Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, Leicestershire

Ashby-de-la-Zouch is a small market town in the far west of Leicestershire, within easy reach of all the major cities of the region via the motorway network. Its chief feature is undoubtedly its partially-ruined castle, which is well worth a visit.

The castle must be approached on foot, although there are car parks in the town not far away. The feature that strikes the visitor first and foremost is the massive tower on the right-hand side of the range of buildings. This is the 80-foot high Hastings Tower, but you may want to leave its exploration until last.

Ashby Castle dates from the mid-12^th century, when the manor of Ashby was held by the Zouch family, but the remains you can see cover a range of dates up to 1483, when the Tower was completed by William, Lord Hastings, who lost his head on the orders of King Richard III in that same year.

One way to explore the castle is to work your round from left to right, starting at the kitchen and ending at the tower, or there is another, very unusual, way, which will be mentioned soon! The buildings you can see are in various stages of ruin, with nearly all the rooms open to the sky and some of the walls reduced to outlines on the ground, although others reach two or more storeys high.

Much of this ruination was deliberate, as the castle was one of many that were “slighted” during the English Civil War, with the destruction at Ashby taking place in 1648. The slighting of a castle meant the blowing up with gunpowder of one complete side of each building, thus causing roofs to collapse. Local builders would have helped themselves to free building stone over the coming years, thus leaving the site in a condition close to what can be seen today.

The kitchen complex is of considerable size, and, with a little imagination, one can picture the hive of activity that this would have been during the heyday of the castle when the Lord of the Manor was feasting in the great hall. You can see two massive fireplaces, a cauldron recess and an oven in the remaining walls, and there may have been more in the west wall, now missing.

Any children in your party will probably be far more interested in the “secret” passage that leads underground from the kitchen to the Hastings Tower, which is the alternative means of exploration mentioned above. When I first visited Ashby Castle, some years ago, this passage was unlit, which meant a slightly scary experience as you felt your way along in pitch darkness. However, health and safety rules have now meant that you are less likely to bump into somebody coming the other way, although the passage is still narrow, not straight, quite low, dim and damp, especially after heavy rain.

Continuing round the buildings from the kitchen you come to the buttery and pantry, which were originally the solar, and then the great hall, which would have been the heart of the castle, used not only for meals but holding court and as the dormitory for most of the castle’s inhabitants. You can make out where the hearth would have been, this being an open fire near the centre of the hall, the smoke of which would have escaped via windows or a hole in the roof.

Next is the solar, being the private quarters of the lord’s family, which would have been on two floors with divisions into separate rooms. Then visit the chapel, much of which was built at the same time as the tower and would have been a very impressive building, both in size and quality. The adjoining “priest’s rooms” are unlikely to have been used for this purpose.

The Hastings Tower, when complete, was virtually a castle within a castle, as it rose to 90 feet when first built, part of it comprising four storeys and part of it seven, thus allowing for plenty of accommodation. The tower would have had its own kitchen, water supply and latrines, and therefore have been self-contained as a fortified manor house during a time of conflict. Given that its builder, Lord Hastings, was an active participant in the Wars of the Roses, it is hardly surprising that he had this aim in mind.

Although the bulk of the tower has been lost, one important feature still remains, this being the spiral staircase that leads all the way to the top, and which is perfectly safe to climb. As you pass each doorway on the way up or down, there is somewhere to stand aside so that you can pass people going the other way. Take care when climbing the stairs, especially on a wet day, because many of the stones are worn and uneven, although some have been replaced by modern steps, especially near the top.

The climb is well worth the view you get from the top, where there is room to stop and look around without getting in anyone else’s way. You can see right over the town of Ashby and across into the Leicestershire countryside. Keep an eye on the children, though, because it is possible that someone could fall over the edge, and it is an 80-foot drop to the grass below.

There is a large grassy area adjacent to the castle, this being the site of the original garden and fish ponds. This is great for allowing children to run around in, especially as there are safe grass slopes to roll down! On certain days of the year this area is used for historical displays and reconstructions.

West Leicestershire is not normally on the tourist trail, but Ashby is not far from the popular destination of Burton-on-Trent, famous for its brewing connections, and is close to the A42 main route from Birmingham to Nottingham. Ashby is itself an interesting town to wander round, and an hour’s break to visit the town and its castle would be well repaid.

