Carisbrooke Castle Chapel and Princess Beatrice Garden

On Tuesday (see post 3 Sept) I took you to see the fortress at Carisbrooke Castle which has been there since Saxon times, but the present castle was begun in about 1100, when the Isle of Wight was granted to the de Redvers family. They raised the great stone shell-keep on its towering mound, and after 1262 the formidable Countess Isabella de Redvers extensively rebuilt the whole stronghold. Following the addition of its double-towered 14th-century gatehouse, Carisbrooke experienced its only serious siege in 1377, beating off a French raiding force.  

After the Spanish Armada passed alarmingly close in 1588, threatening seizure of the Isle of Wight, Carisbrooke was updated as an artillery fortification by surrounding it with 'bastioned' outer earthworks, still impressively visible. Today we are looking at St Nicholas Chapel.

This shot is taken from the inside of this beautiful stain glass window.

Although there has been a chapel on this site since 1070, this building was built by Percy Stone in 1904 to mark the 250th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, who was imprisoned in the castle.

This is the same window taken outside

 St Nicholas Chapel.

King Charles 1's Death Warrant.  Hope you can read it.

Most famous among Carisbrooke's extensive cast of past residents was King Charles I, imprisoned here in 1647-48 after his defeat in the English Civil War. At first comfortably accommodated in the Constable's Lodging, his plots to renew the war later made him a closely guarded captive: an attempt to escape was foiled only when he became wedged in the window bars!

The surrounding architecture of this wonderful window

Another stain glass window

Altar

Views of the magnificent ceiling.

The marvellous organ reaching to the ceiling

Bust of King Charles 1

This is the view of the back of the Chapel and the entrance is where these people are coming in.

Now we are stepping into the garden of Princess Beatrice. 

Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughter and Governor of the Isle of Wight between 1896-1944, made Carisbrooke Castle her summer home after 1914. The Edwardian-style Princess Beatrice garden, designed by TV and radio gardening presenter Chris Beardshaw, was inspired by the princess, and includes a fountain and plantings in the rich colours of the royal arms.

Princess Beatrice enjoying the garden being pushed in her chair by her footman, Jack Kenway White.

English Heitage are grateful to the late Mrs Dorothy Frazer, whose generous bequest and devotion to the island has made the creation of this garden possible. Princess Beatrice also commissioned the altar painting in the tranquil castle chapel, in memory of a son killed in action in 1914.

These next few  shots are of the plants grown in this small garden.  There was a small fountain in the middle of the garden.  
The garden is walled and there were square beds around the fountain mainly in restful colours of green and blue.

Sharon and myself enjoying the garden at the end of a wonderful day at Carisbrooke Castle

This is both the entrance and exit and as we take our leave I hope you have enjoyed all the posts regarding Carisbrooke Castle.
 
If you have missed any of these posts, they can be found at
(Jousting Tues. 27 Aug. Falconry 31 Aug. Tent events 2 Sept.
Carisbrook Castle 3 Sept.)

Carisbrooke Castle

As I promised yesterday, I am eventually showing you Carisbrooke Castle although I am leaving the Chapel and Gardens until Thursday.  There was so much to do that day, that I didn't have time to walk round the walls.   People have lived at the castle since before the Norman Conquest and it is deeply steeped in English history.  In its time the castle has been a symbol of political power, a fortress protecting England against invasion, a prison and a home.  Some of the people who lived there were Isabella de Fortibus,

 Sir George Carey, King Charles 1 and Princess Beatrice.

        This  area was where there had special games for the small children.

The Great Hall which we were not permitted to enter.

Great Hall above and Museum below are managed by the Carisbrooke Castle  Museum Trust and contains objects and memorabilia  relating to the history of the site, a local history collection and a reconstruction of the 
bedroom of Charles 1

The door leads to the present day Museum

Sharon heading for the Museum.

As we entered the Museum there was this gun.

Crossbow and there were many other things to see. 

Of course, one had to try out as a 'Knight' in the Gatehouse.

