JJ's on Tour - Delightful Dorset full of History and Legend (Dragons, Corfe Castle and Anglo-Saxon Wareham)

Lulworth Cove, seen from the cliff path on the first day of our adventure in Dorset last month.

A few weeks ago, while the UK generally was enduring a rather unusual summer heatwave, with temperatures in and around the late twenties and early thirties degrees Celsius, Carolyn and I made the relatively short drive to our neighbouring county of Dorset to stay a few days in some delightfully rural self catering accommodation near to Wareham, there to base ourselves whilst we explored some of the local key beauty-spots, whilst also enjoying the gloriously hot weather.

In a previous life before retirement I spent many years working across the south and south-west of England passing through many interesting locations, filled with holiday makers whilst I, 'suited and booted' was busy professionally, but always making a note to revisit many of the places I had seen when I had the leisure to do so.

Some of the key places we visited during our four day break in Dorset last month, that saw us visiting the Swannery in Abbotsham, Lulworth Cove and the 'Drinking Dragon' that is the amazing coastal rock formation better known as Durdle Door, Corfe Castle, the Worgret Heath Gun near our accommodation at Stokeford near Wool, the Blue Pool, Wareham and Brownsea Island.

This year with a few home improvements at the top of the list of 'to-do's', not to mention a very important family wedding in May for my younger son Will and my now beautiful daughter-in-law Olivia, Carolyn and I decided to include a few shorter and nearer to home breaks this year rather than an extravagant excursion to distant shores as is often our want, and so I got a chance to revisit many places in beautiful Dorset that I had passed by many times before in that previous life.

So we based ourselves in the small hamlet of Stokeford on the A352 just outside Wool and planned to visit the places seen above on the map that started with a stop off at Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door where we planned in a cliff walk between the two sights, which included an ice cream at Lulworth.

The view from the cliff path to Lulworth Cove, with Durdle Door off to the right with a sight-seeing schooner close by and Portland Bill in the background. 

The weather was almost perfect for a walk over the cliffs, if a little hot for the return trip to the cliff top carpark, and so we decided to cool off by getting a rib from the harbour at Lulworth for a sight of Durdle Door from the sea, which we were so glad we did, as we got an extraordinary view from the sea side of the cliffs of this natural feature as well as a glorious sea breeze to cool down.

Catching the Freya rib from Lulworth to take a look at Durdle Door.

Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast, the start of which is located in our home town of Exmouth, and it is thought that name is probably over a thousand years old, with Durdle being derived from the Old English thirl, meaning to pierce, bore or drill, which in turn derives from thyrel, meaning hole, and Door thought to refer to the arched shape of the rock.

However, locally it is better known as 'The Drinking Dragon', as when seen from the sea the rock takes on the clear shape of a crouched dragon with its muzzle below and in the water, seemingly taking a much needed drink, particularly on the day we visited.

The head of the dragon with its eye closed as it takes a long drink, part of the stone arch that is Durdle Door.

In the evening we headed out to the ancient Anglo-Saxon town of Wareham located between the rivers Frome and Piddle, near to Poole Harbour, and as well as providing some interesting history to explore also offered us a great place to go and eat in the evening, just being down the road from where we were staying.

The Quay at Wareham, seen from the other side of the River Frome, and where Carolyn and I enjoyed a very nice pub meal at the Old Granary and an excellent Italian at the Italian Kitchen nearby, the following evening.

Wareham has long been an attractive place for people to settle. There is plenty of evidence of pre-historic and Roman activity in the Wareham area but it was in the Anglo- Saxon period (410 to 1066 AD) that Wareham developed into one of Dorset’s most important towns.

Anglo-Saxon Wareham

With its wealth and important location as a main Anglo Saxon port, Wareham also became an strategic target for hostile Viking raids, that prompted the Anglo Saxon’s to create a series of defensive walls to surround the town, and the embankment upon which these walls stood are very well preserved and you can walk along them today!

As regular readers of the blog will know, I'm partial to a bit of Dark-Ages action every now and then and it's visits to places like Wareham that inspire the creative juices.

JJ's Wargames: Erik Oaksplitter and Companions

I'm sure Erik Oaksplitter and his warriors wouldn't have looked out of place, when in 875 AD a Viking army under Prince Guthrum attacked the Saxon town of Wareham, and held it for several months until King Alfred finally managed retake the town, that would lead to the creation of ‘Burgh’ towns on the orders of King Alfred, to protect Wareham and other important locations from these types of Viking sieges.

