Corfe Castle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corfe Castle is a small village and ruined castle ( ) dating back to the 11th century, situated in a gap in the Purbeck Hills, five miles south of Wareham, in Dorset, England.
The word "corfe" is from the Saxon for gap, as in the gap in the hills which the castle commands.
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[edit] The castle
The oldest surviving structure on the castle site dates to the 11th century, although evidence exists of some form of stronghold predating the Norman Conquest. Edward the Martyr was assassinated at the site on March 18, 978.
  Map sources for Corfe Castle at grid reference SY960820
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Construction of a stone hall and inner bailey wall occurred in the 11th century and extensive construction of other towers, halls and walls occurred during the reigns of Henry I, John and Henry III. By the 13th century the castle was being used as a royal treasure storehouse and prison. The castle remained a royal fortress until sold by Elizabeth I in the 16th century to Sir Christopher Hatton her Lord Chancellor.
The castle was bought by Sir John Bankes, Attorney General to Charles I, in 1635. The castle served as a symbolic symbol of the Bankes Family for over 400 years and now belongs to the National Trust. It is a grade I listed building.[1]
During the English Civil War, the castle twice came under siege by Parliamentarian forces. Sir John Bankes was away from his estate attending to Charles I so defence of the castle was led by his wife Lady Mary Bankes — "Brave Dame Mary" as she became known.
The first siege, in 1643, lasted for six weeks before the Parliamentarians withdrew with the loss of 100 men. The second siege, in 1646, was resisted for two months before the castle was betrayed by a member of the garrison. After its capture, the castle was slighted (destroyed) with some explosives and mainly by undermining to ensure that it could never stand again as a Royalist stronghold. In the centuries that followed, the local populace took advantage of this easy source of building material and masonry, door frames and other items originally from the castle can be seen in a number of nearby houses.
After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Bankes family regained their properties. Rather than rebuild or replace the ruined castle they chose to build a new house at Kingston Lacy on their other Dorset estate near Wimborne Minster.
In the 1980s, Ralph Bankes bequeathed the entire Bankes estate to the National Trust, including Corfe Castle, much of the village of Corfe, the family home at Kingston Lacy, and substantial property and land holdings elsewhere in the area. The castle is open to the public, receiving 168,377 visitors in 2004[2]. As of summer 2006, the dangerous condition of the keep has caused it to be closed to visitors, who may only visit the walls and inner bailey. The National Trust also runs a shop and a tearoom in the village, open to visitors without purchasing a ticket for the castle. There is a visitor's centre at the castle gate, and another at the car park just outside the village on the road to Wareham.
[edit] In fiction
Keith Roberts, an English science fiction writer living nearby set his novel Pavane partly around the castle and similar events in an alternate history.
The children's author, Enid Blyton, spent time in the area and some of her adventure stories featured castles that were said to be based on Corfe Castle.
[edit] The village
Despite its small population, the former royal status of Corfe meant that it was a borough electing two members of parliament. In the 17th and 18th centuries, with the Bankes's owning much of the property and thereby controlling most of the votes, the town was a rotten borough. The Bankes family was able to ensure that at least one of the MPs returned to the House of Commons was a member of the family or a Bankes nominee. The Reform Act 1832 abolished the rotten boroughs and Corfe lost its direct representation. The village and castle were part of Corfe Castle hundred.
The village is constructed almost completely from the local grey Purbeck limestone and comprises two main streets, East Street and West Street, linked at their north end at the Square. Around the square, with its cross commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee of 1897, are clustered the small collection of shops, the post office, church and pubs. The main route through the village is East Street taking traffic to Wareham in the north and Swanage in the south. Separating the two streets is an area of common land called "the Halves".
From the 1796 Corfe Castle Census of the 96 men involved in local industries and living in the town, 55 were clay cutters. These men would have being working in the nearby pits at Norden supplying Ball Clay for a Josiah Wedgwood contract and others. A large percentage of the Ball Clay was exported. Ball clay continued to provide a major employment for the local population right up to present times.
As of 2001, the village had a population of 1,429, of which 36 per cent was retired. [3].
The village was for many years the residence of composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.
Within The Church of St. Edward is an alabaster rederos inset with carvings in white marble, designed by the famous Victorian architect George Edmund Street, R.A. which was presented by Lord Eldon in 1876.
[edit] Events
- The Swanage Railway runs heritage steam and diesel train services on the former British Rail line to Swanage.
- The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Corfe Castle. Images of England. Retrieved on August 18, 2006.
- ^ National Trust Annual Report 2004-05
- ^ Office for National Statistic, Census 2001 data
- ^ Michael Habermann & Liane Hansen, 1996. Weekend Edition. National Public Radio; Alistair Hinton, 2000. "Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji."
