Framlingham and Orford Castles

On Wednesday, in the scorching 33 degree heat of the English spring, I was able to take the kids to a couple of castles in Suffolk: Framlingham and Orford. I usually visit these two castles on the same day as they go together historically. I have visited these castles on a couple of occasions previously, but not for at least 30-35 years! The sites have been thoroughly modernised in the intervening years and there is more to see at both sites than I remember seeing when I last went. 

Framlingham Castle was originally built in timber by Roger Bigod in 1101 after being granted the manor by King Henry I. The Bigods were a lowly family when they arrived with William I to conquer England, but rapidly rose to power. The first stone castle was built around 1154 by Roger's son Hugh who, via a variety of machinations and side-swapping during The Anarchy, eventually became powerful enough for King Henry II to want to reclaim East Anglia for himself to reduce the Bigod's power. The king confiscated the castle and all of the other Bigod holdings in Norfolk (this included two other castles (Walton and another) I think) in 1157, but he returned Framlingham in the 1160s. Hugh Bigod did not learn from his mistakes and supported a rebellion against the king in 1173 which was defeated, so lost teg castle again. He died on pilgrimage to Jerusalem around 1176.

Framlingham Castle

Framlingham is also famous for housing Queen Mary during the Lady Jane Grey fracas; it was here that she gathered support and later learned that she was to be crowned the first female monarch of England.

Orford Castle was built by King Henry II to counterbalance the power of Hugh Bigod in East Anglia whilst he reasserted his authority in the region.

Orford Castle

From the top of the castle you can see why the position at Orford was so strategic - the views over the Ness are amazing; you can see for miles. In fact, on a good day and without a few trees in the way you should be able to see Framlingham Castle.

Byrhtnoth and the Battle of Maldon

The second trip out over the school break also included my youngest daughter (who is actually at university) as well as my youngest son. This time we went for something a little closer to home both time-wise and geographically; we went to visit the town and local environs of the Battle of Maldon from late Anglo-Saxon times.

The Ealdorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth, died at the Battle of Maldon on 10/11th August 991 AD and a tragic poem about the event was written in Anglo-Saxon soon after - we still have over 300 lines of it surviving.

The plaque at the bottom of the statue at the end of Maldon promenade.

Our day started by visiting the small museum in Maldon that houses the Maldon Tapestry (really an embroidery). It costs nothing to enter but I left a few pounds in the collection jar to help keep it running. The first two panels were of most interest to me but the rest of the embroidery was worth a look at and a quick read of the guide book the staff lent me explained what everything meant.

The 1st Panel

The 2nd Panel

These first two panels tell the story of Maldon's foundation and the battle that occurred nearby just over one thousand years ago. I won't go into the details as all that history can be found elsewhere on the web.

After spending a little more time looking at a few more of the exhibits we wandered up the road to view a couple of churches. The first had a statue/carving of Byrhtnoth on the outside, whilst the second has the only triangular tower in the UK.

Byrhtnoth carving on a local church

The only triangular church tower in the UK apparently

I had heard internet rumours that there was a stained glass window in his honour in one of the churches, but I was unable to find that on our travels.

Next we headed down to the estuary, via a local bakery where we picked up some lovely cakes for a snack, to the modern statue of the ealdorman at the end of the promenade. This is a nice little walk as it takes in lots of local historical flavour; Thames barges, historical fishing huts and local crafts stalls, as well as lots of places to eat and a huge recreational park.

We got to the end of the promenade and took a few moments to look at the modern bronze statue of Byrhtnoth. The plaque from the first picture is located here (it can be seen just behind the statue, to the right, in the first picture below).

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (front)

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (rear)

The plinth tells the story of the Battle of Maldon

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the sun was very strong today so none of my pictures of the plinth turned out particularly well (the best of them is shown above).

No visit would have been complete without visiting the actual battle site. This was a lot harder to find than initially expected. We looked all over the place but could not find the National Trust sign that I found on the internet that denotes where it is thought the battle took place.

The National Trust sign for the battle site

We found the causeway (or a modernised version of it) and looked around there for several hundred meters in each direction but only found a modern National Trust sign that only mentioned the battle in passing - it was more about the wetlands recovery and bird species in the area (fascinating in its own way but not what I was looking for today). Maybe the above sign has been removed in favour of the newer signage? If anyone knows about this I would love to hear from you about it in the comments.