Burghs were typically protected by defensive walls to provide local people a safe refuge from hostile invaders, and according to the Burghal Hidage, a document which dates to the early tenth century AD, there were thirty five fortified centres in Wessex, including Wareham, which is unique in being the only burgh town for which the defences survive largely intact.

JJ's Wargames: Battlefields in Devon - Battle of Lydford 997 AD

Carolyn and I visited another of Alfred's Burghs, Lydford in Devon, back in 2016, with a much smaller section of embankment remaining that was incorporated into a later Norman defence work, link above.

Wareham is surrounded by its defensive earthworks or walls on three sides of the town. There was no known defence on the southern side, where it was probably protected by the river Frome and the boggy terrain.

Excavations have revealed that the earth walls were built up and and topped with a timber faced rampart, however during the reign of Ethelred the Unready (10th century), the walls were reinforced and a stone wall of at least six and a half feet wide was added to the earthworks.

Wareham’s walls were the fourth largest in the Kingdom of Wessex, and they extended over 2200 yards, whilst it is estimated that it would have taken approximately 1600 local men to defend and maintain them.

The path along the 'Bloody Bank' - read on.

A full walk of the walls will take about forty-five minutes, but Carolyn and I only walked a short section to get an appreciation of this ’Scheduled Ancient Monument’ and I can highly recommend the effort especially if you have a seafood linguine to walk off.

 

As well as protecting the Anglo-Saxon town, the remains of the wall also proved a useful location for public executions, especially when the authorities needed to make a point.

John was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216.

The area above and below is known as 'Bloody Bank', with two known executions having taken place here, the first concerning a 13th century hermit, known as Peter de Pomfret who was hanged on Wareham’s walls, after having been imprisoned at Corfe Castle after he prophesied that King John’s reign would come to an end. King John took cruel vengeance by ordering him tied to a horse and dragged from Corfe Castle to Wareham where, no doubt, what was left of him was hanged on the West Walls, along with his son.

The second instance concerned non-other than the dastardly hanging Judge Jeffreys and his 'Bloody Assizes'.

George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys
(15th May 1645 – 18th April 1689)

Some of Wareham’s townsfolk along with many others in Dorset supported the Duke of Monmouth's uprising against the King in 1685. The uprising failed after the rebels were defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on the 6th July 1685, and the Duke of Monmouth was beheaded. 

I visited the battlefield of Sedgemoor back in 2014, link below.

JJ's Wargames: A Day Out in Sunny Somerset - The Battle of Sedgemoor and the Wellington Monument

Judge Jeffries was sent to Dorchester to deal with the captured rebels and at least six of them were hung, drawn and quartered on the West Walls, and afterwards their heads were displayed at the crossroads and their quarters on the South Bridge.

The view of the River Piddle from the North-West corner of the Wareham ramparts, on a lovely sunny evening.

The next day we were off to another historical attraction, Corfe Castle where poor old Peter de Pomfret was imprisoned by King John.

Carolyn and I had attempted to visit Corfe a few years previously, setting out from home and arriving mid-morning only to find that the National Trust carpark is hopelessly too small to cater for the rush of visitors this site can attract, and so just being around the corner this time, we decided to arrive early to ensure we could park.

The plan of the site of Corfe Castle with the National Trust Carpark shown at the top of the picture and Corfe Village, lower right.

The plan above gives a really good idea of the layout of Corfe with the National Trust Information Centre in the carpark at the top of the picture and situated close to the railway. We followed the route shown by the red dots that leads the visitor around the north lower slopes of the motte and bailey following the River Corfe and linking up with Purbeck Route path and eventually up into Corfe Village outside the outer gatehouse.

The bridge over the River Corfe

Corfe Castle is situated in a prominent gap in the Purbeck Hills, with the name Corfe derived from the Old English ceorfan, meaning 'a cutting', referring to the gap, and archaeological evidence shows that a large Anglo-Saxon wooden structure once stood on the site, where nobles probably lived. 

This section of an 1856 Ordnance Survey map 
shows the castle and village in the gap of the Purbeck Hills

In March 978, the teenage King Edward visited Corfe to see his half-brother, the future King Æthelred ‘The Unready’, and was stabbed to death. The murder remains shrouded in mystery, but it is thought that Edward was murdered on the orders of his stepmother, Ælfthryth, who wanted her own son to be king.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror built vast stone fortifications to cement his power over the defeated English, with Corfe Castle being strategically important to William and his successors because it defended their links with their Norman heartlands across the English Channel.