© John Welford

Inverewe Garden, Scotland

Inverewe Garden is a remarkable place that owes its existence to the perception and sheer hard work of two remarkable people, Osgood Mackenzie and his daughter Mairi Sawyer. Their creation, next to the delightful and peaceful Loch Ewe in the northwest Scottish Highlands, can today be enjoyed by the general public as it is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

History

Osgood Mackenzie (1842-1922) was a son of the laird of Gairloch but, not being the eldest son, he inherited no land of his own when his father died. Instead, his mother acquired an estate for him a few miles away, being 12,000 acres of crofts and farms that included a considerable amount of completely barren and useless land.

At the age of 21, Osgood decided to build a house for himself on a rocky and treeless promontory jutting into Loch Ewe, which is a sea loch at a latitude that is the same as that of Siberia and southern Alaska. Only one tree grew there when he started, but he was determined to build a walled garden and then to plant more than 100 acres of trees, on land that was either bare rock or a deep layer of acidic peat.

Osgood acquired plants from all over the temperate world, both the northern and southern hemispheres, taking advantage of the surprisingly mild climate of this particular spot, which is due to the North Atlantic Drift that brings warm Gulf Stream waters into the area. Many of the trees and other plants that can be seen at Inverewe today were planted by Osgood Mackenzie around 100 years ago and have now reached full maturity, whereas others, such as several Californian redwoods, still have some way to go.

Osgood’s work was continued by his daughter Mairi, who contributed her own ideas and was determined to make the garden available to the general public. Mairi died in 1953, but by then she had already transferred ownership to the National Trust for Scotland. It was the Trust’s first acquisition of a property that was purely a garden, and it has been maintained and developed ever since with a view to making the garden visually attractive throughout the year.

Visiting the site

The garden is entered at its eastern end, which is on the road from nearby Poolewe to Gruinard. You first encounter the one-acre walled garden on a terrace overlooking the loch; this was originally laid out by Osgood Mackenzie in the 1860s. The garden curves around an inlet of the loch, having a southern aspect backed by a high stone wall, making it suitable for growing cordon and espalier fruit trees. The garden today grows a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowering plants (see photo).

Inverewe House is not open to the public, although its lawn and herbaceous border are. Below the lawn is a rock garden that was laid out by Mairi Sawyer, using plants from New Zealand and the Mediterranean that are resistant to salt air.

The bulk of Inverewe Garden consists of interconnected woodland walks and paths, from which can be seen a variety of trees and other plants, with some of the walks and spaces being based on specific themes. The moist air and poor light (caused by the high trees and northern latitude) provide ideal conditions for plants such as ferns and hostas, many varieties of which can be seen here. These include some impressive tree ferns and giant rhubarbs that grow to above head height.

Most of the paths are suitable for disabled access, but by no means all, as there are a number of steeper slopes and stone steps in some areas.

The garden looks particularly impressive in spring and early summer when the extensive collection of rhododendrons is in flower. These are mountain plants from China and the Himalayas that thrive in acidic soil, and so are ideal subjects for the conditions at Inverewe.

Clearings have been made at various times in the garden’s history to enable plants to be grown that need more light. These include hydrangeas, eucalypts, heathers and bamboos, as well as new plantings of alpine rhododendrons.

In the “America” section of the garden is a particularly fine example of a variegated Turkey oak that was planted by Mairi Sawyer in 1937.

Throughout the garden many species of moss, lichen and fungi can be seen on the rocks and larger plants, all contributing to the atmosphere of “managed wildness” that is the dominant feature of Inverewe Garden.

Inverewe is definitely a garden for all seasons, and it is indeed open throughout the year. As well as the plants and trees there is wildlife to be seen, including birds in the trees and seals and otters in the loch. As one walks around, the vista is always changing with views being afforded of the surrounding sea and mountains.

One word of warning, though: the highland midge is also resident here, and it can be particularly troublesome in the more sheltered areas on mild, muggy days. Wearing a head net may bring you stares at first, but other visitors will soon be asking you where you got yours from!

Facilities at the site include a well-stocked shop (including midge nets!) and a restaurant serving hot and cold food.

Members of the National Trust (both Scotland and England and Wales) are admitted free of charge, otherwise there is a modest charge (with concessions).

Inverewe Garden has long been recognised as having both national and international importance, with experts coming from all over the world to study its special collections. Despite its status and continued development, it retains the original concept of its founder, who would certainly recognise it were he able to visit it today.