Northey Island causeway

My daughter was becoming a little tired from all the walking (at least 5 miles was covered today), so only my son and I walked over the causeway (we had to be careful as it was very slippery), but there was nothing within easy reach that was of interest. What looks like water in the above photo is in fact a huge expanse of mud flats as the tide was out at the time of our visit.

We headed back to the car park after the visit, almost exactly three hours after we left (just in time, as the ticket expired after three hours). We chatted about all that we had seen on the walk back but were a little upset by the fact we didn't see the actual battle site according to the missing signage. That said, we were heartened by a comment one of the ladies in the museum made whilst I was chatting to her about the tapestry - a local historian seems to think that the battle site might not have been where The National Trust sign was but further into town, due to the fact a Viking Age (10th century) sword was found at a construction site a few decades back. This may have been a coincidental find, but nothing has been found at the "official" site anyway to corroborate that theory. Something for future historians and archaeologists to ponder?

Like Tuesday's visit to the Ramses exhibition, we had a wonderful day out and caught some of the spring sun's early rays to boot!

Ramses and the Pharaoh's Gold Exhibition

As it was the school holidays last week, I decided to take my youngest son to see the new Ramses and the Pharoah's Gold exhibition at Battersea Power Station in London on Tuesday 7th April 2026. I had kept it a secret from him until the actual day and he only got to know exactly where we were headed when we stepped outside the tube station close by the venue and he saw the advertising signs.

Exhibition Flyer

I have a passing interest in Egyptology and warfare of the time (hence why I generally comment about these kinds of outings on the blog) but I have never actually studied the period. I have various qualifications in Palaeontology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeology and History (mostly Greek, Roman and Medieval), but the nearest I got to studying Egypt was probably just a few modules on the Levant and its environs.

So, this was going to be fairly new ground for me, and I think I was as exited as my son when he finally found out where we were headed this day. The exhibition itself runs through a potted history of Ramses' life and there is a selection of around 180 artifacts related to the 19th Dynasty and a few items from dynasties either side of his reign.

I won't go into too many details just in case anyone wants to see the splendour on offer, but I can say that I heartily recommend this exhibition for those with any interest in the period at all. It is a limited time-span exhibition, so will most likely nothing like it will be seen again in the UK for several years/decades.

That said, in keeping with this blog, there are a few exhibits/items that I would like to mention; there were a couple of weapons alongside the other dazzling golden jewellery on display, and one hall was devoted to the Battle of Kadesh - Ramses great victory over the Hittite Empire.

I was quite surprised to find out that quivers used in Egyptian warfare from this period were made of wood and painted to represent animal hide.

Bow and wooden quiver

There was also a very ornate bronze dagger on display.

Bronze Dagger

Some blurb about the dagger

The photos do not do the dagger justice - it really was a thing of beauty.

Anyway, we both thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition - we were in there for just over two hours. Despite it being a school break visit, it wasn't too busy, so we got the time to explore at our leisure and we were able to see and read about every item in that time. For what it was, it was not too expensive either. Unfortunately the exhibition hard-back guide book (that contains details of all the exhibits in glorious colour) was a little out of my reach at £45 - if I had the money, it would have been a must-have memento.

Historical Holiday interlude

I haven't updated this blog in several years (not since 2020) with details about trips to archaeologically and historically interesting places I have been to whilst on my holidays. Over the last few years I have been to many fantastic sites around Europe and the UK but not blogged about them. They are of interest to me as I studied History and Archaeology at University and I love all things of this nature. I like to see, from the clues these monuments etc. give us, how ancient peoples resolved a variety of issues in their everyday lives. My main focus has generally been on the military, religious and cultural side of things and the impacts that the variety of artifacts, monuments and buildings had on people's lives.

Over the last few years, since I have updated this site with my archaeological visits, I have been to many interesting places, but as they are now too late to report on now, I thought I would start again, if and when I remember, to begin to blog about my latest forays.

Just last week, my partner and I visited Paphos in Cyprus. A short walk or bus journey from our hotel took us to three very interesting, and in some cases remarkably well preserved, sites that were of great interest.

