Saturday April 25th Warwick Castle

On the way back, we stopped to visit Warwick Castle. It was on a sunny Saturday. We are going to tell you our adventures.
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, in England. It sits on a cliff overlooking a bend in the River Avon. Warwick Castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV. Since its construction in the 11th century, the castle has undergone structural changes with additions of towers and redesigned residential buildings. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey, it was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified, resulting in one of the most recognisable examples of 14th century military architecture. In the 17th century the grounds were turned into a garden. Warwick Castle was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1978 and opened as a tourist attraction. It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a 1st Grade listed building.
Caesar's and Guy's Towers are residential and may have been inspired by French models (for example Bricquebec).

In 1978, Warwick Castle was sold to Tussauds, a large visitor attraction operator. Tussauds performed extensive restorations to the castle and grounds in addition to opening its gates to the public. In 2001, Warwick Castle was named one of Britain's "Top 10 historic houses and monuments" by the British Tourist Authority; the list included Tower of London, Stonehenge, and Edinburgh Castle. Warwick Castle was recognised as Britain's best castle by the Good Britain Guide 2003. In June 2005, Warwick Castle became home to one of the world's largest working siege engines. The trebuchet is 18 metres (59 ft) tall, made from over 300 pieces of oak and weighs 22 metric tons.

At the entrance of the castle, we could see 2 bowmen shooting successively arrows to targets. They discussed about their weapons with the public. They were very talented and impressive. Next we went to see the trebuchet, this animation was very interesting because of the speaker who presented to us the engine : he was enthusiastic, funny, a real “showman”. With an expert of the engine, they shot a 50 kilos rock.

Then, a falconer presented to us some eagles which had come from all around the world. It was impressive because they were fast and because of their wingspan. We could see other birds of prey in their enclosures at the bottom of the park. Many peacocks took a walk on the lawn across the park.

There were very high fortifications. We could take a walk on it and admire the beautiful landscape from the top of the highest tower. There were many information boards too. Somewhere, a sword was in a rock : we could try to take it off as King Arthur did in the legend. Behind the castle, an “engine house” was hidden. It was a paddle which operated.
A lane sent us to the basements where men of wax were dressed in traditional medieval clothes. On the first floor, other wax characters were dressed with XIXth century clothes, but real people were disguised too : some people were surprised and a bit scared . In the “great hall”, the biggest room of the castle, a man dressed as a knight told the children a story of dragons and princesses. When he said “Dragon”, children had to roar, when he said “The knight”, everybody had to say “Yeah”. It was very funny. If you hadn't listened to the whole the story, you could participate

Everybody enjoyed this day and keeps good memories. Noone was forgotten in the gaol (prison)!

By Matthias C., Mickaël and Thomas