December 2010
The blog page, a place where I can record and then archive my monthly updates and what's new in our hunt for castles UK.

This months Scottish castles and a tower, are from Moray and Inverness-shire.

In November we went hunting for more castles, based in Hastings there was new stuff to be seen, had the big castles of Rochester and Canterbury, along with the smaller ones of Rye and Camber all on that must see list.
Rochester was first, taking in Sutton Valence, Thurnham and Stockbury castles on the way, the castle guards the River Medway but the town is hemmed in by Chatham and Gillingham, so it's built up all the way. But boy when you see the castle it hits you in the face like a brick, impressed you should be, it's big and bold, parked in a car park and there's a nice bit of town wall, flanked by a large round tower to see. By the cathedral, there's a small gatehouse and Gundulph Tower, plus Boley Hill which I didn't see, bit of shopping on the High Street, it's a good day out, which would have been better on a warmer day.
First of all Canterbury must be one of the finest medieval cities in Britain, its got just about everything and it's a big old place. Parked up by the castles and went to see the stone keep, which was shut for repairs, just our luck. Got some pictures but on the city side the keep is now helmed in by houses, so it was hard to get all the angles, walked back across the road and into the park to get some good views of Dane Johns mound which may go back to King William I. Then it was up on the city wall, with its fine round flanking towers for the walk into the main shopping area, lots of shops to keep the castle spotter happy while I went across town to see the Westgate, which looked a bit out of place with the double decker buses driving through its archway. We met back up by the street to the Cathedral, it's still a place of pilgrimage to visit the site of the shrine of the Archbishop Thomas Becket, who was murdered in the Cathedral in 1170. Four knights, Richard Brito, Hugh de Moreville, Reginald fitz Urse and William de Tracy overheard King Henry II rage and took seriously his shout of "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" Not knowing the size of the city, I only got a 2 hour ticket, so we had no time to visit the Cathedral but a return visit will be very welcome and this time the keep could be open.
Winchelsea, Rye, Mote Place Iden and Camber Castle was another good day out, not far from Hastings it's a nice little group of fortifications. You hit Winchelsea first, once of defended town there are walls, ditches and 3 stone gatehouses to visit, the town inside is unfinished and has a strange feel about it. There are Martello Towers dotted around and Rye is only a couple of miles to the north, again it's a defended town and there's lots to see. Driving around to find a parking space, there's a nice bit of town wall, with the base of a square flanking tower and a super twin towered gatehouse, inside the town is even better with Ypres Tower and good shopping for the spotter. To the east and north of Rye are nice walks to very difference castle sites, at Mote Place Iden where I saw my first red squirrel, are the earthworks and moat of an early 14th century fortified manor house and at Camber Castle, are the ruin of unusually unaltered King Henry VIII artillery fort, it's all very good.
With the bad weather and an open fire down stairs, this months blog is so late that we can wish everybody, a happy Christmas and a good castle hunting New Year, Chris
Click on the pictures, for more information.