Tuesday 20 August 2024

Warwick Castle

 Apologies for being so lax in posting and commenting of late. The current summer school holidays mean a lot of childcare and exhaustion. This weekend my daughter and myself took her two children to the Midlands for a short break. We visited the Titanic exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The children are obsessed with everything to do with the Titanic and they both thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't bother with photographs as there were very few artefacts. It was mainly photos, information and interactive things. Items from its sister ship the Olympic were on display which did give you an idea of the opulence for the first class passengers in comparison to basic facilities for the third class passengers.

On Sunday we visited Warwick Castle situated by the river Avon about 15 miles from Stratford-upon -Avon.
 It is a medieval castle originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068. It was fortified in the 14th cent and used as a stronghold until the early 17th century when it was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James 1 in 1604. It was converted into a country home and the Greville family (who became the Earls of Warwick in 1759) lived there until the late 1970s. 

You could climb up to the top of the towers which gave great views of the surrounding countryside.




The inner courtyard was being prepared for some kind of evening performance. 






The Great Hall had an impressive display of swords and torture equipment!




A bird of prey flying display, which was one of the best I've ever seen, completed a very enjoyable visit to the castle. 


7 comments:

  1. Children are inexhaustible, their parents and grandparents progressively less so, but the trip sounded so interesting. Back to school soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You've had a busy but enjoyable time by the sounds of it. Loved the photos of Warwick Castle. Your history is so ancient compared with ours, which only (lol) goes back approximately 600 years :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Warwick Castle does look very interesting and it is good that the tower is not locked up. I love the water photo with the two levels, one falling into the other.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I didn't enjoy the Great Hall particularly, because it was too dark, spooky and very very high. But I was impressed that it was granted to the Greville family by King James 1 in 1604. What had the Grevilles done so spectacularly for the royals to deserve such a reward?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow the same family owned it for a long time. Looks lovely. We migrated tp Australia in 1949 on the Georgic another sister ship of the Titanic. I was contacted by a fellow who lives in the flat where I lived in South Woodford. He is interested in the history of the building, "Eagle House", He found it on your blog. So thanks or that. He seems an interesting guy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, I'm stopping by to say thank you for your kind thoughts and condolences on Eddies passing.

    I do hope to get back to regular blogging soon.
    In the meantime, my thanks again to you.

    All the best Jan

    PS Warwick Castle looks a great place to visit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. wow such a historial pot - I'm envious.

    ReplyDelete

Thank-you for reading my blog. I would love to read your comments.