First up we visited the Byzantine castle in Paphos harbour. It has had a very colourful history and was inhabited by a variety of cultures in their turn. There is a small moat around the castle, which cannot be seen from my photographs below, and it is situated on a very defensible spit of land that protects the harbour. It is basically just the shell that is left but most of it is explorable...

Just the other side of the harbour in the Kato Pafos Archaeological Park is the UNESCO listed Greek and Roman town of Nea Pafos. It was most likely built in Ptolemaic times and subsequently added to and/or overbuilt by various inhabitants of the island. It is world-renowned for its surviving mosaics and extensive ruins that can be walked around comfortably in an afternoon (take a sun hat and plenty of water though). I didn't take that many photos of this site as pictures of most of the ruins and mosaics are in a small guidebook that can be picked up for a few Euros in the visitor centre at the site, but thought I would share a couple of views of the amphitheatre as it is so well preserved...

 

Finally, for this trip anyway, we visited another UNESCO site in the shape of The Tombs of the Kings. It is an extensive necropolis, that takes a good few hours to get around if you want to see all of the tombs. Unfortunately, its name does not convey the truth that there were probably no kings interred here; most likely just important members of the more elite families from the area. Again, I didn't take too many photos as the guidebook has plenty. Most of the site looks like the last picture in the sequence below but there are nine (only eight are now labelled and have a QR code on a small post for more information by them) well-preserved sets of tombs that range in complexity from just holes in the hillside to full-on subterranean pillared mausolea...

One thing I noticed about my visit to these sites in Paphos (maybe the same for the rest of Cyprus?) is that the entry fee and literature for these sites is extremely cheap compared to the equivalent of a UK based site. I think that the authorities who own these sites need to monetise them more (but not theme park them) to bring in more revenue to continue their work (there is a lot of excavation work still to be done at Nea Pafos and the Tombs of the Kings) and to maybe give more of a visitor experience - there are very few information boards (although there are QR codes available for more info, see above) which would help casual visitors to appreciate the sites more. On the other hand, those types of information boards can lead to the site being slightly "spoilt". Either way, more money would mean more excavation can be carried out and more could be learned from these fantastic monuments.

Mountfitchet Castle

Yesterday, we decided to take the kids to Mountfitchet Castle near Stansted in Essex. I had never heard of this historic monument until Saturday, so when my better half suggested we go visit, I jumped at the chance. It is only just down the road from our new home, so it is most likely going to be a well-visited site over the coming years. We were a little worried about the weather when we set out, but it turned out to be gloriously bright and sunny (if a little cold) and made for a grand day out.

The site comprises of a reconstruction of the castle as it may have been in around 1066 when William the Conqueror invaded, as well as a toy museum and haunted house to keep everyone busy. The main reason I wanted to go was for the castle reconstruction, but the kids loved it too, as well as all the other attractions.

The plan, found at the entrance, is not fully accurate to what lies within, but is near enough and gives an idea of what can be found within the bounds of the perimeter walls. We explored pretty much every part of the site that we could (although a little too quickly for my liking) and I managed to grab a ton of photos to use as source material (as well as picking up their little guide book as a keep sake).

I wasn't sure what to display here on the blog as a memento of my visit, as I have so many photos to choose from, so thought I would shine a light on some of the more grand stuff...

On the way up the hill from the visitor centre is the pallisade wall and a variety of watchtowers...

The most spectacular building was the Grand Hall where Robert Gernon, Duke of Boulogne, ruled his barony from...

And on the inside we can see that Norman residences were far from dingy and plain; starting with the banqueting hall...

...and the lord's chambers...

Most medieval professions are represented within the wooden walls of the fortress, but I thought that the blacksmith's was the most impressive building after the grand hall...

I took other photos of this building, but this one really shows how impressive medieval construction was. I really like the way that the roof is slatted/tiled with wooden planks, thatched and then topped off with more wooden slatting. The "dragon" decoration (head at the front of the building, tail at the back) really set things off for me.

What I found especially interesting about most of the buildings was the way they were finished and then allowed to age. The site has been standing for around 35 years and from what I can see, left to the elements. The white-washed buildings have begun to discolour, with many walls turning greyish, and the woodwork has aged especially, and faded to a light grey/sandy brown colour (like most aged wood). This made me wonder how often the Normans would have replaced the wood, and whether wood weakened with age and perhaps the weathering made things more brittle. This is something I will need to look into another day.

