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Welcome to GreatBritishCastles.com Be sure to Bookmark this site now. We are dedicated to providing you with the best advice and information on british castles. Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is one of England's largest, containing thirteen acres within its walls. It has enjoyed favor as a royal residence from Norman times to the present and is the only royal castle to have made the transition to palace. Most monarchs have contributed in some way to its splendor and every century except the eighteenth has left its mark on the fabric. The result is a magnificent but extremely mutilated stronghold. 
The west front has three D-shaped towers, named Curfew, Salisbury and Garter. Henry VIII rebuilt the gatehouse leading into the lower ward in 1510. The heavily restored Henry III and Edward III towers rising at the foot of the motte were built in the thirteenth century. Five Norman flanking towers also remain - the York, Augusta, Clarence, Chester and Prince of Wales towers. Mural towers were by no means a new invention, but Windsor's are spaced closely enough to methodically flank the curtain. These simple square towers may be compared with the round towers flanking Windsor's west front to appreciate the progress of fifty years. The route towards the upper ward passes the Winchester Tower overlooking the river. At the foot of the motte is the so-called Norman Gate which leads from the lower ward into the upper. This gatehouse has the veneer of newness characteristic of all the castle's defenses, but the vault of the gate passage, the porticullis and one of the twin flanking towers go back to Edward III's reign in 1359. 
Goodrich Castle is the most splendid in the county of Herefordshire and one of the best examples of English military architecture. It is still impressive despite its ruinous state. The castle is perched on a rocky spur above the River Wye, four miles southwest of Ross-on-Wye. Godric's Castle - no doubt named after Godric Mappestone, who held the land nearby - is first recorded in 1101. Nothing is left of Godric's stronghold but within the bailey, very close to the later curtain, rises a well-preserved though relatively small Norman keep. Henry II took over the castle and the keep is generally attributed to him, but the royal accounts record very little expenditure here. The keep is a tall, square tower with pilaster buttresses and Norman windows. The original first floor entrance was later converted into a window, a new doorway being inserted immediately below. Strangely enough, the existing curtain and corner towers are not the first on the site. King John granted Goodrich to the mighty William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and a stone enclosure followed. Some of his masonry is embedded in the present east curtain and the foundations of a round tower underlie the present southwest tower. A later Earl of Pembroke, William de Valence, tore this structure down and erected his own. His building here is contemporary and comparable with the Edwardian castles of Wales. Such a castle is a rarity in England. It is square in plan, the more vulnerable south and east sides being protected by a wide, rock-cut ditch. A thick curtain surrounds the bailey, with massive round towers at three corners and a gatehouse occupying the fourth. Each tower rises from a solid square base, which sinks back into the cylinder in pyramid fashion. Forming spurs. The spurs projecting from the southeast tower are particularly high. |
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