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Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle is a village, civil parish and ruined castle, in the English county of Dorset. The castle dates back to the 11th century, and commands a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. All road traffic to and from the Swanage area passes below the battlements of the castle. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight kilometres (five miles) south-east of Wareham, and the same distance west of Swanage. Both the current main A351 road to Swanage and the Swanage Railway thread their way through the gap and the village.

The civil parish of Corfe Castle stretches across the width of the Isle of Purbeck, with coasts facing both the English Channel and Poole Harbour. It therefore includes sections of both the low lying sandy heathland that lies to the north of the castle, and the rugged Jurassic Coast upland to the south.

History

Burial mounds around the common of Corfe Castle suggest that the area was occupied from 6000BC. The common also points to a later Celtic field system worked by the Durotriges tribe. Evidence suggests that the tribe co-existed with the Romans in a trading relationship following the Roman invasion c. 50AD.

The name "Corfe" is derived from the Saxon word for gap.

From the 1796 Corfe Castle Census of the 96 men involved in local industries and living in the town, 55 were clay cutters. These men worked in the nearby pits at Norden supplying Purbeck Ball Clay to Josiah Wedgwood and other pottery manufacturers. Clay extraction continued to provide a major employment for the local population until the 20th century.

Geography

The parish of Corfe Castle (area 37.45 km²) encompasses a broad swath of the Isle of Purbeck. To the south it includes the smaller village of Kingston and a section of the Jurassic Coast facing the English Channel. To the north it includes a large area of heathland stretching as far as the southern shore of Poole Harbour, where Furzey, Green, Long and Round islands also form part of the parish. The village is constructed almost completely from the local grey Purbeck limestone and comprises two main streets, East Street and West Street, linked at their north end at the Square.

Landmarks

The National Trust runs a shop and a tearoom in the village. The Corfe Model Village, located on the village square, is a 1/20 scale model that shows what the castle and village would have looked like in 1646 before the castle was slighted. Within the Church of St. Edward is an alabaster reredos inset with carvings in white marble, designed by the famous Victorian architect George Edmund Street R.A., which was presented by Lord Eldon in 1876. A cross in the square commemorates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee of 1897.

Corfe castle

The oldest surviving structure on the castle site dates to the 11th century, although evidence exists of some form of stronghold predating the Norman Conquest. Edward the Martyr was assassinated at the site on March 18, 978.

Construction of a stone hall and inner bailey wall occurred in the 11th century and extensive construction of other towers, halls and walls occurred during the reigns of Henry I, John and Henry III. By the 13th century the castle was being used as a royal treasure storehouse and prison. The castle remained a royal fortress until sold by Elizabeth I in the 16th century to her Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton.

The castle was bought by Sir John Bankes, Attorney General to Charles I, in 1635. During the English Civil War, the castle twice came under siege by Parliamentarian forces. Sir John Bankes was away from his estate attending to Charles I so defence of the castle was led by his wife Lady Mary Bankes — "Brave Dame Mary" as she became known.

The first siege, in 1643, lasted for six weeks before the Parliamentarians withdrew with the loss of 100 men. The second siege, in 1646, was resisted for two months before the castle was betrayed by a member of the garrison. After its capture, the castle was slighted (destroyed) with some explosives and mainly by undermining to ensure that it could never stand again as a Royalist stronghold. In the centuries that followed, the local populace took advantage of this easy source of building material and masonry; door frames and other items originally from the castle can be seen in a number of nearby houses.

After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Bankes family regained their properties. Rather than rebuild or replace the ruined castle they chose to build a new house at Kingston Lacy on their other Dorset estate near Wimborne Minster.

In the 1980s, Ralph Bankes bequeathed the entire Bankes estate to the National Trust, including Corfe Castle, much of the village of Corfe, the family home at Kingston Lacy, and substantial property and land holdings elsewhere in the area. The castle is open to the public, receiving 168,377 visitors in 2004, and is a grade I listed building. As of summer 2006, the dangerous condition of the keep had caused it to be closed to visitors, who may only visit the walls and inner bailey. The National Trust is undertaking an extensive conservation project on the castle, and the keep is expected to re-open to visitors in summer 2008.

During the restoration work, an "appearance" door was found in the keep, designed for Henry I. The National Trust claims that this indicates that the castle would have been one of the most important in England at the time.

Governance

The former royal status of Corfe meant that it existed as a borough electing two members of parliament. In the 17th and 18th centuries, with the Bankes's owning much of the property and thereby controlling most of the votes, the town was a rotten borough. The Bankes family was able to ensure that at least one of the MPs returned to the House of Commons was a member of the family or a Bankes nominee. The Reform Act 1832 abolished the rotten boroughs and Corfe lost its direct representation. The village and castle were part of Corfe Castle hundred.

The parish now forms part of the Purbeck local government district. It is within the South Dorset constituency of the House of Commons and the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.

Demography

As of the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 1,429 living in 701 dwellings. Pensioner households made up 36 per cent of the population.

Transport

The main route through the village is East Street which forms part of the A351 main road taking traffic to Wareham in the north and Swanage in the south. Separating the two streets is an area of common land called "the Halves".

Corfe Castle railway station lies to the east of East Street, adjacent to the village centre. Originally the only intermediate station on the London and South Western Railway's branch line from Wareham to Swanage, the station is now a stop on the Swanage Railway, a steam locomotive operated heritage railway. The railway links the tourist centres of Corfe Castle and Swanage with each other, and with a Park and Ride site at Norden station just to the north of Corfe Castle.

Sports

Poole athletic club organised the infamous multi-terrain cross county race known as The Beast. The race starts in Corfe Castle and follows tracks to the Purbeck coastal path, along to Chapman's Pool and the "famous" steps of Houns Tout, before returning back to Corfe Castle. The race is held the weekend following the August Bank Holiday.

Notable residents

The village was for many years the residence of composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.

Cultural references

Keith Roberts, an English science fiction writer living nearby set his novel Pavane partly around the castle and similar events in an alternate history.

The children's author Enid Blyton spent time in the area and some of her adventure stories like The Famous Five (Kirrin Island) featured castles that were said to be based on Corfe Castle.

The juxtaposition of castle and steam train at Corfe Castle is familiar to many television viewers throughout Southern England, as it features in the opening sequences of the BBC's South Today regional news programme along with the official train.