I would recommend a visit to this reconstructed motte and bailey timber castle if you are interested in history in action. Our visit was only a very brief one, with only a couple of hours actually looking at the site - the rest of the day was spent in the various haunted houses and the toy museum. Next time, I can spend a lot more of my day exploring each of the buildings in turn in a lot more detail.

Mountfitchet Castle, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex CM24 8SP  England
Note: Sat Nav - use the postcode CM24 8LY

Stonehenge

Stonehenge - 4th April 2016

It was an overcast day today, but we still decided to head on down to Stonehenge as the Easter holidays draw to a close. It was spitting with rain when we got there, but everyone was up for the visit.

We decided to go straight to the stones to see how the new layout looked. The visitor centre is now a fair distance from the remains so a hopper bus is laid on to transport everyone to the monument if so required. The mini-bus runs to within a few hundred metres of the monument but the rest of the way can be walked quite easily. The old road that used to run beside the stones has been removed and the landscape is looking a lot better now that the surroundings have been returned to "native" plains/grass/scrubland. The main road, the A303, is still there in the background but now seems to be a lot less intrusive. Visitors are still not allowed to enter the henge or stone circles contained within, but the outer-rim grass walkway is just the right distance away to still get some decent shots of the monument.

The old visitor path still crosses the henge's ditch and bank like it used to so one can get a little closer to the stones at that point, and the entry way to the monument now has a new environmentally friendly path that runs past the Heel Stone. There are some new visitor information points with lots of text and pictures to explain what one is looking at.

After spending a good half-an-hour walking around the monument, we decided to head back to the Exhibition Centre. We hopped back on the courtesy bus and had a quick look in the hall. There is not a great deal in there but just enough to pass half-an-hour comfortably without getting too bored or snowed under by umpteen musty display cabinets. Everything is now high-tech and displayed in a coherent and east to understand way. The two shows in the main auditorium and hall are short enough to keep the kids enthralled without the chance to get bored.

We then spent a little time in the gift shop where all sorts of goodies are on offer; there is the usual cheap tat, but also some very interesting books, clothing and ornaments. The gift shop is laid out in a way that they are bound to make loads of money (that is now required more than ever as English Heritage is now a charity and not a government run department). We bought a few items; the ubiquitous guide book, activity and pop-up books for the kids, and a t-shirt for our youngest.

Finally, we headed to the restaurant/canteen to grab a coffee for Mrs. Odo and a sandwich for our eldest daughter (she didn't fancy what we had brought for her in the packed lunch). This is where the attraction makes a lot of its money - the food and drink is very expensive. I am so glad we brought a packed lunch. We retired to the car to eat it and then headed on home.

All in all, it was a pleasant few hours to spend at an awe-inspiring monument that I have great affinity for.

Lullingstone Roman Villa

The weather was terrible this morning; it rained constantly from the moment we left the house for the kids' weekly Junior Park Run until the early afternoon. I have been doing the Saturday morning adult Park Run for just over two years and just recently they started up one for the under 14s, so it was a natural progression to take my two youngest along for a weekly dose of fresh air and exercise.

After returning home and getting showered etc. I decided I fancied going out and doing something with the family for the day that did not cost too much. My wife agreed and, as we are English Heritage members that narrowed down our choices and the weather did the rest. We wanted something that was indoors and not too far away. As we hadn't been to Lullingstone Villa for a few years, we decided to go there as it ticked all the boxes (inside, not too far away etc.).

The last time we went to this villa my youngest was just three years old, so this was like a new experience for him. As (bad?) luck would have it, the rain stopped just as we arrived and the sun came out. The air conditioned hangar the villa is situated in made for a different kind of refuge; rather than an escape from the rain, it proved to be an escape from the now hot and humid weather. Anyway, we had a great time looking at the ruins and running through the quiz sheets the youngest kids were handed, and then we watched the film about the site.

Basically, the first stage of the villa was built circa AD 100. A bath house complex and an extra north wing were added between AD 150 and 275, but the wing was then superceded by a heated room and kitchen complex in around AD 275 to 350. With the coming of Christianity, the villa went through one final phase around AD 360 where the latest version of the wing was converted to a house-church and a half-round apse was added to create an extensive audience chamber/dining room. The villa fell into disuse probably as the result of a fire.

