Image Description (Alt text): An artist's illustration of a pelican, carved into a column of the keep at Corfe Castle.
Audio track transcript:
"You see prestige, power – all I see in these walls is a prison. Eleanor of Brittany. Rightful Queen. So-called-King John killed my brother, Arthur, in France. Took me prisoner, back to Corfe, along with 22 knights. They all starved to death. John saw me as a threat, so I hold the sad record of the country’s longest imprisoned royal. 40 years in captivity.
Fine, fine… a quick tour...This tower ran 23 metres above the hilltop, and the whole thing was limewashed. Protected it from rain, and made it visible for miles. You have your skyscrapers, we have our keeps. It took ten years to complete, rising 3-4 metres a year. Think: vertical palace. A waiting room ahead of you, basement below. Chamber on the main floor, for assembly and banqueting. The King’s quarters above that.
Decoration here was colourful and costly – woven tapestries and wall hangings covering cold stone.Those gaps ahead housed massive beams, carrying the earthenware tiles or stone flags of the Dining Hall floor. That crack reflects poorly on the builders. Subsidence, from the start. I’m told they had to change construction plans halfway through, buttress the building, spread the weight of the masonry. That semicircle scored into the wall may be part of a structure that supported access to a barrel vault below.
One more thing. Look east from where you’re standing – high, on the upper floor, to what used to be a door. At the top of the righthand column, there’s a carving of a pelican, with chicks. Pretty common religious symbol in my day. That’s where our chapel was.
But don’t pray for me, it’s too late. Just continue up through the Keep, then down into the ‘Gloriette’."