Warkworth Castle

My first weekend here my supervisor took me and his sons (the two "knights" in the pictures) to see Warkworth Castle. Reasonably well preserved, the castle is situated in Warkworth, a nearby town of Northumberland. Warkworth Castle was originally constructed as a wooden fortress, some time after the Norman Conquest. In 1173 the castle was besieged and taken by the Scottish king, William the Lion. In the 14th century it became a part of the chain of defense against the Scots (don’t worry Greg, not the Irish:).

It was later ceded to thePercy family, who held it, and resided there on and off dependent on the state of their relationship with the royalty of the time, until the 16th C when castle was rebuilt with sandstone curtain walls and greatly reinforced. It was refurbished, with much refaced stonework, by the Dukes of Northumberland in the late 19th C. It is incredible to walk through the castle and imagine the history that took place within its thick stone walls. Still, I was happy to be there in ‘08 watching Steven and Ben have rolling races down the moat, rather than peaking out the small windows in the middle of a siege.

The pictures were mostly taken by Steven, my supervisor’s five year old who confiscated my camera for a large part of the day, but they turned out pretty nice. (I did take the one of the boys standing in the fireplace of the main kitchen specifically for you Pete:).