Corfe Castle

Made of grey stone, the ruins of Corfe Castle overlook the small Purbeck village of Corfe.

In its present form the Castle dates back to 1066 and is a major tourist attraction. The damage to the walls is not due to time or neglect, but to a major battle in the English Civil War, where medieval stone defences stood against a modern army armed with gunpowder and artillery.

Now owned by the National Trust, the walk up to the Castle is steep as visitors have to climb the old defensive hill, with sides that are in places almost sheer. Steps have been added in some sections to make the climb easier, but the view from the top is incredible.

Easily accessible from tourist locations like Bournemouth, Poole and Swanage, the castle draws many visitors each year. Few are aware of its darker past.

The castle whose ruins we see today was built by the Normans after the Conquest in 1066. However, there have been forts on the site for much longer. As an unsettled area, the high hill, easy water supply, and strategic location meant that many different fortifications had been added to the site, even before the castle was built.

The Purbecks, as a coastal area, saw battles between the Romans and the Celts, particularly the huge battle of Maiden Castle. Later in history, around 875, there was pillaging from the Danes and King Alfred built a castle on the site to act as garrison.  It was in this earlier fort that an act of regicide took place.

When the Normans arrived in 1066 they built the castle that we know as Corfe today. Built in a similar style to the still-intact Tower of London, Corfe Castle with its huge hill, thick stone walls and defensive ramparts must have seemed impregnable. The castle even had a well within the walls that would enable it to survive long sieges.

During the war between Stephen and Matilda, the castle was besieged by Stephen's forces, but as it would so many times in history, it remained unbreached and in the hands of Matilda's followers.

Later in history, King John, notorious for being forced to sign the Magna Carta, also had links to Corfe. As well as briefly keeping his crown jewels here, he heavily reinforced it and used it as a prison. One of his uses was to hold a rebel's family hostage - if the rebel did not surrender, the family were left to starve.

It remained in the hands of the Crown until Elizabeth I, who passed it to her Lord Chancellor.

In 1635 it came into the hands of Sir John Banks, a supporter of, and Attorney General to Charles I. The outbreak of the Civil War tested medieval defenses against Cromwell's New Model Army. The Banks family were Royalists, and Corfe Castle ended up under siege twice. When John Bankes was ordered to York by the King, the defense of the castle fell to his wife, Lady Mary Bankes.

The single wall that stands on its own is often thought to look rather precarious. However even today, the castle is is much the same state as it was at the end of the Civil War. For an idea of how sturdy the ruins are, these two images were taken in 1906 and at the end of the twentieth century. The castle hasn't changed much.

• http://corfe-castle.co.uk/
  The castle's official page - things to do, where to stay, and more.
• http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/
  The official National Trust page for Corfe Castle

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