© John Welford

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s Wall is a remarkable relic of the Roman Empire, having been in place for nearly 1900 years. The size of the wall, which stretches for 73 miles across northern England, is amazing in itself, as are the remains of various forts and other structures along its length.

Why build a wall?

The forces of the Roman Empire never conquered the whole of the island of Britain. Although the Roman general Agricola had managed to subdue the tribes of southern Scotland in AD 80 to 82, and he defeated a Caledonian army at Mons Graupius (near modern Aberdeen) in AD 83, it proved very difficult to consolidate any gains of territory that were made, and the tribes that occupied these wild lands were fiercely independent.

It was therefore decided by Emperor Hadrian (reign AD 117-138) to set a limit to the Roman Empire by building a wall across northern England, beyond which the Romans would seek no further conquests. Hadrian spent much of his reign away from Rome, particularly in the frontier provinces, and it was during a visit to Britain in AD 122 that he ordered the wall to be built and surveyed the course that it would take. It took about six years to complete, although some work was being done as late as AD 136.

The wall had a threefold purpose. One was to protect the province of Britannia from incursions by the tribes to the north. Another was to make it clear to Romans in general that the Empire was now fixed in extent and no further expansion was contemplated (Hadrian also built walls in other places, such as Germany, with the same end in view). A third function of the wall was to regulate (and thereby tax) trade between the native peoples north and south of the wall. Although the wall was a barrier it was a leaky one in that there were plenty of places where passage through it was possible.

The site of the wall

Hadrian’s Wall stretches for 73 miles (80 Roman miles) from the River Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west. It comes close to the modern border between England and Scotland in the west, but the English county of Northumberland lies mainly to the north of the wall, with the Scottish border being some 60 miles north of the eastern end of the wall.

For part of its length the wall runs along the top of the Great Whin Sill, an ancient outcrop of volcanic rock that forms a north-facing scarp slope that presents a natural obstacle and also provides some of the most stunning scenery along the extent of the wall. It is fortunate for visitors that this is also where the wall is best preserved, there having been fewer people around in the intervening centuries to take the stones for their own walls and buildings.

How the wall was built

Construction of the wall was done by three Roman legions, the second, sixth and twentieth, and each had its own way of building the fortifications that are dotted along the wall. It was started at the eastern end and proceeded westwards.

Stone blocks were used for the first 42 miles (stone facing on a rubble interior), but the western 31 miles were originally built as a turf wall although stone reinforcements were added later. The wall was 15 feet high and up to 10 feet wide with a 6-foot parapet on top.

The original scheme was for a continuous wall, fronted by a ditch, with small forts built at intervals of a Roman mile. These would have gates to the north and the south, with barracks for up to 30 men. There would be small turrets at intervals of a third of a mile between each “milecastle”, these turrets being watch-towers from which soldiers would look for any activity on either side of the wall. The plan also included the establishment of a chain of larger forts along Stanegate, the road that ran south of the wall and parallel to it at a distance of about two miles. This road predated the wall by about 50 years, and there were already small forts at regular intervals along it.

However, in AD 124 the original plan was changed in that the chain of large forts was abandoned in favour of incorporating the forts into the wall itself. This meant demolishing some of the milecastles and turrets that had already been built. Twelve full-sized forts were built originally, with five more added later. When fully in operation the wall was guarded by about 9,000 men stationed along it.

The plan was also changed to include the digging of a broad and deep ditch, the “Vallum”, on the south side of the wall. This was flat-bottomed, about 21 feet wide and eight feet deep, and with a turf bank that was set back from each edge. The Vallum could only be crossed by causeways that led to the forts. The purpose of the Vallum appears to have been to control access from the south, which suggests that the presence of the wall was resented by people living in this area whose freedom to contact and trade with people to the north had been curtailed by the building of the wall.

What can you see?

Visitors to the wall today can only see the remains of what was clearly a formidable structure in its heyday. It has been estimated that some 24 million blocks of stone were used, and that the mass of the wall was greater than that of all the pyramids of Giza put together. All the work was done by hand using only primitive tools, by today’s standards, and this included the cutting of the regular-shaped stones and the digging of the Vallum, often through solid rock.

