Wardour Castle

Old Waldor Castle is situated near Tisbury in Wiltshire. It was partly destroyed in the Civil war and is now looked after by English Heritage. I might add it is not an easy place to get to being off the main roads along some narrow lanes. It has a very long history which ended when during the Civil war it was captured by the parliamentarian forces after Lady Arundell held out for five days.  Her son Henry then decided to lay laid siege to his own castle and in doing so blew most of it up . A new castle was later built not far away and this one was left as a romantic ruin.

This is one of the first boards you see

with lots of other information boards round the place

This side was the part that was blown up

Viewing from here the castle does not look so bad

Window and corner

The front which was used in Kevin Costner's film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 

This board tells you about it featuring in the film

Entrance door and coat of alms, there were two portcullises on the entrance 

One of the rooms which looks like a chapel

courtyard. I took three photos and stitched them together which you can see below

 A board all about the courtyard

another of the ruined rooms

These were the fireplaces in one of the kitchens

This was the Great Chamber used for important guests

This board tells you all about the Chamber

  Doorways  and to the right is what was the Great Hall

You can read all about the Hall here

This was another kitchen fireplace near the Great Hall

Further up the castle on one of the floors accessible

Lots of graffiti in evidence  like that from H Buckland & W Jeffery, I might add his name is on the wall lower down the stairs

This was dated 1919

F Milles left their mark in 1916 maybe on leave from the war.QVR may give a hint to the regiment which is the Queen Victoria's Rifles

This is some of the oldest I found though I wonder at MB 1698. The holes look like they were made by Daggers

Headstops which are on the base of the door on the right

While looking round I noticed a small door which lead to the small room on the right

It was where the portcullis went

Another of the rooms, The ceiling is a recent addition, back when it was built the place would have had wooden floors and joists

View from one of the floors, the lake is more recent and it you look to the right in the

 distance you can see the new castle which is now sadly blocks of flats the last owner having died in the second world war leaving no heir

There you have it, a short look round Wardour Castle.  It is open to look round though I would check the English Heritage Website first.  Kids imagination will run wild in this place and its  a very nice place to take a picnic. For a bit more of an insite & history on the place check this out Timetravel Britain

Avebury

Avebury in Wiltshire is a place is you could say the poor relation to Stonehenge, the fact it is a henge is probably lost on many people who tend to visit the place.  It dates back to 2300 BCE when it was built in the Neolithic age and comprises of three circles which encompass the village of Avebury. It is a UNSECO World Heritage Site so worth while visiting. Here are a few photos I took while I was there.

 This is the large outer ditch of the Henge

One of the information boards telling you about the place

Looking back at the ring of stones

 One of the stones wait a chapel in the background

Same stone but with the village pub, the small concrete stone marks where another large stone used to be

 Three together

 Here you can see the road that runs through the centre of the henge

The other side of the henge looking at the ditch

Stones look huge don't they but it's me tricking you a bit here though they are over twice the height of the average person

I thought this one looked like a skull

 Looking through two of the stones

Lots of people enjoying a day at the stones

These last two photos are a couple of Stitched photos to give a panoramic view of the place

Avebury is run by the National Trust and is well worth a visit plus at the Manor you can see a couple of Museums containing finds from the site.