Corfe Castle and Lady Mary's last stand ... a day out on the Isle of Purbeck

We've just got back from the most amazing weekend away with some very dear friends down in dreamy Dorset. We had a day of just lazing on the beach, chatting, catching up on each other's news and checking out the action in Poole Harbour.

And then we went for a big day out on the very lovely Isle of Purbeck.

Now the first thing to mention is that it's not actually an island. It's really a peninsula. They just refer to it as an island because it's a bit isolated from everywhere else.

First stop was Corfe Castle. If someone asked me to nominate the ultimate romantic ruin, I'd be hard pressed to think of a better one than this. Have a look and see for yourself.

Corfe Castle, Dorset

I have to say that its history as well as its good looks are behind its nomination, but I'll come to the history in a moment.

This is how it looks from the church yard of St. Edward, the Martyr, in the village of Corfe.

Corfe Castle, Dorset

The National Trust, who run the castle these days, had set up camp - medieval style - at the bottom of the hill, which was a real hit with our little people (two 8 year-olds and one 10 year-old).

Corfe Castle, Dorset

There were martial arts demonstrations, displays of medieval food and lots of knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers explaining different aspects of medieval life. And there were plenty of things for the little people to have a go at themselves. Sword fight, anyone? No? Spot of archery, perhaps?

Emi and his chums were very enthusiastic about doing the children's castle questionnaire, and incredibly proud of the medals that they got for finishing it.

Now for a little bit about the history of the castle. It was built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror, and, like the Tower of London, was exceptional for its day in that it was built of stone whereas most English castles of that period were built from earth and wood.  In fact there may have been an earlier castle on the site. Postholes of a Saxon hall have been found, and some folk believe that this was where the Saxon King, Edward, the Martyr, was assassinated by his stepmother on 18th March, 978 so that her son, Æthelred the Unready, could claim the throne in his place. Today the church in Corfe village, at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands, is dedicated to King Edward, the Martyr. Legend has it that the church was built on the site of an old blind lady's cottage to which the king's body was taken after his murder.

The Church of St. Edward, the Martyr, Corfe Castle, Dorset

Corfe remained a royal castle until Queen Elizabeth I sold it to her chancellor, Sir Christoper Hatton, from whose London estate Hatton Garden in London takes its name.

In 1635 it was sold again, this time to Sir John Bankes, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Attorney General.

Now I've said that the castle is the ultimate romantic ruin, and it's a ruin that comes with a damsel  (of sorts) in distress. Seven years after the Bankes family had moved in and got themselves settled in their nice new castle the English Civil War broke out. They were staunch supporters of the beleaguered King Charles I, and, as Corfe was a powerful citadel, a force of between 200 and 300 Parliamentarians laid siege to it in May 1643. Now as luck would have it old Sir John was off Cavaliering up in York when the Roundheads showed up, leaving the missus, Lady Mary Bankes, to defend the castle. Lady Mary, who was a force of nature, had by this stage brought 4 sons and 6 daughters into the world. The sons had been sent away for safety what with heirs and spares being more important in those days than mere daughters. But the formidable Lady Mary remained at Corfe with her little girls and a force of just five men.

The very formidable Lady Mary Bankes shown holding the keys to her castle

She saw the Roundheads off and then petitioned for reinforcements. The King sent a troop of 80 men to hold the castle, but the Roundheads returned in June with a force of 500 to 600 men and two siege engines. Mary and her own small party held the Upper Ward, leaving the 80 newcomers to look after the other parts of the fortification. By all accounts she and her five men were very effective, heaving rocks over the battlements and hurling hot embers down on the unfortunate besiegers. By the time the siege ended, a staggering 3 years' later, her group had knocked at least 100 of the Roundheads out of action, either killing them or injuring them so that they couldn't return to the fray.

Lady Mary carried on defending her castle until she was betrayed by Colonel Pitman, one of her officers, who let the Roundheads enter through the sally gate. The defenders had been expecting reinforcements so, when the invading Roundheads turned their jackets inside out, they weren't recognised as enemies until it was too late. The army outside launched an assault on the castle walls, and then the enemy within followed their lead so that the Royalists found themselves under attack from two sides. Lady Mary was forced to surrender, but her valiant defence won her the total admiration of her foes who allowed her and her retinue to leave unharmed and, in a powerful symbolic gesture of respect for Lady Mary they allowed her to take the keys of the castle with her when she left.

You can see the tower of the church of St. Edward, the Martyr through the castle window. It had been quickly taken over by the Parliamentarians in the early stages of the siege, and used by their gunners as a stronghold from which to bombard the castle. They ripped the lead off the roof to make lead shot. By the time the whole shooting match had ended they'd wrought over £50 of damage to the fabric of the building, which was a small fortune way back then.