I thought I would leave you today with a black and white shot I took from the Gatehouse of the Courtyard.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will look in tomorrow when I will tell you about about an Australian bird.  Then on Thursday I will show you the very beautiful Chapel and Princess Beatrice Gardens at Carisbrooke Castle.

Tent Events At Carisbrooke Castle

Once again, I am taking you back at Carisbrooke Castle as I wanted to show you some of the other events there Sharon and I saw there.  all in all it was a very colourful and entertaining event and something for all the family to see.  Everyone of the people taking part were in period costumes.   The event below is showing how they turned wood and at the end there is a short video of this.

This guy was showing and explaining about the different bows and arrows that they would have used.

Now this guy had dung and to tell you the truth I cannot remember much about it as one little child thought it was real and therefore disgusting.  I laughed so much I had to move away as did others!!!

This lady was showing all the equipment she would have had in the kitchen and  how it all worked.

Each tent of the Knights and a Falconer had a Lady present, all dressed beautifully.  This was the Lady who did the commentary for the Falconer.  Most tents also had a dog present, like a Lurchur or a Labrador.

This is another elegant Lady.

I spoke with this girl as she was dressed somewhat ordinarily and I wondered why.  She was a servant and she said her job was to serve all the knights and their Laddies.  At one time I noticed after the first jousting event, she went round the arena and with an old fashioned brush and dust pan, lifted all the horse dung off the field. 

By the way, I think I forgot to tell you in a previous post  (Jousting on 29 August and Falconry on 31 August), that these events all took place in an area called 'The Bowling Green'.  I photographed the blurb on the Blowing Green that I thought you might be interested to know.  I hope you can read it.  There will be more regarding King Charles 1 in the next post.

Sharon and I meet the Jester on our way in and had a chat to him, never thinking that he was going to make us laugh so much later on

. 

 I did take a short video however I am not showing it as it does not do justice to all that he did in his half hour session at lunchtime and I have only given you a few photos to see him.  He engaged the audience at all times and in these photos below, he got 2 strong men up to help him get into stilts and  then pretended not to be able to walk in them nor use them and would make the audience think he was going to fall into them.  Of course the children all screamed and everyone laughed.  The 2 men were brilliant and if I had never seen anything else, this was worth the money and was very good for the heart!

He later preceded to do 'fire eating' which was very dramatic the way he did it!

The castle's most beloved modern residents are undoubtedly the renowned Carisbrooke donkeys. These still operate the tread wheel in the Elizabethan wheelhouse, which raises water 161 feet from the castle well. They give daily demonstrations, and their story is told in a film hosted by Jupiter the cartoon donkey, voiced by locally-raised comedian Phill Jupitus.

All the donkeys names begin with the letter ‘J’. This tradition was started when Charles I was a prisoner at Carisbrooke. When Charles I wrote letters or was planning his escape route, he always signed his letters with a ‘J’. So for 150 years all the donkeys at the castle have had a name beginning with ‘J’.  This is a tradition that continues to be upheld!   They are called Jack, Jill, Jigsaw and Jimbob

Jimbob (donkey above) is Jigsaw’s boyfriend, and is a real ladies’ man! He is very handsome - the real George Clooney of the donkeys.  He’s quite a catch as he used to be a show donkey.   Jimbob also has the best singing voice and can be heard all over the castle

 These are some still shots I took when I spoke with  a few of the Knights when they were getting dressed  before going into combat at their tournament.

Imagine wearing this armour on an extremely hot day as this was. 

Must have been exhausting for them.

I just love this part of their armour. 

I fear if you were kicked with one of these shoes, it would hurt, to put it mildly!!

The short video can be accessed at

http://youtu.be/Yfh-W78Wljo

If the space below is black, click it and the video will appear. 

I hoped you enjoyed this post and tomorrow (hopefully) I will show you the actually Carisbrooke Castle and tell you a little bit about it.

Sorry I did not know I had put the same video on twice!!!



Thank you for visiting and hope you will return tomorrow.