Faringdon Castle
Faringdon Castle is a defunct castle on the outskirts of the market Faringdon in the English county of Berkshire (now Oxfordshire ), about 17 km northeast of Swindon .
The castle was built by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester , a supporter of Empress Matilda during the Anarchy in 1144 at a place called Folly Hill . In the Gesta Stephani a contemporary chronicle, the foundation of the castle and the deeds of the Earls recorded. It says there that the castle was " strongly fortified by a curtain wall and a palank and occupied by a garrison that represented the prime of the entire army. He valiantly repulsed the usual attacks of the royal soldiers who came from Oxford and other castles around it to molest his side. ”Just a few weeks after its completion, Faringdon Castle was besieged by the forces of King Stephen and after four days they surrendered Castellan, Brian de Soulis . The castle was destroyed over the next 1-2 years.
In the 1930s, the eccentric Lord Berners , who lived at Faringdon Manor, had a brick tower built on the site called the Faringdon Folly. The garden was partly set up by the garden designer Norah Lindsay .
Popular reception
Ellis Peters used the history of the castle in the last of her Cadfael Chronicles ( Brother Cadfael's Penance ).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b David Nash Ford: Faringdon Castle . David Nash Ford Publishing. 2011. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ^ Robert Liddiard: Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500 . Windgather Press, Macclesfield 2005. ISBN 0-9545575-2-2 . P. 81.
- ^ David James Cathcart King: Catellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands . Volume I: Anglesey-Montgomery . Kraus International Publications, 1983. p. 11.
- ↑ Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles . David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 33.5 " N , 1 ° 34 ′ 19.3" W.