order of Parliament and Lady Bankes’s son ‘Ralph’ tried to recover what was left, but he gave up and later build a mansion near to Kingston Lacy.

In 1982 after being in the Bankes’s family for over 350 years it was finally handed over to The National Trust for preservation for the nation.

Various Views

[Grandad]

Another little historical gem beautifully illustrated with lovely pictures. Even LLL so far away will feel that she has actually been there. Thanks for that Horus and all the information contained therein.

I would have difficulty with that climb so will give it a miss. Shame really because we are NT members so get free entry. One can see the results of the 'Garderobe', the grass is very green

We will however do the Norden to Swanage train and I want to time our trip to do a steamer both ways. I have already printed the timetable that says which loco is used for each journey. I expect you have a few more things to tell us about so when we go there is likely to be little that you have not covered EXCEPT 'The Swannery' so I am hoping for some good pics at feeding time, and a little about the history of the swans of Abbotsbury.

You are certainly laying down a gauntlet with your pictures and setting a standard. If I can raise a point (I am getting like LLL with more questions ) I note that you have the camera set to 4:3 ratio. My pictures along the river (also 4:3) made me ask myself if 16:9 would not be a better format as all computers and TV's use that ratio. Any views???

[Horus]

Grandad, many cameras have sensors with a 4:3 aspect ratio and as such the vast majority of images produced by digital cameras have an aspect ratio of 3:2 and 4:3.
The 16.9 ratio is actually stretched to fit the wider screens of PC and TV monitors, so for example a 'Portrait' image would not look as good shot in 16.9 ratio. My own view is to use the cameras built in sensor ratio and then you can always adjust to suit your own viewing preferences.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Super interest H. Wish I was there and from your description and photos I'm within a hair of envisioning me being there

I always try and imagine what a castle like this would have been like in its hey day. I can imagine it as glorious but I can also imagine it as somewhat less than hygienic too.

It was definitely built to last and it is unfortunate more didn't last.

To you knowledge from your trip did you notice anything anywhere where they were excavating? Kinda wonder what is UNDER everything.

AND lastly - did Annie just get a haircut?

[Horus]

I didn't see any signs of archaeological excavations going on although I am sure that at one time they will have done plenty of that. Usually these places are well documented and all of their history will be known down through the ages, in the UK there is very often loads of written information that is passed down via monasteries, church records etc and of course official records. Also the location of castles or defences are always in prominent locations that command a large area, so a natural rock outcrop is used or the higher ground is used and very often modified with additional groundwork’s being added or a moat constructed around it.

On flatter land with no natural high ground the defence was often of a ‘Motte and Bailey’ construction, the ‘Motte’ being the man made earthen mound and the ‘Bailey’ being a wooden fence of tall posts around the base, usually circular. There would be some buildings within this circular ‘stockade on a hill’ and it was a tactic introduced by the Norman invaders. These ‘Motte and Bailey’ castles often went on to become much larger stone built castles with turrets and surrounded by a defensive ‘curtain wall’ as seen in my pictures and where practical a moat would also be constructed for additional defence. The idea was that whoever held the castle could control all of the surrounding area and either impose taxes or military domination over that area, you also need to realise that very few castles were built as the finished item that we see today and were often modified or added to over many centuries until they eventually either fell into decay or were destroyed during a siege.

In answer to your Annie question, yes she had a $50 hairdo prior to going on her holidays. Her coat is naturally curly that she gets that from her mother (A Westie) but she has a shorter undercoat inherited from her dad (A Border Terrier). That means it will grow longer and much more curly after several months, so in the warmer weather I have her trimmed into what they call a Teddy-bear cut which is much shorter, but it grows out quite quickly so you will see her with different lengths of coat in various pictures.

[Kiya]

Super pics Horus & so much info on the castle.......Thank you

I would have loved to seen all these castles in their heyday

And poor Annie was she naughty that you put her in the stocks

[Horus]

Thanks Kiya, Annie is not naughty very often unless she is tormenting my cat Buffy which thinking about it is most days but she is quite good when out and about and is very well behaved in the car and travels really well.

[Ruby Slippers]

Great photos, Horus. DH was brought up down at Poole so knows your views from first hand.

[Mad Dilys]

I had relatives that lived in a tiny hamlet called Almer on the A31 between Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in the 1950s and 60s.

My Uncle Jack was Estate carpenter on the Charborough Park Estate and we travelled down from Kent every month for at least a week-end, all Bank Holidays etc. My idea of heaven. I was a young teenager and had the run of the 120 acre Deer Park, the woods with their Victorian Swing Bridges over the River Piddle - where I was taught to tickle trout and went shooting with Dibbus House the boy next door...................

[Horus]

I'm glad it has stirred a few memories for your DH Ruby S it is a lovely part of the country

Now MD was that lad actually called Dibbus? or have I read in wrong?
We often passed very close to Bere Regis where we were based, and I hope you both kept to just tickling Trout MD

[LovelyLadyLux]

I'll bite - how does one 'tickle a trout?'

[Mad Dilys]

His real name was David, I'd forgotten that until you asked.

Thanks for bringing back the memories Horus.

[Horus]

LLL, tickling Trout is a real thing, what you do is to position yourself somewhere above an overhang on the bank of a trout stream and put your hand in the water. If you cup it slightly and are lucky a trout will swim over it and you gently tickle its belly with your fingers, hopefully it stays there and you make a sudden upward swish of your hand and the trout lands on the river bank and you have your dinner.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Is this something akin to Redneck noodling? Where they're in the water holding their arms out hoping a catfish will bite so they can fling them out?

[Horus]

A bit more sophisticated I think

[Mad Dilys]

We used to do it in what was called the Admiral's swimming pool -basically just a bit of deepened and slightly dammed river. There was a bit of brick retaining wall on the bank so I'd lie on my tummy with my cupped hand in the water, and sure enough in they'd swim. They seemed to enjoy the tickling, but though I could have, I never flipped them out.

One day, on a slightly shallower stretch I saw something sticking out from under some weeds on the river bed. As a war baby from the Medway towns I thought I knew what a shell case looked like and this tapered bronzy brass item looked just like one. So of course I gave it a poke. Never thinking that this was deepest Dorset and highly unlikely to find a bomb case there.

At the third poke the item moved slightly away and revealed that it wasn't a bomb case at all.

What I was poking was a very, very large pike, just above the tail.

I put me off twiddling my fingers in the pool for a bit!

[Horus]

I like that one MD, many's the time as a young lad we would watch the Pike lying in ambush in the shallows just within the water plants that surrounded a sandy part of a pool or river. The young pike (Jacks) were quite easy to catch as they would go for anything in their eagerness for food, but your description has brought back many memories and I can understand how their brassy appearance deceived you.

Here is a picture I took of a Pike of around 20 plus pounds in weight caught at a local pool, I cannot find the original image, but I have this one where I used the Pike image to incorporate into a fantasy image that I created sometime later

[LovelyLadyLux]

PIKE! And you're dribbling your fingers in the water! WHEW - you're lucky you're not known as Stumpy!

On another note - love the taste of pike but haven't had it for years. Kinda boney as I remember but the taste is really delicious with a capital D!

[Horus]

Yep! tasty but full of tiny bones

[Jayway]

Great photos, what a really wonky castle, I would have kept well away - in some of the photos it looks very unsafe. As for the fish swiping, I stood in a river in Ireland, but after the first big salmon brushed my naked legs (shorts) I was out double quick, luckily the landlord caught some with his hands.