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The space exploration advocacy website of Roger Balettie, former Flight Dynamics Officer in NASA’s Space Shuttle Mission Control Center.

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50 Years

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The Artemis I mission occurred 50 years after Apollo 17. What will it take to not have this happen again?

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England 2015

May 28, 2015 – Day 10

Storming a new castle – the “slighted” ruins of Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Gardens, some Broadway village shopping, and glamour shots of the girls around Charingworth Manor!

Here are all of today’s photos

Today’s adventure is another castle … but this time, instead of “Warwick Disney”, it’s a historic artifact. Kenilworth Castle has long and very interesting history. Fortunately for us, John has arranged for a private tour guide today who is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about Kenilworth’s history, it’s place in England’s own story, and she shows us a great bit of the ruins during the short time we have with her.

From the English Heritage website:

Reconstruction of Kenilworth Castle circa 1420

First built in the 1120s and a royal castle for most of its history, it was expanded and enhanced by King John, John of Gaunt and Henry V.

In 1563 Elizabeth I granted it to her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who converted Kenilworth into a lavish palace for her entertainment.

The castle’s fortifications were dismantled in 1650, and the ruins later became famous thanks in part to Walter Scott’s 1821 romance Kenilworth.


Approaching Kenilworth CastleAs we approach the ruins, we wait for our tour guide at the Castle Gatehouse, poking around there, seeing several small guard rooms, and the remnants of the slot in the stone where the gate physically would move up and down to allow entrance into the castle interior.

With our guide, we head towards the low rising hill, atop which sits the ruins of Kenilworth Castle.

As with everything else we’ve seen, the grass and trees are remarkably green. This provides an interesting living counterpoint with the ruins.

Kenilworth was “slighted” in the mid-17th Century, after the English Civil War, to prevent any further use as a military base of operations.

The main portion of the Castle has three primary sections that are still easily identifiable. The Great Tower, Leicester’s Building, and The Great Hall.

Kenilworth Castle - Great HallWe start, at the back, in The Great Hall.

This space has a “cathedral feel” to it – from the large arching stone window frames to the wide open space, it was obvious that this was intended to convey power and wealth to anyone who was inside.

This is the “most slighted” of the three buildings, with only partial walls standing.

Being inside the structure, it’s easy to see where the wooden main floor supports were inserted into the stone, some of the fireplaces and doorways through the exterior walls.

Stepping out into the main courtyard again, our guide describes how Robert Dudley, a “favorite” of Queen Elizabeth I, built Leicester’s Building specifically to accommodate the Queen during her several visits.

Here’s a nice PhotoSphere in the middle of the Kenilworth courtyard – drag the image around for a full 360-degree experience!


Kenilworth Castle - Leicesters BuildingThe English Heritage organization has built some magnificent structural staircases and walkways in the interior of Leicester’s Building that allow visitors the opportunity to walk inside at room level and see the various royal accommodations. These weren’t here the only other time that John came, so it’s a treat for *him* to be able to get up inside these historic buildings. Mark’s not been here before, so even more of a treat! 🙂

Once inside, our guide explains both the construction and the royal room layouts.

The construction bits were really appealing to the nerdy engineer side of me. Seeing not only the holes in the stone walls where the cross-beams were inserted, but how they had *separate* floors and ceilings, with gaps between, was brilliant – the sound deadening properties must have made the rooms quite nice, muffling the creaks and groans of the floors above you!

A flower grows among the ruinsSome of the original white plaster was still evident on a few of the walls – including one that looked very “ghost-like”. Woooooooooo!

Seeing how the Queen’s quarters were both massive and visually appealing, as well as how the attending ladies’ quarters and receiving rooms were set up, really gave a sense of purpose to the building… which makes sense, as Dudley was doing everything possible to woo the Queen into marriage.

She, for her own royal reasons, would continue to refuse, much to Dudley’s dismay.

“Dudley’s Dismay”. Sounds like a cool band name. Log it.


Grand Mere from Leicesters BuildingLooking out from the various rooms (especially the Queen’s!) across the green fields, we’re reminded that, in Kenilworth Castle’s prime, the entire castle was surrounded by a man-made lake! That must have been quite the sight — making an already luxurious and fairly impenetrable castle more so on both counts.

Walking amongst the ruinsThe castle was, indeed, “fairly impenetrable”. It was only after prolonged seige and exhaustion of supplies within the castle that it finally surrendered during the English Civil War. It wasn’t because the castle was actually “taken by force”.

