Hi everyone,
Andrew again , we visited two places yesterday the tank museum at Bovington and Corfe castle ,and we also had dinner with friends in the village,So I will write about Corfe castle and let Callum tell you all about Bovington or we will fall behind with our blog.
Corfe castle has had a fortification on its hill since Saxon times around 800AD, but it was William the conqueror who saw the benefits of the location and started to build the stone castle,and over 500 years it was one of the favourite castles of medieval kings because of the security of the strong fortification and the good boar and deer hunting in the area.
The tall central 'keep' where the king stayed was a skyscraper of the Middle Ages. It was 21mtr tall and on top of its 30mtr hill, it dominates the local area. If you look at the photos you can see the holes in the wall for the timber floor joists and stairs.
The castle was renowned as such a strong fortification it was used as a 'treasury' where all collected taxes where kept,and a prison for several treasonous members of royalty.
But when Elizabeth I came to the throne she had no interest in the castle and sold it to a favourite in her court. Then during the English civil war the owners of the castle who were loyal to the king, but most of the south of England was under the control of the parliament forces and the castle was put under siege.for 500 years the castle had withstood all attacks,but only by tricking the defenders did the parliament forces get in ,some of them dressed up as 'royalists' and said they were reinforcements once inside they held the gates open for everybody else and the castle was doomed.
So why is it in ruins? Well parliament passed a decree that the castle be destroyed so as no royalist rebellion use it as a fortification, so over several months troops dug under the foundations and the put in barrels of gun powder. And that is why in the photos large bits off wall are laying on strange angles but the best photo is of the entrance with the timber walkway you can see where the structure has split in two and slid down the hill about 4mtr after having its foundations dug out and blown up.