WEBVTT - Bodiam Castle 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.400 of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.320 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Uh, Tracy, 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:19.160 I have in the that we haven't really covered an 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.160 iconic place in a while. Yeah, we talked a little 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.240 about Griffith Park, but that was more about Griffith J. Griffith. Yeah. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.200 So I went through my list for one and I 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.639 landed at Bodium Castle, which has been on there for 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.120 a while. And I had to give the true confession 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.600 up front. There are people listening who might already know this. Uh, 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:38.600 this castle came to my attention for sort of a 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.000 silly reason, and I'm gonna save that silly reason for 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:46.000 the end because it is a very small, silly reason 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:47.760 and it doesn't really have anything to do with the 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.200 castle's history. Uh. This castle is pretty unique in its 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.800 design and the extent to which the grounds surrounding it 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.400 are all part of that design. And it is also 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.800 closely tied to the very turbulent ariad in England's history 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.520 that runs from the Hundred Years War through the War 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.120 of the Roses, including the Peasants Revolt, which may have 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.399 influenced the castle's construction and how it was designed. It 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.679 is also tied to the lives of a lot of people, 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.040 as you might suspect for something that is this old. 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.160 But there is one man in particular, Sir Edward dallen Gridge, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.640 who is kind of synonymous with the castle, so it becomes, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.720 at least in part, a story about his life. And 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.480 what I really love is that this is one of 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.000 those cases where even in recent years, this medieval structure 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.960 has continued to yield some surprises. I know what the 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:41.920 surprises are, and I'm really excited. They're very cool. Yeah. 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.759 The location of the land that Bodiam Castle sits on 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.400 has a long history of being recognized as valuable. It 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:54.000 sits on the River Rother. That river runs roughly horizontally 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.559 connecting East Sussex to the English Channel, kind of the 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.320 east to west situation, and it was valued because it 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.640 was wide enough to be a trading river when the 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.600 Romans invaded Britain in forty three. After the Romans, there 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.359 were early English settlers in the region who probably named 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.960 the place Bodha's Ham as an hamlet village, and then 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.840 that name eventually morphed into Bodium. But the person whose 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.920 name is most closely associated with the castle, as we said, 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.800 is Sir Edward dalen Gridge. Dalen Gridge was not in 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.960 a good place to inherit in the birth order. He 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:32.320 was the youngest son in his family. The family estate 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.480 was going to pass to his older brothers. He was born, 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.400 most likely in thirty six, to father Roger dalen Gridge 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.840 and mother Alice Rattingdon. This was a point when the 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:47.440 family was actually rising in position. Edward's grandfather John had 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.480 married up, so to speak, when he wed Joana Lynde, 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.720 increasing the family's landholdings, and Roger had made a similar 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.360 lucrative move when he married Alice. And his teen years 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.359 Edward dalen Gridge was already engaged as a soldier. His father, Roger, 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.440 was a knight under Queen Philippa, and in thirteen fifty 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.519 nine Edward accompanied his father in service to the Earl 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.800 of Arundel when their company went into France during a conflict. 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.480 This was the start of a long career of military service, 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.280 and Edward became a knight in the thirteen sixties. Yeah, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.920 if you're doing the math there, that puts him at 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.280 thirteen when he is going on these military missions with 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.840 his father, which was in fact the case, although he 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.640 didn't become knighted obviously until he was a little more adult. 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.880 Just as his father and grandfather had bolstered the family 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.600 fortune through marriage, Edward in turn married a woman from 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.000 a more prosperous family than his own, that was Elizabeth Wardeux. 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.920 Edward's marriage had been arranged by his father Roger, and 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.400 Elizabeth's father, John Ward, died in thirteen seventy seven. At 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.200 this point, Edward came into possession of a number of 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:56.280 parcels of land, including a manner at bodium Um. You 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.600 will see different calculations of the size of the acreage 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.280 of the properties, because obviously those property lines don't really 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.720 exist anymore. I have seen everything from seven hundred and 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.360 fifty acres too far larger, So a lot of land. 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.160 While the other real estate had various uses and Dalin 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.839 Gridge eventually became one of the most wealthy landowners of 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.919 his time. He decided that Bodium was going to be 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.520 his home. He sold off a lot of his other 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.200 inherited properties, gaining additional wealth, some of which was used 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.239 to finance the work that he planned for the Bodium estate. 