After Lady Mary had gone the Parliamentarians heaved a huge sigh of relief, and then, in March 1646, the English Parliament voted to destroy the castle. Given that it was such a solid structure it was impossible to obliterate it completely, but they did their best. Barrels of gunpowder were brought in and they blew the place to bits.

It had been one of the few strongholds left in Royalist hands, but it would never again give sanctuary to the cause of King Charles I or his successors.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660 the Bankes family were able to recover their lands, but they felt that the damage to Corfe was just too extensive for it to be restored to its former glory, and they moved their family seat to a new house, which they built on land they owned at Kingston Lacy. And if you go there you will see Lady Mary's keys proudly displayed amongst the family treasures.

Corfe Castle, Dorset

The years passed, the restored monarchy tightened its grip on the country and the castle's ruins deteriorated more and more with every passing winter.

Corfe Castle, Dorset

And whilst no one was paying much attention to the old castle walls the locals, down in Corfe village, quietly got on with using them as a quarry, carrying away what they needed to build their homes in the shadow of its broken ramparts.

Corfe village,  Dorset

So, in a way, the old stones have survived both the siege and Cromwell's Commonwealth, to be regenerated in a way that I'm sure Lady Mary would approve of if she were around to see them.

If you drop by the village on your way up to the castle, take a look at the church of King Edward the Martyr and the Town Hall, which backs onto the churchyard and is reputedly the smallest in the country. It houses a museum on its downstairs floor, which must also rank amongst the smallest museums in the country.

All the best for now,

Bonny x

As shared on Our World Tuesday

And if you're feeling hungry after your visit to the Castle I've got the perfect place for lunch with a view back down the valley to where the ruins stand. Check it out here: the Scott Arms, Kingston

And if you find yourself in this part of Dorset, perhaps you'd like to check out the Tank Museum, just down the road. You can read my post about it here: Tank Museum, Bovington

Or if the Tower of London, another Norman citadel, is more your thing you can read about it here: The Tower of London.

Walking the Regent's Canal from Little Venice to the Islington Tunnel

Yesterday the sun shone in London and we decided that it was a perfect day for a walk along the Regent's Canal. Now, at the risk of being accused of hyperbole, I have to say, with my hand on my heart, that this is possibly the most colourful stretch of canal anywhere in the country. It's an epic walk that takes you from the colourful calm of Little Venice through the regal grandeur of Regent's Park, past the animals in the zoo,  then on to the wonderful cultural mix that is Camden before entering the more industrial functional landscape around King's Cross and terminating at the Islington Tunnel, which was the great engineering achievement of the canal project. I'm not exaggerating (honestly) when I say that there's something for everyone on this route.

Views of the Regent's Canal, London

Now just a little bit about its history: the Regent's Canal Company was formed in 1812 to cut a new canal from the Grand Union Canal's Paddington arm to Limehouse, where a dock, or basin, as they liked to call them in those days, would link the new canal with the Thames. The great Regency architect, John Nash, was the director of the company, and heavily involved in planning and designing the project, applying his concept of barges moving through an urban landscape. Back in the day this was a bit like laden trucks motoring up the back lanes carrying their goods to market, although Nash's expression of the idea was altogether more picturesque and romantic.

They'd been thinking about building some such canal since about 1802. In those days canals were the big-money freight business as the railways hadn't quite chuffed their way to total world domination. However the Regent's Canal Company's timing was a bit lousy. The canal was completed in 1820, but by then they were really too close to the railway age to produce the financial success that had been hoped for. At several points over the succeeding years, as the railways increasingly became the super powers of the commercial freight world, it only narrowly escaped conversion into a railway. Happily it survived: funds never appeared when they were needed to change the waterway into a railway, and today it cuts a verdant swathe of watery green through the city. 

We started off in Little Venice at the Warwick Avenue tube station. The walk starts at marker 1 on the map below.

From Warwick Avenue tube station walk down Warwick Avenue, cross Blomfield Road and take the steps down to the canal. The large(ish) expanse of water on the right hand side of the bridge is the basin, where the Regent's Canal meets the Paddington arm of the Grand Union canal. It was (and still is) used to moor boats away from the thoroughfare so as not to block the through-flow of traffic in the canal.

Regent's Canal from the Little Venice Bridge on Blomfield Road

Down on the canal bank it's all a bit cosy and domestic with lots of wonderfully colourful boats complete with floating gardens and forests of foliage.