Visitors must also wonder at examples of the military mind at work, such as where milecastles were placed inappropriately because that was where they had to go, at mile intervals. There could be no other reason for a gateway that led straight to a sheer precipice!

The forts at Housesteads and Chesters are well worth a visit. That at Housesteads includes remains of granaries and barracks and a latrine block that used a form of water flushing to carry waste material out of the building. There is evidence of an extensive civilian settlement outside the walls of the fort, and ruts worn by Roman carts in the stone road can still be seen nearly 2,000 years after they were made.

A visit to the wall must also allow time to see the remains of Vindolanda (Chesterholm) which is the largest of the Stanegate forts. The original timber-built fort would have been used by the builders of Hadrian’s Wall, but it was abandoned as part of the changes made in AD 124 and only rebuilt some time later as an impressive fort and small town. The finds made here have been remarkable and include evidence of family life. Particularly fascinating have been finds of wooden tablets that were used for inscribing messages that reveal the personal lives of the people who lived here.

What happened to the wall?

Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, did not accept Hadrian’s view that the Empire must end at the wall and he tried to advance the line further north, building a new wall between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. During the 20-year period when the Antonine Wall was fortified and manned, Hadrian’s Wall was of less importance and was largely abandoned.

However, it proved impossible to defend the far less substantial Antonine Wall (built of turf on a stone base) and Emperor Marcus Aurelius abandoned it in AD 164, relying instead on the original Hadrian’s Wall as his northern boundary. Any ambitions to conquer lands north of the wall were relinquished for ever after the death (in Britain) of Septimius Severus in 211, but Hadrian’s Wall held firm until 367 when the Picts were eventually able to breach it, at the same time that Britannia was under threat from Saxons and Franks further south. Despite this breach, the wall was occupied until the final abandonment of Britannia by the Romans in 410.

As mentioned above, the fabric of much of the wall has disappeared over the centuries, with some of the stones being taken in the 18^th century for the building of roads to enable the defence of England against the Scots in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. More stones would undoubtedly have been lost but for the efforts of Newcastle town clerk John Clayton in the 19^th century. Clayton bought some of the land on which the wall stood and encouraged people to visit it and support its preservation, as well as restoring some portions of it.

Hadrian’s Wall is now preserved by the National Trust and is recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

© John Welford

La Délivrance, a statue in north London

It is always a good idea for drivers to keep their eyes on the road, but sometimes that is not so easy. One such distraction in North London is offered by a 16-foot-high bronze statue of a naked woman standing on tiptoe with arms outstretched, holding a sword that points straight upwards. It stands on a small patch of grass close to the junction of Regent’s Park Road and the North Circular Road.

Known locally simply as “the naked lady” its proper title is “La Délivrance”. It was the work of French sculptor Emile Guillaume (1867-1942) and commemorates the victory of Allied forces against Germany at the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. This battle saved Paris from being overrun by the Germans but led to four years of costly trench warfare in north-east France and Belgium.

So what is a memorial to a battle near Paris doing in leafy Finchley?

The bronze is actually one of eleven that were originally cast in France in 1919 with the intention that one should stand in each of the cities worst affected by the German occupation. However, the nudity of the statue caused problems and not every city was willing to accept the offering.

The sculptor exhibited a copy in Paris, where it was seen and bought by Harold Harmsworth, the first Lord Rothermere and co-founder of the “Daily Mail” newspaper. He wanted to present it to the Urban District of Finchley. There was considerable disagreement over where it should be sited, and the current location, right on the edge of Finchley, was Lord Rothermere’s choice, as it was on the route he followed when going to visit his mother.

The statue was unveiled by David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister, on 20^th October 1927. It raised a few eyebrows and led to much condemnation in the editorials and letters pages of the local press, as being thought inappropriate for a genteel North London suburb, but nobody could challenge the will of a powerful press baron such as Lord Rothermere.

So there the statue remains to this day, plonked down on a road junction many miles from the site of a battle in which British troops played only a minor part. It would not be there at all were it not for a sudden whim on the part of a newspaper magnate.

© John Welford

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Many art lovers who visit London never get to see one of its artistic gems, namely the Dulwich Picture Gallery which lies a few miles away from the centre which has several world-famous galleries including the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. If time is pressing, making the trip to Dulwich is probably not advisable, but if the time can be spared it is an expedition that is well worth the effort.