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.760 He also purchased additional properties in Sussex to expand his 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:39.480 land holdings near Bodium by an estimated hundred acres. In 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.760 three he was granted a royal charter to hold an 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.040 annual fair there as well as the weekly market. Yeah 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.240 he was just settling right in dalin Gridge is estimated 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.840 to have been one of the wealthiest landowners in the area, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.640 and that wealth was augmented by annual payments made through 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.799 various agreements and patronages that were arranged during his military career, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.640 various diplomatic efforts, including forty pounds annually from the Duke 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.000 of Sussex In addition to knighthood, and a military career 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.919 in which he participated in most of the major efforts 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.840 against France, he had a variety of other jobs and titles, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.160 including serving as Master Forrester for the lands of Edward, 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.520 Lord Despencer. He also represented Sussex in Parliament on nine 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:27.360 occasions beginning in thirteen seventy nine, so in less than 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.520 a century the family had ascended to be wealthy as 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.800 well as important in affairs of state. Initially, Podium was 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.799 to be the site of just a manner home dalen 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.320 Gridge was still a night during this time. He wanted 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.880 a place to live. He'd also amassed a significant fortune 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.400 in his travels at war as well as through various 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.440 appointments and associations. Plundering was kind of part of the 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.360 income package for Knights, and dalen Gridge had made the 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.440 most of this. It's believed that he profited from ransoming 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:02.480 captured captives a lot of time. Yeah, which sounds horrible, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.880 but was kind of business as usual for the the 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:11.240 setup um. Two years after his home was completed, England 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.520 found itself in an escalation of the conflict with France 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.400 that threatened to approach Bodium manner. More than one thousand 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.159 French ships had amassed across the channel and it was 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.200 believed that they would soon attack sort of. So, uh, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.080 there's a little bit of debate here about how real 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.760 the threat actually was to Bodium and what really inspired 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:33.800 edwards next move, and we're going to get to that 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.960 in a moment. But what this threat meant, because there 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.800 were French ships amassing across the channel, Uh, this meant 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:45.000 that the estate's home had to be fortified. But Edward 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.919 Dallingridge opted to go a different route. He decided that 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.960 he was going to build an entirely new structure, a castle, 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.680 rather than just augment the existing house. So it may 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.240 seem like there's kind of a head scratcher for some 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.359 folks here, because the main threat was the French crossing 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.520 the channel. But Bodium is not actually on the coast. 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.040 If you look at it on a map, the distance 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.680 between it and Hastings Beach, which is almost immediately to 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.760 the south, is roughly thirteen miles almost twenty one kilometers. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.400 So presumably the thinking was that the French with land 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.040 and then advanced into England. Also, there's that river there 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.720 that connects directly to the channel. Yeah, so there were 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.080 ways that France could have advanced fairly quickly to Bodium, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.400 but it wasn't really in the immediate line of attack. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.679 But Darling Gridge was also tasked by King Richard the Second, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.600 who of course was very young still at this time, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.120 to head the preparations for a possible invasion by the 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.080 French in Sussex. So he didn't just decide to fortify 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.040 strictly on his own, although it seems that the scope 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.640 of the fortification was something that he had kind of 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:53.040 decided on when Chelsea, which sits at the point where 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.120 the River Rother and the English Channel meet, was rated. 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.080 Once they crossed the channel, that was where they went. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.400 So this did seem to start to be very real. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.640 Dling Bridge had led the fortification process of Win She'll 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.560 see several years earlier in eight and also Rye beginning 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.040 in two, so he was a natural choice to give 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.000 responsibility to when it came to making fortifications inland, and 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.880 that of course would have extended to his own property. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.080 The King gave his permission for the Bodium Castle project, 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.640 and that license was for fortification and crenelation, meaning that 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.080 it was intended to augment the existing home. The exact 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.520 phrasing regarding this was that he wasn't able to quote 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.760 strengthen with a wall of stone and lime and crenelate 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.240 and construct and make into a castle his manor house 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.760 at Bodium, which is Bodium near the sea in the 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.679 county of Sussex, for defense of the adjacent county and 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.640 resistance to our enemies. So in choosing to build an 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.880 entirely new structure about a kilometer away from the first 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.960 his manner home, it seems like this is maybe a 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:06.079 broad interpretation of that document. When you hear historians talk 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.439 about it or they write about it, crenelation is like 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:13.240 the hot word, um, and this