Stone walls and a hall were built on top of the motte, or mound, and their herringbone construction, a distinctive Anglo-Saxon style, suggests they were built by local masons.

In 1244 Henry III ordered that Corfe's keep should be whitewashed, he having four years previously, also ordered that the keep of the Tower of London to be whitewashed, it therefore becoming known as the White Tower.

The whitewashed look of the medieval Corfe is captured in this illustration by Ivan Lapper

On climbing the path up from the River Corfe one enters the delightful village of Corfe, constructed almost completely from the local grey Purbeck limestone and comprises two main streets, East Street and West Street, linked at their north end at the Square, with its cross commemorating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897.

There is evidence around the village of a civilization that existed in 6000 BC; as well as Celtic habitation circa 1300 BC; and of course, the Romans circa AD 50. 

The English novelist, poet and architect,
and man of Dorset, Tomas Hardy

There is a legend which Tomas Hardy recorded concerning the disappearance of an entire Roman legion, I know, not another one, to loose one is unfortunate, but to loose two is down right careless, with, of course, only its ghosts remaining; leading to the conclusion that a massive battle must have taken place between the Celts and the Romans which later resulted in the demise of the Celts.

 

Looking along East Street in Corfe village towards the main gate of the castle in the distance.

The entrance through what remains of the main outer gate with a path leading up to the inner main gate presents a battered remnant of the former great fortress.

The Keep was completed in 1105 for King Henry I, William the Conqueror’s son. Standing at 69 feet tall and positioned atop a 180 foot–high hill, the gleaming tower of Purbeck limestone impressed. It could be seen for miles around, as is the case today. Quarried just a few miles from the castle, Purbeck limestone was prized for being easy to shape yet tough enough to resist weathering. It also had the appearance of soft butter, giving it the name ‘Purbeck burr’; ‘beurre’ being French for ‘butter’.

The south-west gatehouse seen below, was designed to stop attackers in their tracks, originally housing two portcullises and guard rooms, with arrow slits, and murder holes in the ceilings designed for dropping stones or quenching fires backed up with machicolations, overhanging stone openings, to allow strikes against attackers below.

When Parliamentary engineers blew it up in 1646, the left hand tower slipped downhill but stayed upright, leaning there to this day and a testament to the quality of medieval masonary.

Herringbone construction, a distinctive Anglo-Saxon style.

In a field south of Corfe Castle there are some low mounds known as ‘The Rings’. These are the remains of siegeworks built in 1139 by King Stephen. Stephen was the cousin of Empress Matilda, who claimed to be the rightful heir of her father King Henry I during an English civil war known as ‘The Anarchy’ (1138–1153).

The fields south of the castle where King Stephen constructed his siege works, just beyond the farm and beyond the tree line at the back of the field behind it. 

Stephen built the second castle for his army while laying siege to Corfe Castle, which was loyal to Matilda. Having withstood King Stephen’s army, the siege was eventually abandoned, and after Stephen’s death in 1154, Empress Matilda’s heirs became Kings of England and inherited Corfe Castle.

A lidar view of Corfe Castle and The Rings, Medieval ring and bailey earthworks, seen top left

The gap in the Purbeck Hills can be seen with this glimpse through the northward shattered walls.

King John (1166–1216) was a frequent visitor to Corfe Castle, and he built the Gloriette, which housed the royal quarters, furnishing it with luxurious interiors and an indoor toilet for the king’s use. John lavished more than £1,400 (around one million pounds in today’s money) on improvements to the castle.

 

The chaps working on restoring the masonry were very happy to chat about their work, explaining the lengths gone to to match the mortar to the original, using a mix of local materials, with the work ongoing to maintain the blasted walls and large sections never intended to be exposed to the elements when originally built.

John’s reign was a troubled one, and rebellion ensued when John refused to abide by the Magna Carta (1215), an attempt to secure peace between the king and his disaffected barons. 

Earlier in his reign, John’s nephew, Prince Arthur of Brittany, challenged his right to the throne. A refuge in times of crisis, Corfe Castle also was a convenient place to imprison political opponents. After Prince Arthur’s mysterious disappearance in 1203, John held his niece, Eleanor, and twenty-five of Arthur’s knights captive at the castle.