We had a great time at the villa and I hope the kids learned something long lasting.

We have decided to try to get to a few more archaeological/historical sites over the coming summer holidays.

Lullingstone Roman Villa

It was a bright, sunny day today here in the wilds of Kent, so I gathered up the tribe to repel those Imperialistic Roman invaders. As the fortresses around here are a bit beyond the ferocity of even my tribe, it was decided over the plum duff to take in force one of the local villas. We pored over the map for indications of weakness and planned our attack with precision...

We would head for Lullingstone Roman Villa located in Eynsford, Kent.

We haven't had a day out with the kids in ages, and as the sun was shining today (we have had solid rain for the last week and a half) we decided to head on out for a bit of fun and education. I have been to this villa on several occasions and many years ago, on its grand re-opening, I was invited along with the rest of my archaeological research group to a cheese and wine party.

It is a grand villa with a very fine central mosaic (part of which is shown above). The new(ish) display hall has plenty for the kids to see and do, and kept my lot entertained for an hour and a half - not bad considering my youngest is only 3. The gift shop has been revamped and includes lots of goodies, so we were able to grab a handful of cakes on the way out for chomping in the car on the way home. I also picked up a bottle of plum wine and spelt beer to have with my cheese, biscuits and pickles tonight whilst slumped in front of the TV - heaven!

A Week Away

Last week Mrs Odo and I took the brood away for a bit of RnR. We visited Ambleside in Cumbria again. We have been to the Lake District on several occasions now as we all love it there and it is good for our household budget (renting a cottage is a lot cheaper than staying in hotels).

We did all the usual stuff for the kids including the boat ride on Windemere, a train journey on the Haverthwaite steam railway and so on, but for entry onto the blog my little historical/archaeological days out are more appropriate.

Luckily Mrs Odo was 'into' the historical stuff more this time around and I got two days out to visit sites. On the first of these two days, we managed to visit Brougham Castle (see new blog photo), Mayburgh Henge and Arthur's Round Table. On the second day we visited Lanercost Priory, Banks Tower (on Hadrian's Wall) and Birdoswald.

Brougham Castle proved to be very popular with the children as they could run around and explore the remains of a well preserved castle. Originally built in the 12th Century, it served as a border castle well into the 17th Century. Just down the road from here were a couple of Neolithic sites that I had wanted to see for decades.

Mayburgh Henge has a very impressive bank but only a solitary standing stone left in the centre. It is wierd for not having any ditches associated with it. Henges are named so because of the bank and ditch systems; Stonehenge is not actually the rings of impressive standing stones but the ditch and bank around it - the stones are supplementary to rather than the actual henge monument. That said, common parlance says that the whole monument is the henge  - who am I to argue with such impressive structures and their designated nomenclature? I will be visiting Stonehenge soon as they are redesigning the whole site for a totally new experience. Anyway, back to Mayburgh Henge, here is a picture of the standing stone that also gives some idea of the bank's size in the background. Even more impressive considering it was made of pebbles from teh local river as opposed to being dug up from the surrounding earth.

 

Here is a photo of the blurb associated with the site. I am not sure if I am allowed to reproduce it here, but I am using it purely for eductaional purposes - more of you out there should go visit these wonderful sites. Hopefully some of my non-UK readers will find the data of interest too.

Just down the road from the castle and henge mentioned above is Arthur's Round Table. This is a henge in the true sense of the word - banks and ditches. I am not sure if the photo below does it any favours, but I found it a fantastic monument even though it is just a series of earthworks. The large circular flat area in the centre (left of picture) was assumed to be where King Arthur jousted with his fellow knights. All poppycock of course, but a wonderful story about how people try to explain unusual formations in the landscape or stories from their past.

Lanercost Priory on our second day's worth of visits proved to be popular with the kids again - lots of room to run around and explore. It was an interesting site in that so much of it was preserved following the devastation imposed on religious houses during the reign of Henry VIII, and the fact it had the local parish church still operating within its grounds. Continuity at this site is very impressive.

