Inside the Castle!

Torbay: Berry Pomeroy Castle – Tudor Ruins! (2.4.2024)

During the 1500s, Elizabeth I was an absolute monarch (as was her father – King Henry VIII) – who preferred to live in and around the Nonsuch Park area – including Hampton Court Palace (which is no longer used by the royal family). However, there was once a “Nonsuch Palace” which does not exist today. After Elizabeth I died (1603 CE) – many of the castles she frequented were no long favoured by the royal family – leading to these buildings falling into neglect and ruin. This was the case with Nonsuch Palace which was so badly dilapidate that what was left of it had to be demolished in 1683 CE – for safety reasons – with the ruins being recycled into the constructon (or maintenance) of local buildings.

Banstead Woods and Chipstead Downs! (19.8.2023)

Scattered throughout the woods are characters from the famous children’s fantasy book entitled ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ – written by CS Lewis! Oddly, although we did not intend to find these objects – we discovered them very quickly just by accident! It seems that just by instinct – we took all the right turnings through the woods – and each of these characters suddenly materialised! Banstead is a predominantly ‘White’, middle-class area – so my T-Shirt (AK47 – Killing Capitalists Since 1947) raised a few eyebrows!