Castle Rising ....

Castle Rising Castle, for me, is the most impressive castle in England ... but then I am biased as it belonged to The Black Prince (my great grandmother was convinced that her side of the family were his descendants)....

The Domesday Book records the castle being owned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the half-brother of William the Conqueror.  Its landscape was dramatically transformed in the 1140's by an important Norman Baron William D'Albini. He built the keep to celebrate his advantageous marriage to Adeliza of Louvain the widow of King Henry I.  The castle reached its peak in the 14th century when it was owned by Isabella of France, Widow of King Edward II.  After her death it passed to The Black Prince. 

King Henry VIII gave the castle to the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, and it remains in the Howard family today.

The early Norman church, built in the late 11th century before the castle was here.  It lost its ecclesiastical role when the castle banks were raised.

"A lick of paint, and new curtains, I could move in tomorrow!"....

Entrance stairs....

The basement, storage area below The Great Hall....

The waiting room....

Chapel....

The Great Hall... it is recorded that Edward III and The Black Prince feasted here to the sound of minstrels...

The kitchen, I hope they didn't burn The Black Prince's dinner ...

The royal loo ....

A chamber above the chapel...

This corridor felt haunted....

The Norman chapel....

The BP's bum might have sat on this stone too...

Castle Rising Church..... building is thought to have started around 1140, at the same time as the castle keep was being built...

The font is said to have come from the earlier Norman church in the grounds of the castle (as mentioned earlier)

carved faces of cats, because the old church was dedicated to St Felix...