Leaving the priory behind, we drove a little further up the road and called off at one of the better preserved towers that are still extant along the length of Hadrian's Wall. Banks Tower is so called due to its close proximity to Banks village a few hundred yards down the road from it. It is very small, but would have provided a small contingent of troops to patrol the wall as well as being a possible site for a signal beacon to warn of the approach of potential enemies. From a mock up of a wall tower at Birdoswald, the height of the wall and tower would have provided a difficult challenge to any who tried to cross the border at this point.

Our final destination was Birdoswald - another Roman fortress situated along Hadrian's Wall. We have been here before (last time we went to The Lakes we saw a Border Reivers show put on by English Heritage and a re-enactment society - in fact one of my previous blog title photos was of a couple of the chaps from the society having a barney). I didn't take any photos this time around as I have plenty from the last time, and I only wanted to put up details of new places I had visited. Maybe I will run some galleries at a later date of my historical and archaeological travels.

We have stayed in Ambleside on three occasions now and every time we go I try to visit the Roman remains there. Each time I always seem to miss out on them. Perhaps if we stayed somewhere else next time we visit Cumbria I would find the opportunity to go visit - it seems that if something is on your doorstep, you are less inclined to visit it as you have "plenty of time" and it is "just around the corner". I can say the same for sites local to where I live too!

The Real Doggerland

I was reading the Metro (a free daily newspaper in the UK) on the way to work a few weeks back and came across the following article, which I duly cut out and scanned into my computer. It is a very simplistic view of what Doggerland may have looked like but I thought I'd share it. I have studied this prehistoric landscape in more detail whilst taking a Prehistoric Archaeology diploma at night classes. A lot more has been found out about Doggerland recently, after several sea-bed scans have been made. I based my game map on a map from an 'offical' website, but amended it somewhat for gameplay. Anyway, enjoy the article for an insight into what drew me into using Doggerland as a game setting.

Doggerland, for me though, is a somewhat Howardian Hyperborea. A time when ancient empires were growing from the wandering tribes as they started to settle down. The tribes in my Doggerland are more advanced technologically than the people of the real land bridge; I see them more as what we would now call 'Ancients' - Bronze/Early Iron Age people with a smattering of magic thrown in. However, this all came to an end for the peoples of Doggerland with a great deluge, which swept away any vestiges of civilisation they had, plungeing the rest of the world back into a Mesolithic Age.

On the theme of 'cave-men', here are a couple I picked up many moons ago from Denizen (I think). I painted them yesterday and based and varnished them today.

I have started to put some paint onto a few more Roman figures, but next up should be some fantasy figures.

Dover Castle - 18th August 2011

The wife and I took the kids to Dover Castle yesterday. This prompted me to change the look of the blog with a new photo I took there of the Great Hall (in its newly redecorated format). The last time I went there was when Alex was about two or three years old, but before Amelia was born. A great deal has changed since then.

Due to the boredom thresholds of the kids we managed to get quite a bit done considering; the Anglo-Saxon church, the Roman pharos, the Norman keep and a bit of the grounds. We will be saving the rest of the site for another day. Here are a few photos of the site ...

This is a view from the overspill car park - the castle in its entirety...

Here is a view of the keep from below a quite formidable later battlement...

The central bailey defences and great keep...

The Roman Pharos dated to the First Century AD. It is an empty shell, but it is quite easy to envisage how it would have been used from the stone work that is left...

Here are some internal shots of the new exhibition and the church ...

First up, here is the beautiful santuary altar of the rebuilt Anglo-Saxon church...

This is the newly renovated Great Hall...

Now, I am not sure exactly whose bed this is - I think it is in the Queen's chamber...

And this is the bed in the King's chamber...

I think they have done a splendid job of the renovation. There are reenactors running their roles throughout the castle as well as interactive computerised gadgets for the technically savvy (and kids) to enjoy.

All in all, it was well worth the visit, but the price tag for non-members may be a little steep, especially if they have a family in tow. Due to the price of the cafes we decided to grab fish and chips in a small town nearby and the price to feed the family in a fish and chip restaurant was cheaper than to buy them tea and cakes in the cafes at the castle - and I think they enjoyed the hot meal more sitting on the beach at Walmer watching the people walk past the Henrican castle there listening to their boring dad telling them the story of the ghost ships that appear on the sands off-shore at full moon.