Castle Rising

Norfolk isn't somewhere I'd immediately associate with castles and fortifications. With no necessity to defend against enemies, it's more a county of stately homes and rural retreats. There are, though, some to be found - 'humps and lumps' at Castle Acre, ruins at Baconsthorpe - of which I feel the best is Castle Rising.

The castle sits beside the village of the same name, not far from King's Lynn. From a distance it seems hidden, crouching behind the remains of encircling walls, now an earthen bank which can be walked round.

From the vantage point of the walls, the castle seems like a model, but up close its height is striking .

This wasn't a castle aimed at defense but something more akin to a country house/hunting lodge.

It's been well-preserved and restored, so you can walk up the grand staircase which visitors would have used - whether on business or pleasure.

The details on arches and doorways show this to have been a very fine residence indeed.

The floor of the main hall collapsed long ago but a corridor to its side allows you to explore.

And if you're more nimble than I am, you can go higher up a winding stairway. It's a place full of atmosphere, where it's easy to imagine past residents going about their lives.

 

Wray Castle

Wray Castle, on a promontory overlooking Lake Winderemere, looks like it's stood there since the middle ages.

But, from foundations to battlements, it's a fake, built in the mid-1800s as a countryside retreat by a wealthy Liverpool doctor and his wife, and now owned by the National Trust.

Other Lakeland houses of the time were comparatively modest villas but Margaret Dawson inherited a huge fortune from her father, and the couple could indulge their every whim. The castle is designed to look as if it has stood there forever, and had changes made as fashions changed. There are even mock ruins suggesting demolished outer defences in the grounds! 

After the Dawsons died, the property passed to a distant relative who leased the castle to summer visitors, among them the family of Beatrix Potter. Inside the castle there's currently an exhibition of photographs taken by Mr Pottter on holidays around the Lake District - some informal family groups, some of landscape. I was quite surprised at them as I must admit that, based on the film Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger, I'd thought of him as a rather dull businessman with no interest in arts of any kind. 

Inside, is a gothic re-imagining of how a castle should look with tiled floors and fireplaces, and ornate windows to frame the view.

Unfortunately the grounds were too soaked for walking other than along the well maintained paths of the arboretum, so it's one of those places I'd love to return to in better weather.

For this time, though, distant views of snow-topped hills had to suffice.

 

Tattershall Castle

The last day of our holiday took us back to familiar territory, winding our way home via Tattershall Castle and Belton House.

The fifteenth century brick Great Tower of Tattershall was ruinous and on the verge of being bought and shipped to America, when Lord Curzon of Kedleston stepped in and restored it in the early 1900s. Thanks to him there's now a complete castle to explore - the curtain wall has long disappeared, and some of the add-on buildings are ruins, but enter the main building and you're transported back to the castle's heyday.

You can race up the spiral staircase and take in the views which stretch for miles in every direction - or at least you can if you're feeling fitter than I was; walking five miles the previous day had left my legs too weak for such things.

I settled for just a couple of  the floors. Each floor is basically one large room, and entry numbers were limited so, making sure we didn't encounter anyone on the stairs, there was plenty of space inside. lower floors, as always, are for the general household, and the higher you climb the more private the apartments are.

Tapestries on the walls, the huge chandelier, and the ornate fireplace give an idea of how this room, where petitions would have been received, would have looked.

For the more affluent and important there was a private chamber in which to wait till the lord was ready to see them. Anyone else waited in the corridor outside, where the ceiling is decorated with coats of arms.

Tourists have been visiting Tattershall for a long time - and leaving their marks behind. The National Trust probably wouldn't encourage it today.

After the atrocious weather of May, the sky was starting to clear on this Bank Holiday Saturday with the uninterrupted blue reflected in the still waters of the moat.

Today it's a great place to explore, with a helpful guide to tell you about the castle's history and various information boards to show how life was back in medieval times - or if history doesn't fascinate that much, just sit by the moat with a picnic.

Further back in time - Bolingbroke Castle

As part of what I wanted to do this holiday was investigate places I've previously just whizzed past, Bolingbroke Castle was high on the list. Driving down the A-road towards Skegness, I've seen the brown English Heritage/tourist signs for it previously, and been intrigued, but never had time to stop. 

I love a castle - whether it's a re-constructed 'folly' like Castell Coch, a substantial ruin like Beaumaris, or even just a few bricks in the ground leaving almost everything to my imagination. Bolingbroke falls somewhere between the last two. There aren't really any steps to climb or dungeons to explore, but stand outside the marshy area which was formerly the moat and the walls clearly say 'castle' even though they barely reach courtyard height. Inside the courtyard the base layers of tower and curtain walls are clearly visible, and it's easy to imagine them full height in the castle's heyday.

 

This is the only remaining 'room', at the base of one of the towers, but information boards show the layout and explain each tower's use.

I did a full tour of the walls from inside, then a more slippery one following them on the outside. The old moat may be mostly overgrown with bulrushes but still as wet if you (or I) fall in.

The castle's claim to fame is as the birthplace of Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, and future king, Henry IV, after displacing Richard II. Shakespeare didn't like him, dubbing him 'this thorn, this canker' in contrast to 'sweet lovely rose', but it's probably through Shakespeare that most have heard of him.

 It's an unmanned site, with free entry, but no toilets/cafe, and only limited space for cars; another time I'd park on one of the straighter roads in the village and walk a little way rather than at the pull-in at the entry. The village itself is worth exploring and given more time (there's never enough!) I'd have walked further out along footpaths. 

Haddon Hall - house and garden

Haddon Hall may really be a manor house rather than a castle but it certainly lives up to what we expect from the latter.
It sits on a slight hill above a river, the windows are small and leaded, battlements top the buildings, the stone passageways are suitably worn down through hundreds of years of footsteps, and you enter through a gatehouse - actually two; one on the drive, one at the Hall itself. These days though, at both you're met by guides to welcome you rather than armed guards to keep you out.













The second gatehouse leads to a courtyard with various smaller chambers leading off now housing information for visitors, a private chapel in one corner, and the main house facing you.

Inside, a passage separates the original Tudor kitchens (my photos are too dark to bother sharing) from an open-to-the-rafters medieval hall with huge open fireplace, and gallery above from which minstrels would play.

From here you pass on to smaller rooms added later when fashion moved way from communal hall-style living. The walls are panelled in wood with carvings or intricate plaster mouldings as decorations.

Although old, with most rooms preserved as they would have been 600 years ago, the small addition of modern pieces of furniture here and there makes it feel like a place you could still comfortably live today, though I suspect it would be a little cool for me in winter without central heating; even on a warm, though occasionally rainy summer day, fires were lit in most hearths.

 Looking through the Long Gallery's windows, I saw the sun had come back out so headed to the garden, set on a series of terraces leading down to the river Wye. We last visited Haddon just before Christmas  which obviously wasn't a good time to explore the gardens; being able to was a huge part of why we re-visited.





























Formal beds edged in lavender, and echoing the design of the hall's windows, contrast with freer plantings in the herbaceous borders

It's a chance to admire that battlemented silhouette from a different angle

...and after we'd walked back up from the lower terraces, I think we deserved our treat of tea and cake (white chocolate and orange)