The Library contains literature from the mid 17th and 18th century. And a billiard table of course.
Taking in the viewAnd again..
Built on the site of the medieval Great Hall, the Kings Hall is a Victorian masterpiece. The magnificent false hammer beam ceiling is made with teak from Thailand.
They were playing music in the Kings Hall, and we saw the lovely French man and his wife dancing to it
French dancers (photo by Sophie)
The Cross Hall, which crosses the Kings Hall, has a vast Tudor style fireplace and intricate stone carvings representing ship building across the ages along with large tapestries and a copy of Theodore Rombout’s The Card Players.
The Dining room has a good view
and a castle always should have a suit of armour or two
So that’s the lot for this visit to Bamburgh Castle. Stay tooned for next time when we take a trip to Newcastle.
After a good wander around the grounds we went to visit the museums. The first museum we got to was the Armstrong & Aviation museum, which houses some of the stuff that Armstrong produced for WW2, and some stuff from WW1.
Big GunMangled Aircraft Engines
I’m sorry to say I didn’t take notes or many photo’s in this museum, I’m not sure why it didn’t float my boat, however there was a really nice vintage car that I liked.
Armstrong Siddeley 1936
We also visited the Archaeology Museum and saw some nice bling that they had dug up. The pieces were incredibly small, but beautifully decorated, and they were covered by a magnifying glass so you could see the detail. Not easy to shoot through 2 layers of glass so not the best shots ever, but you can see what I mean.
These date between 10th and 12th century A.D. It’s possible that metal work or scrap recycling was going on in the vicinity of where they were found, so could be dated earlier than the layer in which they were found.The top piece was discovered in 1971 and has been named the Bambugh Beast. It is believed to date from AD 600-AD 700 and is reminiscent of Anglo-Celtic illuminated manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels. The lower piece was discovered in 2011, it is sheet gold, edged with beaded wire and decorated with small balls of gold.
There is also a Stones museum which we looked into.
The information sign says: “This carved panel displays two ‘Celtic’ heads carved into the front face with long, drooping moustaches. Carved heads are common in Western Europe from the Iron Age to Medieval date. These figures are more suggestive of Irish or French origin than the north of England and will be the subject of further research.”
An anglo-saxon well can also be seen there.
The Victorian Well head on the well dug in Anglo Saxon times. First described by Simeon of Durham in 774, there was originally a church on top of this hill with a spring which was “sweet to the taste and most pure … that has been excavated with astonishing labour.” The well is 44 metres deep and 2 metres in diameter and is located in the bottom of the keep of the castle.
Of course the castle rooms are all home to interesting bits of history
17th century Flemish Crossbow
There’s a nice little keepsake of Queen Mary’s signature from a vist she made there in 1924
Stay tooned for part 3 when we visit the state rooms.
Sophie and I last visited Bamburgh on a rainy day in June 2016, when our planned boat trip to the Farne Islands got called off due to the rotten weather, and it was the nearest place to hand. In summer this year Sophie’s chap came over from Spain and he got to choose our destination, so back we went to Bamburgh and spent a sunny day there. For readers who were not followers back then, here is the history of the castle, the rest of you can scroll down 🙂
THE HISTORY BIT, mostly from wiki with added extras
There is archaeological evidence of people living in this are from 10,000BC, along with Bronze Age (2,400 -700BC) burials nearby and bits of pottery dating to the Iron Age (700 BC – 43AD). Built on a dolerite outcrop, the location was previously home to a fort of the native Britons known as Din Guarie and may have been the capital of the British kingdom of the region from the realm’s foundation in c.420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year the citadel was captured by the Anglo-Saxon ruler Ida of Bernicia (Beornice) and became Ida’s seat. It was briefly retaken by the Britons from his son Hussa during the war of 590 before being relieved later the same year.
His grandson Æðelfriþ (I mean, who thought up these names!!??) passed it on to his wife Bebba, from whom the early name Bebbanburgh was derived. The Vikings destroyed the original fortification in 993.
The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. William II (a badass old bugger) unsuccessfully besieged it in 1095 during a revolt supported by its owner, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria. After Robert was captured, his wife (a bit of a girl by all accounts),continued the defence until coerced to surrender by the king’s threat to blind her husband.
