Bodiam and Leeds castles are both in water: Bodiam is elegant; Leeds has a large park. Dover is a real castle, for war.
Bodiam castle
Bodiam gives me a very elegant impression: A small castle sitting on water; round towers at the four corners; square towers at four entrances, and crenellations top all the way around the castle.
There is only a wooden bridge connecting with the outside land, which is an ideal design for defense.
Yes Bodiam Castle was indeed built for defense. In 1385 Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a knight of Edward III, started the construction of Bodiam. He got the permission of the later king Richard II for building a castle to defend the possible coming French invasion during the Hundred Years' War. However French has never reached Bodiam in the Hundred Years' War.
Looking at the outside of Bodiam, it is hard to imagine that its inside has almost ruined. I was very curious who damaged it and at when.
Apparently Bodiam has went through several wars. After the Hundred Years' War, Bodiam was involved into the Wars of the Roses. The owner in that period, Sir Thomas Lewknor supported the House of Lancaster, who was the final victor. But before that, their enemy Richard III from the House of York became king in 1483, and sent a force to besiege Bodiam. It is thought that Bodiam surrendered without much resistance, which I considered to be no big damage to the castle.
The next one was the English Civil War from 1641, Bodiam was own by Lord Thanet, who supported the "wrong side": the Royalist. We know Parliament won at the end, and then Bodiam was subsequently dismantled and left ruin. What we see today was already partially restored by John Fuller after he bought it in 1829. The two following owners the 1st Baron Ashcombe George Cubitt, and Lord Curzon both continued further restoration work. In 1925, the last owner Lord Curzon donated Bodiam to the National Trust, hence it became open to the public.
As a castle built for defeating French, it has never fight with French, but was damaged in civil wars. Sounds like many other stories happened and being happening all around this world.
Leeds castle
The current Leeds castle was not the original one, but mostly from the 19th century. The most origin Leeds castle was built before 1119, and during the time changing the castle has changed its looking many times. In the museum of Leeds castle, there is a very lively cartoon showing how the architecture changed by time.
⬇️Still some older part remaining
Similar with Bodiam castle, Leeds castle is also on water inside a lake, connecting with the land by a bridge.
But Leeds is far bigger than Bodiam, therefore I think a bird-view photo would be very useful for having an idea of the architectures, so I cited below image from wikipedia.
⬇️Photograph by Barbara van Cleve "CC BY-SA 3.0"
⬇️The bridge connecting the island in the lake
⬇️The island inside the lake
⬇️The back side of the castle
Leeds castle not only has a castle, it has a huge park! Including the parkland on the island inside the lake, there is more than 2 km^2 area with gardens and parklands, where live many birds including owls.
There is also a maze. It was raining heavily when we visited there, so we didn't explore the maze, neither watch the owl show. Leeds castle does not sell one-time ticket, instead they sell yearly ticket (24 pounds per person), so we plan to go back in Summer, if we have time. Presumably the gardens will be very lovely in Summer.
The most famous owner of Leeds castle was Henry VIII, who used it as a residence for his first wife, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII seemed to appear everywhere in England.
The last personal owner of Leeds castle is Lady Baillie. She and her daughters converted the castle to a hospital and hosted burned airmen during the early time of World War II. When Lady Baille died in 1974, she left the castle to the Leeds Castle Foundation Upon, which is a private charitable trust. Otherwise we will not be able to see it open to public today.
I do not know if it is because the managing trust is a private trust, Leeds castle seems to put a lot of effort on the decorations. They changed some of the indoor decorations according to different festivals. We visited there in January 2 this year, there are Christmas trees everywhere including a huge one with 2 layers tall near a staircase. In one room, people were encouraged to write down their wishes on paper with music note shape, and hang them on the Christmas tree. But the most impressive thing to me is that they have many delicate Christmas cribs made by paper cutting.
⬇️Christmas cribs by paper cutting
Dover castle
Dover castle is a real castle. When I say real, I meant a castle for defending enemy for nearly 1000 years, mainly against the French, as Dover is the most close city to France across the English Channel. Dover Castle is called the "Key to England".
The site of Dover castle was said to be fortified earlier than the Iron Age, before the Romans invaded England in AD43. There was also a surviving Roman lighthouses (or Pharoses) nearby. But the first castle was built in the 11th century.
Dover Castle is a also the largest castle in England. I found it very hard to have a clear image of Dover Castle in my brain, maybe because it was expanded piece by piece during the time being, without a clear overall design in the sense of art.
I visited the castle 3 years ago, now I could not remember many details about it. But I do remember the lift-up front gate, and inside the castle there are many dark and moldy corridors and stairways, and long and narrow windows for shooting. All these clearly showed Dover castle is not a place for lord to enjoy life, but a tough place for defense.
⬇️The gate can be lifted up
⬇️dark and moldy corridor
⬇️long and narrow windows for shooting
The routes inside the castle is very complicated. There are two large halls which were decorated in the medieval style, and some actors are acting as the lord and the servers. I remembered when I arrived at the second hall, I thought it was the first one I have been to, but it was actually another one in a different direction. Obviously I could not tell where I have been when I was inside the castle.
Above all, the most impressive thing for me was the "secret" underground tunnels. The first tunnel was build at the First Barons' War in 1216, when a group of English barons who disliked the current king, and "invited" the future Louis VIII of France to take England. When French surrounded Dover Castle, English defenders made a tunnel all the way though outwards and attacked the French as a "surprise".
During the Napoleonic Wars, new tunnels were created to accommodate
soldiers, the peak time there were more than 2,000 men in this underground barrack.
⬇️"secret" underground tunnels
After being abandoned for a century, the tunnels were put into work again in the Second World War since 1939, this time as air-raid shelter, and then later as military command centre and underground hospital.
Because of the requirement of military telephone service for the headquarters, a new tunnel was needed to keep the batteries and chargers under the switchboards. Nowadays these tunnels were open to the public, but only with the official guilders.
They also played some documentary videos about what happened in Dover during world war II during the visit. I remember there was a German looking family, parents with two little kids, who were sitting next to us and watching the video very calmly. This gave me some thoughts. The relationship between Germany and England in World War II is similar with that between Japan and China. Nowadays many Japanese do not know what did Japan do on China in World War II, or they do not want to know. In another hand, every Chinese learnt that history very very well. This makes the conflict. The tone of the documentary video we watched in Dover, is very calm, almost without standpoint. I meant that the tone they talk about the history sounds like the speakers were neither English or German. Imagine if I am a German child, I would much prefer the calm documentary rather than an emotional movie, after all no one want to, and no one should, carry on the debt from the ancestors. Telling the history in a calm way is better for both sides.
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