Regent's Canal, Little Venice, London

If you wander around the basin you'll find river buses and floating cafes. 

Emi was greatly taken with the strange-looking boat (in the photo below) that had a huge arm for scooping and cleaning the canal. It was full - and I do mean full - of the tiny weed that grows on top of the water forming a layer of floating vegetation that looks like solid green concrete. 

It's not possible to walk along the canal tow path from here, so after taking a look at the basin we have to go back up the steps to Blomfield Road again and walk along, effectively hanging a left from where we started on Warwick Avenue. 

Follow Blomfield Road along the canal bank towards the Edgware Road. You'll notice a rather fetching café with a terrace overlooking the canal. This is La Ville, a splendid little place for a coffee whilst you watch the river boats go by below. It sits over the opening to the Maida Hill tunnel, which runs for 251 metres taking the canal underneath the Edgware Road. 

Café La Ville

They had real problems building the Maida Hill Tunnel because of a spring that they hit when they were digging it way back in 1812, which sadly resulted in a few fatalities amongst the workmen engaged on the project. As a result it didn't turn out exactly as planned and a further mini-tunnel/ bridge-like structure known as Eyre's Tunnel had to be built under Lisson Grove, but we'll come to that in good time. 

Walk across the Edgware Road into Aberdeen Place. Follow straight along Aberdeen Place until it curves round to the left to become Cunningham Place. You will see a little alleyway straight ahead, which leads, via some steps, down to where the canal emerges from the Maida Hill Tunnel.

Down on the tow path again you'll see this other tunnel/ bridge structure, which is Eyre's Tunnel up ahead. 

Just before the tunnel we paused to look at a board of Before I die ... wishes ...

... which really did cover all possible bases. Some people seemed to have taken it seriously, and others less so ... .

Eyre's tunnel, first opened in 1816, is only 48 metres long, and it's possible to walk through it. 

Eyre's Tunnel, Regent's Canal, London

You step out of the tunnel into Lisson Grove Moorings, which is, for my money, just about the most perfect little corner of London that you could moor your houseboat in. 

Lisson Grove Moorings, Regent's Canal, London

The bank of the canal has been transformed into a series of inter-connecting front gardens by the boating folk. When everyone's at home and they come out to play it must be a really fun, vibrant little community. Let's just say that I detected a very happy vibe along this stretch of the waterway.

Lisson Grove Moorings, Regent's Canal, London

Keep on going and you'll come to another bridge, which carries Park Road, or the A41 over the canal, and you'll have reached marker 2 on the first map, which crosses onto the second map shown below.

Follow the tow path under the roadway ... 

Regent's Canal, London

… and you'll emerge into a different landscape. 

The canal now passes through Regent's Park and everything feels altogether more rural and bucolic. Lots of stately weeping willow trees reach down and dip their branches in the water as the odd water bus chugs along sending its slipstream slapping gently against the banks. 

Watch out for some prime real estate on the opposite bank, and for the minaret of the Regent's Park Islamic Centre in the distance.

Keep on going, and before long you'll come to the Macclesfield Bridge which carries Avenue Road over the canal. Macclesfield Bridge is more colourfully known as Blow Up Bridge. 

Macclesfield or Blow Up Bridge, Regent's Canal, London

At 3:00 a.m. on 2nd October, 1874 a barge called the Tilbury was passing under Macclesfield Bridge with a cargo of dynamite bound for a quarry in the Midlands. As luck would have it a spark ignited the dynamite at that precise moment blowing the bridge apart. Terrified locals leapt from their beds believing that London had fallen victim to an earthquake.

Macclesfield or Blow Up Bridge, Regent's Canal, London

The bridge was duly rebuilt, but they turned the salvaged pillars around in the reconstruction and they now have grooves on both sides, from where the ropes hauling the barges have cut in as they've been hauled past. It is a very splendid structure, rendered all the more interesting by its history. 

Macclesfield or Blow Up Bridge, Regent's Canal, London

Keep on going and you'll arrive at London Zoo. The canal bisects the zoo so you'll have animal enclosures on both sides.

Keep on going and the canal will make a pronounced bend to the left.

Just after the bend there's another bridge that takes the canal under Prince Albert Road, which skirts Regent's Park.

There's a lot of graffiti on the bridge, but once you emerge on the other side it's all very pretty and quite residential again.

Now we've reached marker 3 on the edge of map 2, and it's time to cross onto map 3 below. 

And there are still some amazing floating gardens to check out. I was amazed by the ingenuity of the barge owners when it came to their plants. Many were valiantly growing their own food. There were lots of cherry tomatoes and salad leaves, courgettes and rhubarb and whole rafts of aromatic herbs basking in the sunshine. 

