What a delight to wake to a fine morning, the birds chirping their happy song and the squirrels running free across the now dry park! We had decided last night that, weather permitting, we would head off to Windsor Castle for the day, and that is what we did, once the lunch was made and the housekeeping done, and once we saw the clock hands pass beyond 9am.
The
drive through the morning traffic was uneventful and I realised my concerns
were baseless, especially when we
arrived at the outskirts of Windsor village and parked in a Municipal car park,
taking our pick of spots. We elected to pay £6 allowing us an excess of five
hours, which turned out to be a good choice.
We wandered up through the town, pausing by the River Thames to
admire the activity and picturesque scenes, before heading on up to the castle
and joining the throngs already queuing. We paid the AOP discounted entry fee
of £18.20 each, which at first seemed a bit hefty until we understood the
extent of the castle and the costs that surely must be involved in the upkeep.
Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the
world and has been the family home of British Kings and Queens for almost 1,000
years. It is the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II and is still a very
much working royal palace even today in these days when royals are more
decorative than functional, and home to about one hundred and fifty people. As
such then, it is unrealistic to expect to be able to explore every nook and
cranny, and although our exploration took about four and a half hours, it was
really only a small part of the whole.
The ostentatiously ornate gilded State Apartments and St George’s
Chapel where the remains of ten monarchs are interred are open to public view,
as is the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, the largest and most famous dolls’ house
in the world. This was built for Queen
Mary between 1921 and 1924 as a gift and is incredibly detailed and is a must
see for dolls’ house aficionados; we are not and decided the twenty minute
queue awaiting entry to visit this was simply not worth it. Hindsight is a
glorious thing.
The apartments are every bit as overwhelmingly as I remember
Versailles, although that was some time ago and time blurs the detail of
memories. However it was the Albert Memorial Chapel that I found just too much,
just as we had found The Arab Room in Cardiff Castle. The visitor can only peer
into this chapel from behind a rope barrier which is probably just as well.
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| Windsor Castle |
We visited the Library where there is currently a very good
exhibition celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare’s
death, with a slant on the Windsor connection. It is all very tastefully done,
although does not necessarily appeal to the average visitor of the castle.
The Royal Library is based here at Windsor, established by William
IV in the 1830s, after previous royal libraries had been given to the nation.
It is formed from collections of books by George III at Kew and Windsor, and
George IV at Carlton House, and from significant collections of royal books
acquired by gift and purchase in the nineteenth century. It now contains over
200,000 items.
Near this is a well displayed collection of china dinnerware, and
a tiny shop where one can actually buy similar items. I fell into conversation
with the girl behind the counter, marvelling at this little enterprise, and
pointing to a vase-like vessel on the shelf, asked the price; a mere £10,000
and it could be mine. This sort of thing just does not appeal to me; its a
kind of bling, and I am not a bling kind of girl.
St George’s Chapel is the spiritual home of the Order of the Garter,
the oldest order of chivalry in the world, founded by Edward III in 1348. Today
the order consists of the Queen, Prince Charles and twenty four knight
companions. Interestingly there are twenty four retired officers from the
forces living on site who fill in for the real knights during church services and
such. Their remuneration for this stand-in service is free rent. The Queen
herself only attends the church two or three times a year.
I should mention that the while the Castle survived the war
unscathed, it was to suffer greatly fifty years later when a fire broke out in
November 1992. The fire quickly engulfed the roof spaces, destroying the
ceilings and creating much damage to many of the rich decorations. It took
fifteen hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to put it out. The long process
of repair and restoration began immediately, at a cost of £37 million, mainly
met from the admissions to the castle precincts and to Buckingham Palace. Those
in charge of the restoration can be rightly proud of their efforts; had I not
known about this, I would never have guessed.
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| St George's Chapel |
Despite any negative comments you might have picked up on, (the
fact that I am not a royalist probably accounting for some of that) we loved
the castle and were so very glad we had come. After exiting the walls, we
decided to check out Windsor Great Park which extends some miles to the south
of the castle.
The castle grounds cover 13 acres but the Great Park covers a
further 2,020 hectares. It was for many centuries the private hunting ground of
the castle and dated primarily from the mid-13th century.
Today the public can access some of
the park but not all as we learned to our peril. We headed down the Long Walk
which runs in a long straight line from the castle, all the way to the 1829
Copper horse statue of King George III on top of Snow Hill, a distance of 2.65
miles from the castle gates. We walked about half the distance, down between
the avenue of well-established trees, where once there were elms until they
succumbed to Dutch Elm disease about thirty or so years ago. This like the fire
damage is not at all obvious, although perhaps the avenue was more intimate
with three rows of trees on each side in the past, now only having two?
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| The Long Walk to the Castle |
Neither of us felt like continuing on to the Hill to examine the
horse further, so Chris suggested we turn left and follow the edge of the park
around, so as to enjoy other aspects of the public spaces. Without a proper
map, or signage to suggest this was a good or particularly bad idea, I went along
with his plan, and we walked, and walked, and walked for miles and miles and
miles, never able to cut across the park, and often far out of site of the
castle, finally arriving back at the car park where we had left our car. After
two hours of walking, I was stuffed, but I never said a word. But I will say
now, that if you are using this blog as a guide for your own travel planning,
do not turn left at the bottom of the Long Walk when you reach the road; turn
right and return back through Windsor, or retrace your steps toward the castle,
but not, I repeat, do not turn left.
I was happy for us to head home without further ado, however on
the way back, we passed a National Trust sign for Runnymede; another of our
hoped for destinations whilst here in London this time around. We pulled into
the car park, and I agreed that we should explore this while we were here, but
only after we bought an ice cream, at no matter what price, from the tea rooms;
a sugar hit might reinvigorate my engine. Magnums were duly consumed while we
checked out the narrow boats on the River Thames, before we crossed back over
the road and headed for a couple of the memorials.
Runnymede is famous as the meadow where King John sealed the Magna
Carta on 15 June 1215.
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| Part of our own long walk |
There is nothing physical left here, however over the
past century several memorials have been erected to celebrate the spirit of the
signing. There
are two memorials with American links but the most recent is an art work titled
“The Jurors”, and installation of twelve chairs, fashioned by Hew Locke,
commissioned by the Surrey County Council and the National Trust to mark the
800th anniversary. The chairs are each decorated with images and symbols
relating to past and ongoing struggles for freedom, rule of law and equal
rights, an artwork to challenge us to consider the ongoing significant and
influences of Magna Carta. This it does, but as far as an artwork sitting in
the middle of a weedy field, with a few mown strips to facilitate a visit, and
at a cost of god-knows-what, I do wonder. Still it is worth checking out if one
is passing by.
But
then it really was time to head home, the washing done yesterday was well and
truly dry, and dinner needed preparation.
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