Isle of Wight: Carisbrooke Castle

clarejk2014

Feb 11

Carisbrooke Castle is a must-see when visiting the Isle of Wight. The grand and imposing castle sits atop a hill and has good reason to look so proud - it dates back to 1100, a time when it was a Norman motte-and-bailey castle rather than the massive stone building we see today.

Since 1100 it has been used for defence, a garrison, a residence for a lord and a prison.

The most famous prisoner was King Charles I who was kept here between 1647 and 1648, imprisoned after the English Civil War. He made two attempts to escape but these failed and he was ultimately executed in London in 1648.

A more recent and happier royal occupant was Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Beatrice in the early 1900s when she was governor of the Isle of Wight.

These days visitors can meet four current non-royal residents - donkeys. These animals demonstrate to tourists how the treadmill in the Elizabethan well house works. They used to raise water from the 49-metre deep well to ensure a secure water supply for the human inhabitants.

Here are 5 facts that I came across in my English Heritage Guidebook:

1. The castle has always been the most important stronghold on the island thanks to its hilltop position. 2. Before the motte-and-bailey castle (built in 1100), a castle was already located here, built soon after 1066, when the Norman invasion took place. It was an 'adaptation of the existing Saxon defences', says English Heritage. 3. A motte is the mound and 'an ultimate place of refuge', while the bailey is the enclosure around the mound. According to English Heritage, this enclosure 'provided space for the headquarters of a great feudal magnate'. 4. The builder, Richard de Redvers, was made lord of the island by Henry I. The castle was held by the de Redvers family for nearly 200 years until 1293, when it was owned by the Crown again. 5. From the 1300s onwards, 'the focus of work on the castle was mainly on its defences rather than its residential buildings'. As there were French raids on the island during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) and then, later on, the Isle of Wight faced the threat of Spanish Armada, this became increasingly important.