As we approached Camden there were more and more people enjoying the water. Emi was especially keen to come back another day and try his hand at some kayaking at Pirate Castle. I, on the other hand, was impressed to see a punt in London. This little party (photo below) drifted past trailing riffs of acoustic guitar as the chap at the front strummed and his friend at the back punted. It all looked very civilised. I hope they had a really good picnic packed away with a chilled bottle or two of bubbly to wash it down. 

We kept on going and before we knew it we had arrived at Camden Lock, our lunch stop.

Being out and about with a dog in London does tend to limit your pit-stop options. Not everywhere is canine friendly <boo! hiss!> but there's always the wonderful street food option, and there are few places with a wider, better offering of street food than Camden Lock. 

So we stocked up with some drinks and a few plates of wonderful tucker, and sat on the bank beside the canal lock to have an impromptu picnic with a spot of people watching thrown in for good measure. The little food market just before the lock is open for business throughout the week. 

Camden Lock,Regent's Canal, London

For anyone looking for something quirky and different Camden's definitely a good place to come shopping.

 The market's totally brilliant, but I'd advise you to leave your dog at home as he's going to be in serious danger of getting trampled with the crush of people. Emi's not the world's most enthusiastic shopper either, so we decided to leave the retail therapy for another day and carried on, crossing over Camden Street.

And going down to the canal again on the other side. Once you're through all the throngs of cool people who come to hang out in Camden things start to quieten down. 

Emi was very keen on this funky building, which he thought looked like cabins on an ocean going super-liner. It's actually a terrace of houses that were commissioned by Sainsbury's to the design of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and have since won a number of architectural awards. 

Keep on going and things start to become a little more industrial and a lot less residential. The canal also starts to sport a lot more of that green-concrete-look-a-like pond weed that grows on top of the water.

Once you cross under the Camley Street bridge you've arrived at marker 4 and are moving from map 3 to map 4.

On the other side of the railway lines you come to the St. Pancras Basin, which was originally a coal wharf, and still feels very utilitarian and industrial. 

St. Pancras Basin,Regent's Canal, London

The square red brick building is the old pumping house. 

St. Pancras Basin,Regent's Canal, London

If you carry on a bit further you will come to St. Pancras Lock.

St. Pancras Lock, Regent's Canal, London

Pass the lock and you come to a further bridge, which leads on to Rotunda, a wonderful restaurant in the fabulous Kings Place complex (on the opposite bank). 

Kings Place is a brilliant centre for the performing arts. And after concerts and viewings I have spent many happy hours on the terrace outside of the Rotunda putting the world to rights with my chums. It's a great place to meet friends for lunch and long catch-up chats. The food is fabulous. They've got their own farm up in Northumberland and everything's organic. But the best bit is that quiet terrace, which makes the hurly burly of Kings Cross down the road seem as though it's on another planet. It really is a top place for a spot of lunch and a good conversation as you watch the ducks and the boats drift past.  

Keep on going, but be sure to look back and admire the complex.

 We're on the final furlong now, because up ahead is the Islington Tunnel through which we cannot pass. It is the longest tunnel on the canal measuring 875 metres, but they were strapped for cash when they were building it and couldn't run to a tow path. This meant that when it was finished back in 1820 the boatmen had to walk their barges through, which basically involved the men lying down and pushing with their legs against the walls and roof of the tunnel to push it forwards. Needless to say this wasn't very efficient, and caused great traffic-jams with barges backing up all down the canal. So by 1826 they'd introduced a steam chain to pull the barges through mechanically. 

The photo below is of the western entrance to the Islington Tunnel, which was designed by John Nash.

Entrance to the Islington Tunnel, Regent's Canal, London

By this stage my two little companions were wilting a bit, and, rather than spoil what had been a lovely walk by pressing them to go on any further, I decided to end our adventure here and catch the tube home. But they've agreed to come along another day to pick up the trail on the other side of the tunnel and follow the canal all the way to the Limehouse Basin, where it joins the Thames. Watch this space for more details!

All the best for now,

Bonny x

As shared on Friday Finds

And if you're interested in canals:

Why not check out my walk along the Grand Union Canal, following in the footsteps of the great Brunel? See his Wharncliffe Viaduct and Three Bridges, where he took a canal across a railway and put a road on top for good measure. Check it out here: Walking in the footsteps of Brunel

Or the very lovely Exeter to Topsham canal, one of the first to be built in the UK, with one of the very nicest waterside pubs in the country. Check it out here: The Exeter to Topsham Canal