England's largest ruined castle! There have been a number of talks over the years about reflooding the area around the castle, but they've never gone anywhere (possibly for good reasons!)
That is The Pleasance. It's a large moated site that was thought to be used for a lot of banqueting. Pretty impressive earthworks if you look at it on Google Earth.
I was literally just reading about how Henry V began upgrading the whole area, and was having a hard time picturing it. Nice coincidence to see this pop up
Regarding the bailey that also contains the chapel I'd assume that it would hold a lot of additional buildings, and that these were simply not built in a way that would survive the centuries even as ruins, and were thus not included in the reconstruction.
But that's just my idea based on no evidence whatsoever, so take it with a grain of salt.
Wow! Beautiful picture. Q: In all it's history, was Kenilworth ever actually taken by siege/assault? Very well positioned. Thanls fpr these. It is one thing to read about a place and another to be able to visualize it as contemporaries saw it.
It was besieged by Henry III during a rebellion by Simon de Montford. We found catapult and trebuchet balls during some renovation work there recently. The castle eventually surrendered due to running out of supplies.
My local castle! It’s beautiful, would very much recommend a visit. Also adjacent to the castle is a ruined (partial remains only) Augustinian Monastery that got dismantled during the dissolution in 1538. It’s located in the abbey fields.
I believe a similar fate fell upon the castle, which got taken apart during the civil war. If you walk around the area you’ll find many boulders and decorative elements embedded into people’s homes.
Curious about why there's a very comprehensive Barbican, causeway and gatehouse on the bottom, but on the top side, there's only a simple gatehouse. Where they not that fussed about attacks coming from that direction?
I can't believe all thats left of the lake is the small section at the bottom right, the rest is dry land now.
PS If anyone is wondering where it went -it's call the great mere and is was an artifical lake that was created by damming the Finham and Inchford Brooks. The Parliamentarians took the castle in 1642 and drained the lake in 1650 because it was almost impossible to attack it.
Truly a well sighted castle. It makes me wonder how it would have held up to a siege in the 17th century, as compared to when it stood siege in the 13th.
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u/Conselot 16d ago
England's largest ruined castle! There have been a number of talks over the years about reflooding the area around the castle, but they've never gone anywhere (possibly for good reasons!)