is something that continues 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.240 to be debated. Right, So what exactly was the function 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.280 and purpose of this castle and why did he make 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.760 that choice? Rather than crenelation in its strict sense. But 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.360 all researchers have in terms of surviving paperwork is that 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:31.000 crenelation document, that permission document. The rest has been interpreted 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.880 over the years based on the available evidence and what 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.640 the castle actually turned out to be, and that means 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.480 that different people have had different theories about how the 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.800 castle was conceived and used, and that's based largely on 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.600 his floor plan. We'll get to some of that interpretation 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:56.800 after we come back from a quick sponsor break. Give 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.360 me recall if you're a regular listener, that we talked 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.680 about what Tyler and the uprising of one on the 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:08.000 podcast in June of That event, sometimes called the peasant Revolt, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.840 was the result of economic troubles that had been brewing 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.679 for decades leading up to the point where poll taxes 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.760 are being levied against the people of the country to 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.920 finance at least in part, the ongoing conflict with France. 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.000 So for someone like Dalin Gridge, who was very wealthy 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.320 and who in his official duties, had helped put down 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.479 that rebellion, there was also a vested interest in protecting 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.040 his home and family, and that probably further informed his 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.880 decision to build a full fledged castle rather than just 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.240 build onto his existing home. Also, there are some interpretations 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.520 of the castle's design and structure that come to the 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.760 conclusion that more than offering protection from French forces or 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.760 any internal uprising, this construction may well have been built 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.160 for show and status. You just look at a picture, 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.800 you can kind of see how folks might come to 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:08.359 that conclusion. Some of the fortifications don't seem all that robust, 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.559 such as the walls being relatively thin. So we'll now 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.440 talk about the actual work on the castle. Yeah, I 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.720 read a cute I shouldn't say it's cute, it's scholarly work. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.160 But it was a fun discussion of how like look, 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.120 he was kind of like neu Veau Reese and trying 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.520 to show everybody he was fancy. Um, that is one theory. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.880 The construction of Bodium Castle was very different from most 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.400 others because it was conceived in its entirety and then 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.280 built all at once. Uh. This is different than most 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.360 examples of castles that we have because most were built 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.679 in stages, either as needed doing something like that crenelation 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:51.160 that was discussed, or as funds were available. Also, you know, 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.240 there are things that happened historically, like you know, ahead 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.559 of family dying in their offspring, deciding how to proceed 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.080 with the design and how that changes it. But it 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.959 as a consequence, Bodium has this rare distinction of being 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.960 really uniform in its appearance since it was also intended 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.120 to replace the manor home as the primary residence of 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:15.040 the estate. Bodium Castle is also unusual because the design 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.920 is for comfort as well as protection. It's emerging of 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:24.439 strategic defensive design and domicile arrangement. The exterior structure is 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.840 almost a perfect square, with round towers at the corners 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.960 of the square and smaller square towers along the walls 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.120 connecting the corners. The interior of the castle has not 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.280 been restored, but enough remains that the floor plan is 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.040 possible to discern. There was a huge interior court within 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.079 the castle, and there were apartment areas that were separated 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.240 off for the family's use. On the east side of 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.240 the building, with other areas that would have specifically been 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.960 for staff. There was also a chapel and a grand hall. 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.000 It's kind of cool the way the bed chamber is designed. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.360 They would have been able to stand basically at window 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.560 of their bed chamber and look into the chapels, so 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.760 they wouldn't have had to leave their room to to 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.640 have to be part of services. Uh. There was also 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.760 a buttery which I want to put in my house, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.439 a pantry and a kitchen uh. And in the kitchen 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.800 would have been to fireplaces. Those would have been kept 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.679 going constantly year round to meet the various needs of 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.960 the castle. Most of the castle is two stories. The 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.480 towers are three in the northwest tower also included a prison. 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.559 The entire castle is built of sandstone ashlar, which was 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.760 quarried about eleven miles from the site at Wadhurst. The 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.199 grounds were also landscaped while the castle was being constructed. 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.360 The whole design was intended to be visually appealing as 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.280 well as functional and at least in theory, able to 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.800 withstand battle and defend the inhabitants. The river was diverted 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.440 once again with a license from the King and a mill. 