Impressive.

BUT – after that surrender, the beauty of Kenilworth was “slighted” and reduced to unusable ruins by the victors… and that’s what we see today.

Seeing the ruins from Leicester’s Building are impressive… but walking amongst them are even more so.

It is here that our *very* knowledgeable guide must bid us farewell, but we still have some castle/ruin storming to do!

John and Mark head off to “be patient” again… bless them. 🙂

Kathy and LeAnn run off to see the back areas and then the Elizabethan Gardens.

Up the stairs to the back wall of Kenilworth CastleI, of course, have to climb up the ramparts, through the doorways, up the narrow spiral staircases, and get the best possible pictures I can! Thank God for digital cameras! I ended up taking (literally) three thousand photos during this vacation – narrowing those down to about 1500 that I liked… and posting just under 1000 to our photos.balettie.com site for the England 2015 vacation.

Being atop the partially-ruined rear walls gives a unique perspective.

Gazing across the green fields behind Kenilworth, thinking about how that was once a huge man-made lake, with boats and other water-related amusements for the nobles, and then turning around and seeing the slighted ruins of what was once a majestic and strong fortress castle really was a heavy weight of history to be standing in the middle of.

This image is a full 360-degree panorama from the furthest-most point out on the rear wall. I started, from the left, looking back towards the rear wall of the Great Hall, panning across the former Grand Mere (lake), seeing the Elizabethan Gardens below (just to the right of center), the Great Tower, and back across the ruins of the Great Hall.

Coming down off the back wall, a few more views of the Great Hall and the Gardens at the back are hard to miss.

Spooky little dungeon photoBut, somewhat hidden below the staircase is what looks like some lower rooms.

Of *course* I have to go take a quick look down there… and there is what looks like a small dungeon-type cell.

Cool!

I look in to see a creepy-looking small room with a strange stone block in the center with a single light casting an eerie glow.

I then realize that I’m all by myself down here in this creepy and dark little dungeon space.

Time to go back out into the sunlight, please! 🙂

2020 UPDATE: Kenilworth Castle let me know that this is most likely just the larder (food storage) for the nearby castle kitchen – which is in the same area. That’s cool!


Kenilworth Castle - Great TowerFortunately, the Great Tower welcomes me back out into the Kenilworth Castle courtyard, and I gratefully head over to poke about through its ruins.

Although it looks fairly untouched from the outside, the interior sections are completely “slighted”, and the entire back wall that looks out over the Gardens has been removed.

Like most everything else, we could have easily spent an entire day in and around just the ruins, but it’s also nice to have experiences like this that actually end up whetting our appetites for return visits to complete the adventures we have only just begun.


Kenilworth Castle - Elizabethan GardensI catch up with the girls in the Elizabethan Gardens behind the Castle ruins.

This beautiful “privvy garden” was created by Robert Dudley for Queen Elizabeth in more attempts to curry her favor.

The gardens themselves are lovely and the girls really enjoyed seeing both familiar and unique-to-England plants and flowers.

BUT … it’s soon time to go.

Enjoying a cream tea break in BroadwayWe’ve been promising LeAnn a “proper” afternoon cream tea since we got here.

Foxy Brown’s, in Broadway, was where we’ve wanted to take her, and we finally got the chance!

While John and Mark (bless them!) camp out in The Swan, I navigate the girls across the street to our target.

It’s everything we remembered and a true “English Treat” to enjoy our tea, scones, clotted cream, and jam in the cool but sunlit spring afternoon in the Cotswolds.

A trip up and down Cotswold Way (the main street in Broadway), hitting several familiar and a couple of new stores – coming away with some real treasures – and it’s time for an early evening!

Kathy and Roger at Charingworth PondAs John and Mark drop us off at Charingworth after yet another spectacular day in the Cotswolds, the lighting and ambiance of the approaching sunset encourage us to walk down to the sheep meadow for some “glamour shots” of the girls.

I take a few individual shots of Kathy and LeAnn and a great shot of the two of them in front of Charingworth Manor.

Lots of sheep photos (and a fun little video of three little lambs playing and leaping), some laughs, and we start walking back towards Charingworth.

Some more photos by the Charingworth Pond, and more of “our oak tree” as the sun sets, and we’re exhausted for the evening!

Tomorrow starts our last day here in our English paradise.