History of the Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery has the distinction of being the oldest public art gallery in England, having been opened in 1817 which was seven years before the National Gallery. The history of the gallery is remarkable, because it should never have been here in the first place.

In 1790 Prince Michal Poniatowski, brother of the King of Poland, commissioned a London-based art dealer, Noel Desenfans, to acquire pictures that would be suitable for a royal collection. He got to work and spent five years doing deals to gather pictures fit for a king. However, in 1795 Poland disappeared off the map when it was partitioned between Austria, Prussia and Russia and the King was forced to abdicate. This left Noel Desenfans with a collection of pictures and no-one to sell them to.

Desenfans got to know another art dealer, Francis Bourgeois, who added to the collection (at Desenfans’s expense). When Desenfans died in 1807, Bourgeois had the idea of establishing a public gallery for displaying the pictures, with the further idea that these would be owned by Dulwich College after his death. His asked his friend, the architect Sir John Soane, to design a suitable building close to the College.

Bourgeois died in 1811, but there was not enough money in his will to build the gallery. However, Noel Desanfans’s widow came up with the rest of the cash and the project went ahead.

The Gallery building

There can be very few public art galleries in the world (if any) that contain at their heart a mausoleum in which lie the founders’ coffined remains, but that is the case at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The visitor can see the three coffins (of Bourgeois and Mr and Mrs Desenfans) in a small stone space into which yellow light pours from the skylight above. It is a very strange experience!

Soane designed a gallery that is not huge but is very user-friendly, being all on one floor and comprising a row of five linked spaces with just a few side rooms. There is a parallel gallery that runs the whole length and which is used for temporary exhibits.

Despite knowing the size of the collection (370 paintings) Soane did not provide enough space for everything to be displayed at the same time. This is not a huge disadvantage because it means that the collection is frequently rotated and the returning visitor has a good chance of seeing something that is new to them.

The art collection

So what about the art? The collection made by the founders concentrated very much on 17th and 18th century art, especially that from Italy, France and the Low Countries. Later gifts and bequests were responsible for virtually all the British art now seen in the collection.

When walking round the gallery and reading the highly informative plaques on the walls, one gets the impression that some of the sellers must have seen Bourgeois and Desanfans coming! This is because a number of the paintings which the founders obviously thought were by Titian or Rembrandt (for example) have later been shown to be by artists trained by or working under the instruction of the masters. That is not to say that they are not very fine works in their own right, but they are not entirely “kosher”. In the founders’ defence, it must be stressed that it is only the use of modern techniques that has revealed the truth about some of the paintings they collected. It should also be said that the gallery contains many paintings that are genuine originals by major artists and are of international importance.

Another oddity of the collection is that Bourgeois fancied himself as an art restorer and he sometimes took it upon himself to “improve” an artist’s work by adding an extra strip of canvas at the top, bottom or side of a painting, which he then painted accordingly, so that a pair of paintings by the same artist would appear symmetrical on the wall, or a painting would fit the frame he happened to have available, no matter how this affected the balance of the work as originally envisaged by the artist. Some of these additions have been removed in later restorations but others have stayed put.

The trip out to Dulwich – the nearest rail stations are a 10-15 minute walk away – should not be rushed. This is a well-to-do inner London suburb that is a pleasure to walk through. The gallery is set in a small park of its own that contains several modern sculptures and places to eat one’s sandwiches and watch the squirrels!

© John Welford

Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve

Beinn Eighe is a multi-peaked mountain at the southern end of Loch Maree in the northwest Scottish Highlands. It is also Britain’s oldest National Nature Reserve, established in 1951 with the primary aim of preserving ancient pinewood. However, the area incorporated within the 48 square kilometres of the reserve stretches from the loch to the top of the mountain and offers interest to everyone from the determined “Munro bagger” to those, of all ages, with less energy but a desire to learn about the natural environment of this part of Scotland.

The Visitor Centre, close to the village of Kinlochewe, is in an old crofter’s cottage (mind your head!) and it offers a multimedia presentation of the geology, industrial history, plants and wildlife of the area. The display is designed with children very much in mind, so there are touch-screen quizzes, handles to turn, holes to place a hand in and guess what is being touched, and other interactive ways to gain knowledge, as well as standard displays and printed information.

On a tree outside the back of the cottage, a bird feeder attracts whatever happens to be in the vicinity. However, in order to give you a closer view it is covered by a CCTV camera and displayed on a screen inside the exhibition area.

