The Castle Library

By Chris Livemore 1066 was a rather big year for castles in England. Before this date there were roughly four castles found throughout the whole country. By 1100, just thirty-four years later, there were around five hundred! That's five hundred in just over three-decades. Imagine that level of efficiency in modern England (yes I agree that might be a step too far anyones imagination these days!). The country had never seen anything quite like them. The speed, the scale and th

I have lived within reasonable distance of Colchester for most of my adult life, I even studied at the University of Essex between 2000-2004. For those unfamiliar with Colchester it is the oldest recorded town in Britain, a former Roman capital, a medieval fortress city, a place with two thousand years of documented history sitting quietly underneath a modern high street. It has a castle that William the Conqueror built on the foundations of a Roman temple. It has walls that

My daughter asked me this question a few weeks ago. She is a very smart five year old, she takes her dragon research extremely seriously and was seemingly preparing a full report to her younger brother based on my answer. She was looking at me with the particular expression she reserves for questions she already thinks there's going to be a very silly answer. It was time to not disappoint her! So, I considered my options. I could have mentioned Basildon on a Friday night. I h

By Chris Livemore It is January 878 AD. The greatest Viking warlord in England launches a surprise midwinter attack on the Saxon king’s base at Chippenham. The king, caught off guard, his army scattered, flees into the freezing Somerset marshes absolutely defeated. He is hiding in a swamp. He has lost almost everything. And he is the reason England exists as it does today. His name is Alfred. But you may know his as Alfred the Great - the only English monarch ever to receive

By Fire Pud the Dragon, Mythical Creature Expert and Castle Historian Everyone knows of a dragon, take me as a prime example. Everyone knows of a unicorn. Everyone knows of a GIANT. But the history of mythology, from Norse sagas to Scottish folklore to the ancient legends of the British Isles, is stuffed with creatures that didn't make it into the mainstream. Stranger, funnier and considerably more alarming than anything in a standard fairy tale collection. Some so fearsome y

By Chris Livemore There is a moment, when you walk through the gatehouse of a genuinely old castle with a small child, that is unlike almost anything else you can experience. They actually go quiet. Not bored quiet. Not tired quiet. Proper, full-body awe quiet. It's amazing. The sudden realisation that this enormous stone place has been standing for nearly a thousand years, which is older than the Aztec Empire. That real people lived here, argued here, defended it, built it,

By Chris Livemore In an earlier blog I clearly established, with well-documented evidence and equal measures of relief, that I am categorically not from the olden days (hooray) - this is despite my daughters ongoing insistence (she's not going to do well at Christmas this year). The medieval period ended five hundred years ago. I was not there. I was not even close to being there. That is well-evidenced. Jack the Good Knight, however, absolutely was. Initially, Jack lived som