English Mansions: 2010

Monday, 26 July 2010

A tour of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire England

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Monday, 17 May 2010

Newark Castle

Newark Castle, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, England, is said to have been founded by Egbert, king of the West Saxons, was partly rebuilt and greatly extended by Alexander, consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in 1123, who established it as a mint. His rebuild here was probably the model for that at Sleaford Castle, also built by Alexander.

It rises picturesquely from the river, and from its position and great strength was for a long time known as the 'Key of the North'. Of the original Norman stronghold the most important remains are the gate-house, a crypt and the lofty rectangular tower at the south-west angle. The building seems to have been reconstructed in the early part of the 13th century. King John of England died at this castle on 19 October 1216. In the reign of Edward III it was used as a state prison.

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River Avon

The River Avon or Avon (pronounced /ˈeɪvən/) is a river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the Midlands of England. It is also known as the Upper Avon, Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon.

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Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV.

Preston Castle

Preston Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the Ashton district of Preston, Lancashire. It is also referred to as Tulketh.

The site became disused by 1123 but the mound was not levelled until 1855.

The motte had a diameter of about 125 feet at the base and stood at a projecting cliff. A semi-circular ditch defended the exposed side of the fortification, suggesting a crescent shaped bailey.

Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle is a town in Teesdale, County Durham, England named after the castle around which it grew up. It sits on the north side of the River Tees, opposite Startforth, 34 miles (55 km) south southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne, 30 miles (48 km) west of Middlesbrough and 21 miles (34 km) southwest of the county town of Durham. Other than the castle, the Bowes Museum is also located in the town. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland north-east, Darlington to the east and Richmond to the south-east.

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Belmont Castle

Belmont Castle was a neo-Gothic mansion near Grays in the English county of Essex. Built circa 1795 to designs by the little-known Thomas Jeffery, and surrounded by extensive pleasure grounds, it was the most prominent building in the parish, but was demolished in 1943 to make way for a chalk quarry. The castle and its occupants had played a significant role in the town's life for over a hundred years.

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London Undergroun

The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. With its first section opening in 1863, it was the first underground railway system in the world. In 1890 it became the first to operate electric trains. Despite the name, about 55% of the network is above ground. It is usually referred to officially as 'the Underground' and colloquially as the Tube, although the latter term originally applied only to the deep-level bored lines, along which run slightly lower, narrower trains along standard-gauge track, to distinguish them from the sub-surface "cut and cover" lines that were built first. More recently this distinction has been lost and the whole system is now referred to as 'the Tube', even in recent years by its operator in official publicity.

The earlier lines of the present London Underground network were built by various private companies. Apart from the main line railways, they became part of an integrated transport system in 1933 when the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) or London Transport was created.

Empire State Buildin

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York, The Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

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Sunday, 9 May 2010

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Taunton Castle

Taunton Castle is a castle built to defend the town of Taunton, Somerset.

It has origins in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester. The current heavily reconstructed buildings are the inner ward, which now houses the county museum, and the Michelin Guide starred Castle Hotel on the site of one of the previous gate houses.

Bridgwater Castle

Bridgwater Castle was in the town of Bridgwater, Somerset.

The castle was built in 1202 by William Brewer. It passed to the king in 1233^[2] and in 1245 repairs were ordered to its motte and towers. During the 11th century Second Barons' War against Henry III, Bridgwater was held by the barons against the King.

In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Sir Francis Wyndham. Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed in 1645.

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Castle Old Fort

Castle Old Fort is a small Iron Age hill fort near Walsall Wood, in the West Midlands, England. Its interior is now occupied by a house.

The fort covers 3.5 acres acres in an ovoid shape, measuring 170 m from north to south and 130 m from east to west. It has an earth rampart surrounded by a ditch, with an entrance in the south east. There is some evidence that there may originally have been a second line of defences comprising a bank and a ditch.

The seventeenth century archaeologist Robert Plot reported findings of flint arrowheads, Roman pottery and Roman coins of Otho, Domitian and Nero, and the existence of a second entrance in the north west of the fort, in an area that has since been destroyed by quarrying.

