Belated St. George’s Day greetings. This is my third St George’s Day blog post, doesn’t time fly?
My apologies, this is a day late because I was wrestling with myself (and the Black Dog) as to which political topic to write about. It’s all too depressing, so I thought I’d ignore politics for a bit and indulge in some shameless heritage/tourism plugging for when visiting England is once again a viable option. I’m going to ignore the usual headline sites like the Tower of London, Windsor, Oxford, Stonehenge etc. and even my great love, Hampton Court Palace, they’re well known. Instead, I’d like to introduce you to two contrasting English castles, both of which are a rather overlooked but are great days out and deserve more attention than they get.
Alnwick Castle
We start in the far north east of England with a castle that is still a family home. Alnwick Castle (the ‘l’ and the ‘w’ are silent, it’s pronounced like ‘panic’ without the ‘p’) is on the 
edge in the pretty, small Northumberland town of Alnwick. It’s just over 30 miles north of the city of Newcastle and less than 30 miles from the border with Scotland, set in gorgeous rolling moorland. The area may be peaceful now; but it has a dark and bloody history. Throughout the Middle Ages warfare between the kingdoms of England and Scotland was an ever-present threat and informal cross-border raids were a constant. England’s Medieval internal power struggles were also distinctly “full contact” and the armies outside Alnwick’s walls were as often English as Scots.
Building of the defences began in 1096 and continued, on and off, through the next three centuries. It’s a big and beautiful castle with classic medieval walls and towers as well as elegant state rooms from later, less warlike times. There’s plenty to see and a varied and fascinating history.
For me, one of the things that makes Alnwick special is that it is still owned and lived in by Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland, and has been the Percy family seat for over seven centuries. The family history permeates the castle and the sheer, unashamed Percyness of Alnwick contrasts strongly with the corporate, bland, and increasingly Woke style of the National Trust and English Heritage, the two bodies that care for so much of our built heritage. I love the fact that Alnwick is still owned, run, and lived in by a family who have a keen sense of their own history as well as their obligations as the local landowners in the 21st century.
The State Rooms are luscious, grand scale, over the top, very well maintained and utterly 
stuffed with stuff. There is the usual roll call of carved and gilded furniture, old master paintings, ornate clocks, and marble statues. But here the family portraits don’t stop in the 1800s and various little touches remind you that this is a home as well as a tourist attraction. There is also a very moving tribute to the estate tenants (and Percy family) who served and died in the First World War, another reminder of the fact that Alnwick is a living thing, not just an artefact.
Filming is also a big part of 20th/21st century Alnwick and they’ve been blessed with some major pieces. Most famously Harry Potter, and more recently Downton Abbey as well as a clutch of other big pictures. There’s a 45-minute tour (included in your ticket price as all the tours are) on filming at Alnwick.
Staying with pop culture, for those of you who enjoy Game of Thrones, Alnwick castle can claim to be the real Winterfell. It’s well known that G.R.R. Martin drew heavily in English history for inspiration, and although the Starks are partly inspired by the House of York, the House of Percy is more of a model. They were never called “Kings in the North” but they were not far from being that; the parallels between them and the Starks are strong. “No Prince but a Percy” was a northern slogan and they were the true power in the north for centuries. In the 15th and 16th centuries only two heads of the Percy family died in their beds, three fell in battle, two were executed and two were murdered.
The castle is well run, has good facilities and there are various activities in the summer season. It is also home to the regimental museum of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. Adjacent to the castle are the Alnwick Gardens, a complex of gorgeous formal gardens. The town of Alnwick has some nice pubs and cafes and is home to one of the UK’s biggest second-hand book shop.