Bamburgh then became the property of the reigning English monarch. Henry II probably built the keep. (The Castles own website says the keep is Norman) As an important English outpost, the castle was the target of occasional raids from the pesky Scots. During the civil wars at the end of King John’s reign, it was under the control of Philip of Oldcoates. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery, at the end of a nine-month siege by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
The Forster family of Northumberland provided the Crown with twelve successive governors of the castle for some 400 years until the Crown granted ownership to Sir John Forster. The family retained ownership until Sir William Forster (d. 1700) was posthumously declared bankrupt, and his estates, including the castle, were sold to Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham (husband of his sister Dorothy) under an Act of Parliament to settle the debts.
The castle deteriorated but was restored by various owners during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong, who completed the restoration.
The castle still belongs to the Armstrong family, and is opened to the public. It also hosts weddings and corporate events. It has been used as a film location since the 1920s, featuring in films such as Ivanhoe (1982), El Cid (1961), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Elizabeth (1998) and both the 1971 and 2015 adaptions of Macbeth.
So on with the pictures.
We had a wander around the grounds this time,
The Armstrong Museum is in the modern additions to the castle.Repelling the Vikings, or someone in a boat anyways.Might need to get a man in..In the foreground, archeological digs.Bamburgh Village FeteA very nice French gentleman who let me pet his dogs 🙂
The space in front of Monsieur is where St.Peters Chapel once stood, and the chapel bell is placed within it
in the apse, where the altar and the relics of King Oswald once were held.
The Keep is the oldest part of the castle and the walls are 11ft thick to the front and 9 ft wide elsewhere, and it sits on top of a massive plinth so attackers can’t burrow under it. Safe as houses in that!
Stay tooned for next time when we’ll visit the museums in the castle.
More serious chains and some sort of buffalo/cow/bull thing’s head
The Laundry room
Oh K
Windows
And that’s the end of our visit to Bamburgh Castle, but just down the road, on our way home we saw a field of huge poppies, so had to stop and take some shots, in the rain of course.
Bigger than Sophie’s hand
Next time we finally get to the Farne Islands again for Puffins and Seals 🙂
They should be OK when the next boatloads of Vikings come 🙂
Built on the site of the medieval Great Hall, the King’s Hall is a Victorian masterpiece. Its magnificent false hammer beam ceiling is made with teak from Thailand, then called Siam. The King of Siam, a good friend of Lord Armstrong who visited Bamburgh, is said to have helped carve some of the intricate designs. The King’s Hall was to be the castle’s main social reception and banqueting room. Lord Armstrong built a minstrel’s gallery where the musicians playing at the balls performed.
Beautiful old clocks
and suits of armour
Lots more to see yet so hang on for the next part.
Well we’re cracking on through 2016, May done and onto June. Back in June 2015 Sophie and I had our first trip to the Farne Islands to see the puffins, and of course we wanted to do that again in 2016, so booked a trip for our weekend outing. Unfortunately when we got there the weather was so awful that the boat trips were cancelled. A bit disappointing after a 1&1/2hr drive, but Bamburgh Castle is only a mile up the road so a quick change of plan and off we went.
THE HISTORY BIT, mostly from wiki with added extras
There is archaeological evidence of people living in this are from 10,000BC, along with Bronze Age (2,400 -700BC) burials nearby and bits of pottery dating to the Iron Age (700 BC – 43AD). Built on a dolerite outcrop, the location was previously home to a fort of the native Britons known as Din Guarie and may have been the capital of the British kingdom of the region from the realm’s foundation in c.420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year the citadel was captured by the Anglo-Saxon ruler Ida of Bernicia (Beornice) and became Ida’s seat. It was briefly retaken by the Britons from his son Hussa during the war of 590 before being relieved later the same year.
His grandson Æðelfriþ (I mean, who thought up these names!!??) passed it on to his wife Bebba, from whom the early name Bebbanburgh was derived. The Vikings destroyed the original fortification in 993.