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Dudley Castle

Dudley Castle is a ruined castle in the town of Dudley, West Midlands, England. Dudley Zoo is located in its grounds. The location, Castle Hill, is an outcrop of Wenlock Group limestone that was extensively quarried during the Industrial Revolution, and which now along with Wren's Nest Hill is a Scheduled Ancient Monument as the best surviving remains of the limestone industry in Dudley. The Dudley Tunnel runs beneath Castle Hill, but not the castle itself.
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Saturday, 10 April 2010

Wressle Castle

Wressle Castle is a Grade I listed quadrangular castle located in Wressle, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The castle was built c.1380–1390 by Sir Thomas Percy. The castle was garrisoned by Parliament during the English Civil War, and was largely demolished by an act of Parliament in 1650 as a precaution. A fire gutted the remaining south range of the castle in 1796, the only part still inhabited. Today, the form of a moat is visible as earthworks, and ruined buildings still remain; the castle is privately owned, and serves as farm buildings.

Baynard Castle

Baynard Castle was a motte castle built in the 12th century in the village of Cottingham which is some 7 km south of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was sometimes referred to as the 'castle at Cottingham' or 'Stuteville's castle'.

The motte castle was held by William de Stuteville and, around 1200, King John granted a licence to fortify the site. In the 14th century a further licence was granted to fortify a manor house on the site.

Today, only the mound survives, surrounded by a substantial moat on four sides. This can be seen from the corner of West End Road and Northgate, opposite the entrance to The Lawns. A four-bay timber-framed house of circa 15th century (known as the Old Manor House) which still stands on the site, accessed from Hallgate, is privately owned.

Hull Castle

Hull Castle was situated in what is now the city of Kingston upon Hull in the historic county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

This was a coastal fortress built by Henry VIII between 1538 and 1544. It was the most northerly of these fortresses and the last to be built during his reign. It was sited between two blockhouses and connected to them by a curtain wall. Around 1680 it was absorbed into the Citadel and used as a magazine. It was finally demolished in 1863.

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Mansion House

Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his Mansion House Speech – about the state of the British economy. The Guildhall is another venue used for important City functions.

Mansion House was built between 1739 and 1752, in the then fashionable Palladian style by the City of London surveyor and architect George Dance the Elder; its site had formerly been occupied by St Mary Woolchurch Haw, destroyed in the Great Fire of London. The construction was prompted by a wish to put an end to the inconvenient practice of lodging the Lord Mayor in one of the City Halls.

Mansion House has three main stories over a rusticated basement. The entrance facade features a portico with six Corinthian columns. The building originally had two prominent and unusual attic structures, but these were removed in 1794 and 1843. The building is on a confined site, and in the opinion of Sir John Summerson it gives "an impression of uneasily constricted bulk… On the whole, the building is a striking reminder that good taste was not a universal attribute in the eighteenth century." The main reception room was a colummned hall called the "Egyptian Hall", which was so named because the arrangement of the columns chosen by Dance was deemed to be "Egyptian" by Palladio, rather than because it employed Egyptian motifs. British architecture's mild flirtation with Egyptian motifs lay several decades in the future.

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

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Friday, 9 April 2010

St Michael's Mount

St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos y'n Koos) is a tidal island located 366 m (400 yd) off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway, passable only at mid to low tide, made of granite setts. The island exhibits a combination of slate and granite.

Its Cornish language name — literally, the grey rock in the wood — may represent a folk memory of a time before Mount's Bay was flooded. Certainly, the Cornish name would be an accurate description of the Mount set in woodland. Remains of trees have been seen at low tides following storms on the beach at Perranuthnoe, but radiocarbon dating established the submerging of the hazel wood at about 1700 BC.

In prehistoric times, St. Michael's Mount may have been a port for the tin trade, and Gavin de Beer made a case for it to be identified with the "tin port" Ictis/Ictin mentioned by Posidonius.

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Friday, 2 April 2010

Hornby Castle, Yorkshire

Hornby Castle, Yorkshire (North Riding), was a fourteenth and fifteenth-century courtyard castle, with a late fourteenth-century corner tower known as St Quintin's Tower, after the medieval family which occupied the castle (demolished in 1927) and fifteenth century work done for William, Lord Conyers.

Hornby was largely rebuilt in the 1760s by John Carr of York, who was responsible for the surviving south range and the east range (demolished in the 1930s) and outbuildings, for Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness. The eventual heir was the Duke of Leeds, who assembled there rich early eighteenth-century furniture from several houses, illustrated in the books of Percy Macquoid.

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Castle Cary

Castle Cary is a market town and civil parish in south Somerset, England, 5 miles north west of Wincanton and 8 miles (12.9 km) south of Shepton Mallet.

The town is situated on the River Cary, a tributary of the Parrett.

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Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

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