Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle 

I grew up living in the shadow of this famous old castle and because it was something I saw everyday, I did not really appreciate all the history that surrounded it. Of course as children we were fascinated that it had a dungeon and we all knew the legend about King Edward 11 being murdered there (red hot poker in a part of this anatomy that I will leave to your imagination...it seems more likely that he was suffocated; but legends are always better than reality!!!!!) 

The castle saw brief action during the English Civil War in the 1640's when it endured a three-day siege and capture by Parliamentary forces. Incredibly, Berkeley was one of England's few castles to withstand Cromwell's ruthless slighting campaign, which rendered them useless in further military action. At Berkeley Castle, the only damage of any significance is still visible: a 35 foot breach in the walling of the keep. In fact, even today, the Berkeleys are forbidden by law to repair the crack!

Inner courtyard, a lot of these rooms are bedrooms.

Looking through the arch on right is a gate to church, as children we used to stop the bridal cars here and it was tradition for a few coins to be thrown out!

The day we visited there were some ladies dressed in period costume. They looked very elegant and it was easy to imagine the castle as it had been!

Some of the old cannons

I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of one of these!!

View of one part of the garden taken from where the cannons were situated

Dungeon deep and dank not a place you would want to in!!

The room where Edward 11 was incarcerated until his death!

Drake's Room but it was never established that he actually stayed at the castle.

Drake's Chest

Now set out as a dining room but was originally the billiard room (clue being the lighting)

The great hall (my daughter taking pics and I tell you hers are so much better than mine!)

The Berkeley Arch

Not sure what the environmental health dept would make of these lead lined sinks in The Buttery!!

AddGood job we don't have to cope with one of these anymore!! (pestle and mortar!!)caption

Believe it or not these are picnic hampers...glad I don't have to carry them! They were apparently used by the family until relatively recently(this century)

One of the huge grates used for cooking. Imagine working here!!

House keepers room with old typewriter and sewing machine.

Wine and beer cellars. Some of the wine racks still had the original wine labels from 1800's (no wine though!!)

This is really only a little snippet but anyone interested should take a look at the link and in my opinion it is well worth a visit!!  Berkeley Castle

What a mess

I cannot believe I'm going to let you have a glimpse into the shambles of our garage and cellar. I'm desperate to get it all tidied up and I'm hoping that by posting these photos I will shame myself and embee into doing something about it. When It is tidied I will post another set of photos but it won't be for some time. Today is being spent on the back yard. I have been cleaning up all the rubbish and getting rid of the green mould we seem to get every winter on our balcony, oil tank and back steps. It may not seem a big task but everything has to be bleached. I've come in to get lunch while it all dries. The real problem is that this area never gets any sun.

You wouldn't know it from this photo but there is a small printing press in this room together with cases of print. There was time when Embee did a lot of printing such as business cards and letter headings.

My washing machine is in the cellar but the sink is also used for cleaning paintbrushes etc. if only someone would actually do just that!

You could never get a car in the garage. Actually it's where I keep my freezer and Embee used to use it for keep fit but you can't even get at the weights.


What I really want is to have this area clear with shelves up all around so that we actually know exactly where everything is instead of scrabbling around searching for tools which frequently happens.

Do you keep half used tins of paint just in case something need a touch up. I'm sure half of these tins could be thrown away.

Now the wine cellar is relatively clear (I wonder why) but it does look in need of a re-stock!