Skip to main content

Tutbury Castle

After living in Texas for a while, where any building dating back to 1900 is really old, and most of the cities were open prairie not 200 years ago, it has lent a certain depth to life to be back in a country where the dust of history clings to your shoes at every step.  Where the parks are centred on crumbling manor houses, the villages were mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, and the public toilets are probably prehistoric.  Any given circle of, say, a 20 mile radius is likely to encompass more than a smattering of stone monuments, ancient churches, medieval field systems and such like (as carefully noted on the incomparable Ordnance Survey maps), and the circle centred on our current residence is no exception.  Amongst other things it includes Tutbury Castle, to which we journeyed one cold and sunny April morning.

The entrance
According to their website, the site has been occupied since the Stone Age, which makes it old in anyone's book.  However, it wasn't until the 11th century that the Normans came along with their "I'm bigger and better than you, and besides, I speak French" castle-building mania, and quelled the locals by sticking a fortification on top of the hill.  In the following years the castle was destroyed and rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt again, and finally left as a romantic ruin.  Whereupon, this being Britain, someone opened a tea shop in it.  Can't have a romantic ruin without a cup of tea and a nice currant bun, now can you?

Tea shop in the building on the left
Toby was much enamoured of the steps: some cut into the side of the hill which he took at a run, and a spiral stone staircase to be carefully navigated holding Dad's hand.



Historical step graffiti
He also attempted to reconstruct the 12th-century chapel, but was hampered by lack of materials.


You lost a shoe!
The best part of living in a castle must have been the views, which in this case were stunning.  Hauling the weekly grocery shop up the hill must have been a bit of a pain, and by all accounts the insulation was rather substandard.  Mary Queen of Scots certainly thought so, when she was imprisoned at Tutbury; and they carefully made sure her windows faced the courtyard, so she didn't even get the view to compensate.  I don't suppose those pretty little gardens were there then, either.





Well, that's one historical monument ticked off the list.  I guess it's the medieval field system next.  Don't think anyone's opened a tea shop there yet, though.
Labels:

Comments

Susan Ewing said…
How sweet, little Toby climbing the steps of that old place! Amazing history! And great writing, Martha.
For some reason, it seems nice to know you're back in England...where you belong? ;) Glad you're baking again, or still.
4 May 2013 at 20:33
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...
Post a Comment
Read more