The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. William II (a badass old bugger) unsuccessfully besieged it in 1095 during a revolt supported by its owner, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria. After Robert was captured, his wife (a bit of a girl by all accounts),continued the defence until coerced to surrender by the king’s threat to blind her husband.
Bamburgh then became the property of the reigning English monarch. Henry II probably built the keep. (The Castles own website says the keep is Norman) As an important English outpost, the castle was the target of occasional raids from the pesky Scots. During the civil wars at the end of King John’s reign, it was under the control of Philip of Oldcoates. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery, at the end of a nine-month siege by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
The Forster family of Northumberland provided the Crown with twelve successive governors of the castle for some 400 years until the Crown granted ownership to Sir John Forster. The family retained ownership until Sir William Forster (d. 1700) was posthumously declared bankrupt, and his estates, including the castle, were sold to Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham (husband of his sister Dorothy) under an Act of Parliament to settle the debts.
The castle deteriorated but was restored by various owners during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong, who completed the restoration.
The castle still belongs to the Armstrong family, and is opened to the public. It also hosts weddings and corporate events. It has been used as a film location since the 1920s, featuring in films such as Ivanhoe (1982), El Cid (1961), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Elizabeth (1998) and both the 1971 and 2015 adaptions of Macbeth.
Rear Aspect
The grounds
View over to the Farne Islands
Ready to repel borders
The Castle Front
The Norman keep
Entrance
There are still archaeological digs going on around there, and as they have found bones from the Bronze Age we were there on the day that they were being re buried, they had a proper funeral for them.
View over Bamburgh village, standing on the ramparts,
Well it isn’t really, just that I didn’t take any pictures at all last week, was too busy on work days and too busy on days off. I don’t like being too busy. This week I am taking my camera’s everywhere and seeing pictures everywhere so I got my mojo back. Firstly, got up Monday morning, and whilst making a cup of tea, looked out of my kitchen window (which I cleaned on Sunday the day before!) and some dirty marks caught my eye. When I really looked it was a very good imprint of a flying pigeon. I couldn’t find a body so either the visiting cat got him when he landed or he managed to survive and fly off.
Blind as a Pigeon
So I’ve got to do the damned windows again on my next day off. 😦
Yesterday and today has given us some really nice unseasonably warm weather, and I’ve been to some really lovely places to see clients. On Monday I travelled a long way north to Seahouses. I got there an hour before due to see a client so popped up the road to take a shot of Bamburgh Castle . This isn’t the usual view as most photo’s of it are taken from the beach side, but I didn’t have time to get up that far.
Bamburgh Castle
One day I’ll get up there and take some sunset shots on the beach. I drove back to Seahouses and lunch looking out to the Farne Islands, another place I have yet to do as there’s loads of bonkers birds on it like puffins.
Farne Islands.
Today I went back up north but not so far. Just to Newbiggin-By-The-Sea, bit of a mouthful but a really pretty place.
Newbiggin Bay
The church there, St.Bartholomews has 12th & 13th Century grave stones (which I forgot to look at haha) and is right on the edge of the coast.
St Bartholomews.The view from the church yard
In that picture ^ you can just about make out ‘The Couple” an art installation of a man and woman standing on a plinth out on the breakwater. If you embiggen the photo by clicking on it you can see them, but don’t knock yourself out, it’s another place on my list of places to return to.
fence post
This was a cool find, he is a fence post, and I think it’s probably a cormorant, whatever, I think it’s cool.
door decoration 1door decoration 2
these guys are at the end of a stone archway over the door of the church, carved in 12th/13th century, amazing to touch something so ancient, and I love that the second guy has teeth! I think they’re guys, haven’t found any info as yet on the WWW.
Pecking order
On top of the world, or at least the church roof. Thought this was funny, all those starlings wanting that top spot!
Finally, it’s turned into a bit of a bird week so far, I filled up my bird feeder in the front garden, and a herd of sparrows swarm it every now and again and fratch over who’s turn it is at the trough.
Band of Spuggy’s
Got such a mad busy day tomorrow, but hopefully will get out with the big girl camera toward the end of the week. These were all taken with my little compact, apart from the 1st and last.
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