A guide to the attractions of East Sussex, England, highlighting history and visitor information.
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Bodiam Castle A guide to the attractions of East Sussex, England, highlighting history and visitor information. |
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Bodiam CastleBodiam Castle looks almost too romantic to be true. This fairytale castle was begun in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge to discourage French raids. The picture book design is emphasized by the castle's moat, and its crenellated battlements. Bodiam is reached by no less than three drawbridges and a barbican. There was a Saxon hall on this site before the Norman Conquest. After the Normans took over the hall passed to the Bodeham family. For several centuries the Bodeham's lived on in the Saxon hall, much strengthened and expanded. The French raided nearby Winchelsea in 1380, so when a new French invasion threatened in 1385 Sir Edward Dalyngrigge applied to King Richard II for a license to crenellate and strengthen the existing hall. The license was granted, but Sir Edward decided to build a new fortress rather than fortify the old. This new castle he located near the River Rother, where the greatest possibility of French incursion threatened. The castle he built is essentially the one we can visit today. Though its primary aim was defense, Dalyngrigge made sure that Bodiam was also a comfortable abode, as much a fortified residence as a military stronghold. He built in grand style, creating at the same time a deterrent and a personal statement of wealth and power.
Bodiam was built to a simple rectangular plan with great drum towers at the corners, but this was complemented by the series of drawbridges built at angles to each other, and a massive barbican, forcing a potential adversary to overcome each defense in turn. The interior design of Bodiam is no less intriguing than the exterior defenses; Dalyngrigge knew that he would have to rely on essentially unreliable mercenary troops to man his fortress. So he built a completely self-contained retainer's hall and left both entrances and three of the four angle towers in direct control of the lord and his family. Thus Bodiam was defended from within and without! The French invasion never took place, and Bodiam's impressive defenses were never tested until 1484 when the castle fell to a siege by Richard III. Later, during the English Civil War, Bodiam fell to an assault led by Parliamentary general, Sir William Waller. Bodiam was "slighted" by Parliamentary forces after the Civil War, and the interior was made uninhabitable. It crumbled on for several centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis of Curzon in 1917. Curzon began a process of restoration, and the castle passed to the National Trust on his death in 1925. A small museum provides historical background to this intriguing medieval fortress.
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