However, the best way to discover a natural environment is outside a building, not inside, and the back door of the Visitor Centre leads to a number of well-marked trails through the woods and beyond. Depending on the time available and the type of people in your party, you can choose whether to take a long trail or a short one.

The “rhyming trail” is a short, level path that winds among the trees and is designed with children in mind. Every few yards, a board asks a question in the form of a rhyme, the answer being related to the plants or creatures that might be seen here. A yard or two further on, the answer is given on another board. The only problem is that some of the “answers” will not be visible on the day of your visit. However, if you are fortunate enough to see a crossbill or a treecreeper at the place it should be, that counts as a definite bonus. The trail is also something of a sculpture trail, with several innovative and attractive pieces to be seen along the way.

If you want a longer walk, you can leave the rhyming trail for the “ridge trail”, which is a circular path that takes you above the trees into the rocks and moors at the foot of Beinn Eighe. There is no reason why older children should not take this trail, as it takes no more than 15 minutes to complete, but it incorporates some steeper slopes and stone steps, so it is not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs.

However, the views on a fine day are well worth the effort, as you can see above the trees across Loch Maree to the opposite mountain of Slioch, and, in the other direction, up to the light-coloured peaks of Beinn Eighe (if you have forgotten why the peaks are this colour, you can always go back into the Visitor Centre on your return to remind yourself!). Another advantage of this walk is that you might escape the worst attentions of the Highland midge, which is often a menace in woodland but less so on mountain slopes, especially if a decent breeze is blowing.

Leading from the ridge trail are other trails, such as the “pony path” that will take you further up the mountain. However, if you are serious about going very high up Beinn Eighe, you should make sure that you are properly equipped with the necessary boots, clothing, etc.

Just a few hundred yards along the road from the Visitor Centre is the car park at the start of two more trails, the “woodland trail” that is three kilometres long and takes about 30 minutes to complete, and the “mountain trail” of 6.5 kilometres that is steep in places and for which you should allow at least three hours. This trail should not be attempted without the correct footwear and clothing, although it is still a hill-walker’s rather a mountaineer’s trail.

There are other paths in the area that the devoted hill-walker can take for access to the higher slopes and summits of Beinn Eighe. Advice on suitable routes is available at the Visitor Centre.

There are many reasons for spending some time at Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve, but one of them should be to appreciate the special nature of this place, which was indeed why it was created. The pine trees here are remnants of the ancient forest that once covered much larger areas of western Scotland. The ancestors of these trees arrived here more than 8,000 years ago, from a source to the southwest, whereas the pine forests elsewhere are much younger. Some of the trees standing today are more than 350 years old. This piece of natural heritage would have been lost had the NNR not been created in 1951, and the recreational attractions of the area are a very welcome by-product of that decision.

© John Welford

Dartmouth Castle, Devon

The south-west peninsula of England is well-known for its flooded river estuaries that provide sheltered moorings for shipping of a reasonable size; at least, what would have been considered reasonable in past centuries. These estuaries needed protection from incursions by foreign warships, and there are several castles that perform this function. The River Dart, in Devon, was guarded by two castles near its mouth, Kingswear on the eastern shore and Dartmouth on the west.

A succession of “castles”

What the visitor to Dartmouth Castle will see is a variety of methods used to defend the estuary, dating from the 14^th century to the 20^th. The first fortification was a “fortalice” or small fortress, the remains of which are visible next to the car park. We know that, from the 15^th century, chains were stretched across the river to prevent ships from getting upstream.

However, it was not until 1481 that the present castle was started. Unusually, it seems to have been built on the initiative of the townspeople and not of a monarch or nobleman. This was probably due to a succession of scares occasioned by French raids on the Devon coast, which were partly in retaliation for attacks by English ships. There is, however, plenty of evidence of royal support by successive monarchs for the castle-building effort.

The castle, which is not particularly large, took a long time to build, and it was 1493 before work began on the roof. There was also a major change of plan in that the original round tower was supplemented by a rectangular tower and the two structures merged into one. This gives the castle a most unusual shape.

In the 16^th century, a gun battery was built a short distance from the castle, on the seaward side. This was altered in 1690 and again in 1747, but then a new battery was built on the site in 1861, this being known today, somewhat confusingly, as the Old Battery. The site was last fortified in 1940.