Of course, Alnwick Castle is run to make money, and as children are the single most effective thing ever devised for sucking money out of adults, families are well catered for. This can mean, if you’re a real history buff, it can feel a little dumbed down at times. Certainly, young Master Potter does intrude a little much for my taste and, I confess, a little something in me died when I saw a young woman in generic “wench” gear ride past on a tricycle with a box of besom brooms ready for the regular broomstick flying training sessions. My intellectual snobbery aside, Alnwick really does have a lot to offer, on whatever level you enjoy it. A lovely setting, good facilities, friendly staff, and richly layered history, I’d say Alnwick Castle stands out even in a country not short of great castles.
Dover Castle.
At the other end of the country and different in many ways from Alnwick, Dover Castle is every bit as worth a visit.
In the south eastern county of Kent, overlooking the busy port of Dover the castle has never been the home of one of the great families, it’s more purely military than most castles. There is evidence of habitation on the site dating to the Iron Age, but the castle that exists today dates from the 1180s. Dover is where England and France are at their closest and here it was the French that Henry II was thinking of when he ordered the construction of the massive defences that make up the bulk of the castle today.
Perched on top of the famous white cliffs, Dover Castle is one of the biggest castles in England and while it lacks the romance so evident at Alnwick, it more than makes up for this in sheer stark, powerful architecture, and layer upon layer of history. Dover may be basically a medieval castle, but it contains stories from the Romans to the Cold War.
The oldest building in the castle is also England’s oldest, indeed, it predates England itself. Built in the 2nd century A.D. the Roman Pharos, or lighthouse, was one of two built 
to guide ships into the Roman port of Dubris (Dover). Right next to this is the Anglo-Saxon church of St. Mary in Castro, dating from around 1000 A.D. As a working fortress owned by the state Dover’s defences didn’t stop developing at the end of the medieval period like most castles. In the 1790s once again the threat of invasion from France led to new additions both above and below ground. Tunnels were dug in the soft chalk cliffs as well as bastions added outside the curtain walls. The tunnels were much expanded during the Second World War, being used as a military hospital as well as a bomb proof headquarters. It was from here that Admiral Ramsay planned and directed Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of over 300,000 men from Dunkirk. In the Cold War the tunnels were the site of a Regional Seat of Government in case of a nuclear attack. By the end of the 1970s it was realised that maintaining the tunnels, and especially the radiation proofing of the highly porous chalk, was difficult and expensive, but the tunnels were not declassified and handed over to English Heritage, who run the castle, until 1986. Most of the three miles of tunnels over five levels are not open, but a very well-structured tour of around 50 minutes is run through parts of the Second World war tunnel complex.
The massive Great Tower was restored to its medieval glory between 2007 and 2009 and is somewhere you can get a real feel for life in a 12th century castle. The vibrant colours often take people used to the film makers medieval palette of “50 Shades of Brown” by surprise. Creating artificial colour was difficult to do, and therefore expensive, but by no means beyond the capabilities of our medieval ancestors. Bright colours were a sign of status in the pre-industrial world. 
The site is big and they have a land train to help you get around. You can easily spend a whole day exploring and delving into the castle’s many aspects. Like many bigger castles, Dover is home to a regimental museum, in this case the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. Dover has also had its share of filming, often doubling for the Tower of London.
Sadly, 21st century Dover itself does not have the charm and beauty of the town of Alnwick, in fact, even by modern standards it’s a bit naff. It is just possible to do a day visit from London, but nearby Deal, Folkestone or Canterbury are great places to stay and Kent, the Garden of England, is a glorious county, with lovely countryside and packed with sites to visit. The Dover Museum is worth a swift visit, if only to see the amazing remains of a 6,000-year-old boat excavated from under the High Street. I know one pub in Dover well worth a visit, the White Horse, on the lower slops below the castle, where you can look at the walls covered with the signatures, dates, and times of cross channel swimmers while you drink some excellent bitter. Assuming, of course, that it doesn’t become a CCP-virus victim.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little intro to two of my favourite places to visit. If you are thinking of visiting England anytime soon feel free to send me a private message. I’d be delighted to help my BW.com friends get the most out of their time here.