On 10th December 1450, Corfe was ransacked by the tenants of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, as the castle had served as the chief residence for his political rival, Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 

In December 1460, during the Wars of the Roses Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, and his army marched from the castle destined for the Battle of Wakefield.

The castle remained a royal fortress until sold by Elizabeth I in 1572 to her Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton.

The castle was later bought by Sir John Bankes, Attorney General to Charles I, in 1635. The English Civil War broke out in 1642, and by 1643 most of Dorset was under Parliamentarian control. 

While Bankes was in Oxford with the King, his men held Corfe Castle in the royal cause, and during this time his wife, Mary, Lady Bankes, resided at the castle with their children.

Lady Bankes, née Mary Hawtrey (d. 1661) in widow's dress, 

gauze veil, pearl necklace, holding the keys to Corfe Castle, Dorset, 

in her right hand; landscape background with Corfe Castle in the distance

Lady Bankes (1598–1661), successfully defended the castle during the first siege of 1643, earning her the moniker ‘Brave Dame Mary’.

From the keep one is rewarded with an excellent view of the south west gatehouse described earlier and here seen against one of the National Trust illustrations above, that gives a very good impression of how it might have looked in past times.

Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary forces captured Corfe in February 1646 during a second siege, with the castle falling following the betrayal of Lieutenant-Colonel Pitman who allowed Parliamentary troops dressed as reinforcements to enter. 

However Colonel Pitman's actions could be considered pragmatic, considering the garrison he commanded was surrounded and with no realistic hope of victory, and whilst securing protection for himself in exchange for betrayal of the castle he also saved the lives of the 140 men under his command.

Mary Bankes reading the Terms of Surrender at Corfe Castle with a Parliamentary officer.

In March Parliament passed an order for the castle’s demolition, and a team of skilled sappers used explosives to blow its walls apart.

In 1982, the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy were bequeathed to the National Trust in the will of Henry John Ralph Bankes (1902–1981), the seven times great grandson of Sir John Bankes, and the Bankes estate remains one of the most generous gifts in the National Trust's history.

In mid-2006, the dangerous condition of the keep caused it to be closed to visitors, who could only visit the walls and inner bailey, but following an extensive conservation project on the castle, and the keep, it was re-opened to visitors in 2008, and the work completed the following year.

The castle is a grade I listed building, and recognised as an internationally important structure. It is also a Scheduled Monument, a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site which has been given protection against unauthorised change. The earthworks known as "The Rings", thought to be the remains of a 12th-century motte-and-bailey castle built during King Stephen's siege of Corfe, are also scheduled.

Sadly not the steam train that was running along the line that day, but a great view of Corfe station from what remains of the Corfe Castle battlements.

Finally, I thought I would include some pictures of the Worgret Heath Gun, a strange apparition beside the A352 to Wareham, and literally a few hundred yards from where we were staying.

The land here abouts is called Worgret Heath and has been used by the British military for training purposes since 1914, with the Tank Museum and Royal Armoured Corps at Bovington, just up the road, and the remains of a WWII slit trench quite close to this gun.

It would appear, from what I can determine, that the gun is a fibreglass reproduction of a 7-inch Mk 1, RML (Rifled Muzzle Loader) gun, and thought previously, together with the gunner alongside, to have been on display at Fort Paull an historic coastal artillery battery on the River Humber near Hull, though why it is now on the side of the A352 in Dorset I have no idea.

A similar RML 7-inch gun seen here aboard HMS Minotaur.

The primary projectile for the gun was Palliser shot or shell for attacking armoured warships, fired with a large "battering" charge for maximum velocity, with all guns also equipped with shrapnel shells for anti-personnel use and explosive common shells for attacking unarmoured targets, the gun being used to arm small to medium-sized British warships in the late 19th century, and with some being used ashore for coast defence.

We had a marvellous few days in Dorset, with other trips not included in this post, to the Blue Pool, just up the road from Corfe, Brownsea Island in the entrance to Poole Harbour, and the Swannery at Abbotsham, which we called into on our way home.

Needless to say I am refreshed and repurposed and looking forward to showcasing more of my growing AWI collection as well as gearing up to host a game in the coming weeks, running out the Romano-Dacians using a new set of rules as a bit of a play-test.

As always, more anon.

JJ