A site for artillery

When visiting the Castle and the Old Battery, it is important to bear in mind that the whole site was designed to be used by artillery. When the 15^th century castle was being built, it was the first such in England, although the coastal forts built by Henry VIII in the next century took the idea forward and introduced many important refinements.

The visitor’s tour starts at the Old Battery, where you can see the two-tier battery and look out at the area of sea that it would have defended. On the upper tier is one of the original cast iron 64-pounder guns (issued to Dartmouth in the 1890s, but actually somewhat older than that), mounted on a modern replica carriage.

On the lower tier are three “casemates” or fortified compartments, “armed” with another 64-pounder gun from the 1890s and two 24-pounders from the late 18^th century. You can also see much of the equipment that would have been used for firing the guns, as well as the magazines used for storing shells and cartridges, these having wooden floors to avoid the danger of sparks. Note how the guns could be swung round to provide fire across a wide arc.

When you walk along the short cliff path to the Old Castle (also passing St Petrox Church which is right next to the castle) you move back through the centuries. You can see where the building of the round tower stopped, and then re-started with different materials after the square tower had reached the same height.

The Old Castle

The castle is on three floors, and you enter at the ground floor level. Here you can see openings in the walls for the use of various sizes of gun, and the large opening in the round tower that was probably the porthole for the chain that was slung across the river to Kingswear Castle on the other side.

In the basement you can see further sites for gun emplacements. Alterations were made in the 16^th century to lower the floor and raise the ceiling, but before then this must have been a very cramped area in which to work, and extremely noisy and uncomfortable when the guns were fired.

The first floor was the main living area, now open but formerly divided into two barrack rooms and what was probably the quarters of the castle governor.

From the ground floor you can walk out on to the adjoining open-air gun platforms, to the north and the south. The northern platform would have offered firepower over the river upstream of the castle, should any enemy ship have been able to get that far. These platforms are currently “armed” with cast-iron cannons from the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The town of Dartmouth

While visiting Dartmouth Castle, you might also like to explore the delightful riverside town of Dartmouth, which is home to the Royal Naval College. A walk along the wooded banks of the river, or a boat trip along or across the Dart, is a very pleasant way to pass the time.

It was at Dartmouth that the Pilgrim Fathers put in for repairs on their way from Southampton to the New World in 1620.

Dartmouth Castle is under the care of English Heritage, and may be visited free of charge by English Heritage members. The castle is open every day of the week from April to October, but only at weekends from November to March.

© John Welford

The Stiperstones, Shropshire

Welcome to the Stiperstones, a strange but beautiful landscape not far from the border between England and Wales.

The Stiperstones is a five-mile-long ridge in Shropshire, England. The ridge is remarkable for the strange rocky outcrops that occur at intervals along its length and for the diversity of its wildlife. The views from the ridge are stunning, and a walk along any part of the ridge is a very rewarding experience, especially if the weather is good!

Geological background

The ridge is composed of quartzite, which is a metamorphic rock that was originally quartz sandstone but was later “baked” by volcanic activity and pressure. The rock of the Stiperstones was created during the Ordovician era, some 480 million years ago.

During the most recent Ice Age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, the ridge would have stood above the ice sheet that enveloped the lower land on either side, which meant that the exposed rock would have been subject to constant freezing and thawing, causing it to fracture and fall away as scree with the most resistant parts standing proud as they are today.

Myths and legends

Needless to say, the eerie landscape of the Stiperstones has led to many local myths and legends. One of these is that, when the ridge is swathed in fog, which is often the case, the Devil comes and sits on the rocks that have been named the “Devil’s Chair”. His aim is to push the rocks back underground and, should he ever succeed, England will be conquered by its enemies. Either he is not trying hard enough, there is not enough fog, or England is made of much sterner stuff – the latter, one hopes.

Another legend concerns “Wild Edric”, a Saxon earl whose ghost rides the hills whenever England is threatened by invasion.

Although one is unlikely to spot either Edric or the Devil as one walks the ridge, there is every chance of seeing red kites and ravens perching on the rocks or wheeling overhead. Other birds to be seen include red grouse, wheatears and whinchats.

Most of the Stiperstones area is a National Nature Reserve in which the heather vegetation is carefully preserved to ensure the survival of a number of endangered species, including the emperor moth, green hairstreak butterfly, common lizard and common frog.

© John Welford