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Travels Home Windsor Castle St. George's Chapel Capesthorne Hall Hampton Court 

 

This is an aerial view of the castle (not one of mine but I’ve used it to illustrate how vast the castle is). You really could do with spending two full days at the castle in order to see everything. It is well worth a visit. Unfortunately photographs are not allowed inside the castle.

Built by William the Conqueror in 1066-87 at the end of the eleventh century, it has now been the home of 39 monarchs and is the oldest royal residence in the U.K. to have remained in continuous use. The Queen is officially in residence at Windsor twice yearly: Easter and again in June. The castle is used as an alternative to Buckingham Palace for ceremonial visits by foreign heads of state, and both Queen Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh spend most of their private weekends at Windsor.

The State apartments built for Charles the 2nd and his Queen, Catherine of Braganza, include the Queens ballroom furnished with it’s solid silver mirrors and tables, to St. George's Hall, which is used to entertain heads of state. They were built by George the 4th and are a real must to see. St. George’s Hall was seriously damaged by fire in November 1992. When it came to be restored, the ceiling was replaced by a hammer-beam roof constructed out of green oak, using medieval carpentry techniques.

 

View which greets you walking up to the entrance gate, which you can see at the bottom of the street. On the right of the picture is a statue of Queen Victoria.

 

Here we see Aaron & Sarah making their way to the Round Tower.  On the weekend of 22nd Sept 2012 we celebrated Aaron’s 30th birthday.

 

 Changing of the Guard.

 

Above and below are just two of the many emblems that adorn the exterior stone work of Windsor Castle.

 

This is the pathway to the castle, and you can see part of the wall which forms the periphery.
 

 

A view of the Round Tower and the Moat Garden. Since the eighteenth century the moat surrounding the Round Tower was converted into an ornamental garden.

 

The base of the Round Tower was originally built by Henry 1st around 1100 and he was the first King to use the castle as a residence. The Round Tower and the castle are all constructed from Bag Shot Heath Stone which is quarried in Hampshire.

 

Windsor Castle has never been cleaned because the stone is said to have a natural silica and in between stones, embedded into the mortar, are sharp pieces of flint (Galletting) which were placed there to protect the walls from being scaled by any invading enemy and to strengthen the bond in between each stone. Look closely... they look like chips of rock in the mortar.

 

You are able to see 12 different counties from the top of the tower, but you need to be able to climb 200 steps to get there! This is the view from the Round Tower of the Queen's private apartments. The Queen's lounge is situated at the centre and you can see her front door. The guest rooms are to the right of those doors. These rooms are used by Heads of State when they are on official visits to the U.K.

 

 

 


Cannons at the top of the Round Tower. They have never been fired in anger, which is said to be fortunate as the recoil would have damaged the walls of the tower which are situated about 2 metres behind the canons.