• England Guide

  • Introduction to England
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore England

  • Kent and Sussex
  • Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire
  • Oxfordshire, the Chilterns and the Cotswolds
  • Bristol, Bath and Somerset
  • Devon and Cornwall
  • East Anglia
  • The West Midlands and the Peak District
  • The East Midlands
  • The Northwest
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  • Yorkshire
  • The Northeast

• Cities

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England Guide

Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire

Corfe Castle

The romantic ruins crowning the hill behind the village of CORFE CASTLE (daily: March & Oct 10am–5pm; April– Sept 10am–6pm; Nov– Feb 10am–4pm; £5.30; NT) are perhaps the most evocative in England. The family seat of Sir John Bankes, Attorney General to Charles I, this Royalist stronghold withstood a Cromwellian siege for six weeks, gallantly defended by Lady Bankes. One of her own men, Colonel Pitman, eventually betrayed the castle to the Roundheads, after which it was reduced to its present gap-toothed state by gunpowder.

The village is well stocked with tearooms and gift shops and has a couple of good pubs too: the Fox on West Street, and, below the castle ramparts, the Greyhound. There's comfortable accommodation at Westaway, 88 West St ( 01929/480188, www.westaway-corfecastle.co.uk ; no credit cards; Price: £51-60), a B&B five minutes from the castle, with a garden and views of the Purbeck Hills.