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:57.280 Pond and mill were both created under Darrange's instructions. The 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:02.560 land surrounding the castle was entirely transformed. Researchers writing about 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.679 all the landscaping quote the castle and its moat thus 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:11.040 form the center of an elaborate modification of the whole landscape, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.600 involving the creation of a number of ponds and sheets 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:19.160 of water whose positioning has an ornamental impact. Yeah, definitely 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:23.200 designed to be pretty as well as a strong, at 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.200 least in theory. And in some cases these details that 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.520 created really a very picturesque estate were used in ways 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.360 that may seem odd or off putting today. For example, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.920 there is, as Tracy just mentioned, a moat and that 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.280 surrounds the entire castle structure. The moat is roughly a 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.320 hundred and fifteen by a hundred and fifty five and 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.840 it is quite pretty, and when viewed from above, it 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.520 frames the castle fairly perfectly. The castle itself sits just 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.320 slightly south of the center of the frame that's created 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.720 by the moat. In the moat, which isn't exactly square, 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.040 it's more of a wedge shape, would naturally make it 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.600 difficult to approach the castle on horseback. Were on foot 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.600 with any kind of strength, so to enter you would 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.560 have to pass over a bridge and hit a small island, 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.120 and then pass over another to get to a barbicane, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.680 and once through that you could continue to the north gate. 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.640 There was also a small back entrance on the south 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:18.800 wall of the gate, which also had to be approached 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:23.440 by bridge. But this protective moat was actually sort of gross, 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.000 as moats often were, because it was used for sewage. 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.360 All the raw waste from the castle was dumped into it, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.840 and this undoubtedly made its smell horrifyingly bad, which justice 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.440 speculation here might have also had a deterrent effect for 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:43.320 any unwanted visitors, even for visitors who were expected and desired. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.120 The moat and landscape and bridges that were used to 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.600 actually get to the castle, had anyone approaching, turning and 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.200 rounding the castle in ways that some researchers have theorized 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.240 might have been attended to show off the grandness of 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.720 the building in the grounds. I like the idea you 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.080 have the sort of exterior tour by the convoluted way 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:10.520 of getting in there turned right at the island. Supporting 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.920 this whole idea is evidence of a garden structure built 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.600 on a high ridge north of the castle, which would 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.400 have offered a spectacular view of the grounds. Also included 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.520 in the castle design were keyhole gun ports, which were 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.520 not common in private residence castles and weren't really all 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.000 that practical, but certainly would have let visitors know that 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.040 Dalen Gridge was aware of the latest trends and battlement design. 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.080 My castle's fancy. Uh well, we don't have a lot 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:43.080 of information about is the construction process itself, or exactly 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.600 how long it took for this castle to be completed. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.840 Based on records, it was done by the early or 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.440 mid nineties, so estimates put the construction time at less 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.640 than ten years, sometimes far less. But here's the thing. 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.840 For all of that work, the French never attacked Bodium. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.040 In June d nine, while the castle was likely still 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.879 under construction. The Truce of Lullingham ended the second phase 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.480 of the Hundred Years War. In thirteen Dallen Gridge was 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.760 made a member of the King's Council. That was a 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:14.840 role in which he served until thirteen ninety three, and 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.080 as part of his duties, he went to France again, 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.680 this time to survey defenses in Calais and overlapping duty 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.320 was also given him when he was made Keeper of 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.560 London in June of two uh That duty was taken 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.200 from him the following months because he was determined to 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.120 be too lenient. This is when there was a lot 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:38.200 of unrest going on in London and Dally Gridge died 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.679 somewhere between this point where that job was rescinded and 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.600 the spring of thirteen ninety four when he is listed 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.600 in records as deceased. That would put him somewhere around 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.639 forty seven years old, so he barely had time to 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:56.240 enjoy his grand castle and grounds. Bodium Castle remained in 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.920 the ownership of Sir Edward dalling Gridge's descendants, but eventually 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.480 there were no dallen Grids left and the castle was 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.320 gained by the Lukener family in marriage. That was in 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.840 the mid fourteen hundreds. The Wars of the Roses would 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.960 be the next pivotal historical events in the story of 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.840 the castle, because Sir Thomas Luchner was on the Lancastrian 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.960 side of the war, the opposite side of Richard the Third. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.719 The King ordered an attack on Bodian and the castle 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.199 was surrendered. There is actually a pretty decent likelihood that 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.719 no real attack took place here, that the Lukeners surrendered 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.520 before there was any violence at all. When Richard the 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.040 third was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.840 the seventh took the throne, the castle was returned to 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.119 the Lukener family, and it remained a Lukener property until 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.399 the mid sixteen hundreds. At the end of that line, 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.879 the estate was divvied up and it passed through a 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.119 number of hands. During the period from the mid fifteen 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.480 hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, lots of different people owned Bodium, 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.760 but nobody actually lived there. The castle was unfortunately uncared for, 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.280 and it fell into ruin. None of its owners seemed 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.000 to really pay much of any attention to the structure 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.199 in any meaningful way, and so it was purchased by 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:15.200 politician John Fuller in eight although it had attracted tourists 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:18.199 before then. We're going to talk about Fuller's plans for 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.920 the once grand structure in just a moment, but before 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:22.919 we do, we'll take a break and hear from the 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.480 sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.679 So we talked right before the break about John Fuller 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.320 acquiring Bodium Castle, and Fuller and the next two owners 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:45.080 all shared a vision of restoration for Bodium. Under Fuller's ownership, 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.320 tower repair began as well as the restoration of the 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.920 main gate, but he only had it for twenty years 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.679 before he died, so they didn't get super far. In 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.560 eighteen forty nine, the castle and property were purchased by 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.000 George Cubitt, who wished to continue the restoration that Fuller 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.600 had begun, and Cuba actually had the site surveyed before 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:05.880 picking the work back up because he wanted to approach 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.720 things a bit more methodically. In nineteen seventeen, the Bodium 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.719 Castle was purchased by Lord Curzon, who was a British 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.879 statesman and served as Viceroy of India from eight to 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.560 nineteen o five. He had a general interest in the 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.679 restoration of historic buildings and he managed to get Bodiam Castle, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.320 which he had tried to purchase from George Cuba after 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.560 Cuba passed and his son sold it. Yeah, Lord Curzon 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:33.840 could be his own episode and maybe one day will 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.120 It will be in parts interesting and terrifying and frustrating. 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:42.040 But Curzon invested in having the moat partially drained and 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.719 that revealed some of the old bridge structures of the castle. 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.800 He also had much of the overgrowth cleared it had 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.199 kind of been swallowed by plant life in many regards 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.920 um and he rebuilt and restored some of the crumbled ruins, 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.640 along with Scottish architect William Weir overseeing the project. Curzon 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.440 also had a cottage built on the ground separate from 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.080 the castle, for a caretaker to live in and for 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:10.119 a small museum to be installed. Lord Curzon donated the 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.000 castle to the National Trust in when he died, and 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:17.560 it has remained under that entities ownership in the almost 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:22.080 hundred years since. The restored castle eventually became a Grade 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.639 one listed building. That designation means that it's considered to 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.440 have historical significance and be of exceptional interest. During World 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.080 War Two, a pill box bunker was built on the 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:37.120 grounds at Bodium Castle as defense to guard against possible 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.880 German invasion, which of course, thankfully did not happen. Throughout 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.320 its time and under the care of the National Trust, 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.479 there have been various restoration projects for the castle and 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.600 the grounds. The entire moat was drained in nineteen seventy 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:55.560 when excavations were undertaken, and these excavations were necessitated in 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.000 part by some really treacherous conditions that were threatening to 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.960 take out some of the some of the walls surrounding 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.159 the moat, unsurprising given that this was the hundreds of 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.280 year old castle that had not been really maintained in 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.160 this way. The conditions were caused also by tree growth. 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.840 Careful excavation revealed that the wall was actually in better 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.160 shape than expected, and researchers were able to see and 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.240 record Mason's marks in the stones. We'll talk more about 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.320 the Mason's marks in just a second. In continuing examinations 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.280 of the land and its waterways through the nineteen eighties, 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.560 researchers looked at the water features of the landscape to 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:36.440 try to determine when various versions of them had been changed, 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.359 as well as which of them were actually naturally occurring, 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.520 and also together just any other additional details that they could. 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.280 One pond, known as the tilt Yard might be a 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:51.160 remodeled version of the original mill pond that Dalin Gridge 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.320 had installed. Other ponds on the land are believed to 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.560 have been used to dispose of waste that had accumulated 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.520 in the moat and was dredged out. Uh So, when 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.119 you think about the romantic ideas we have about castle 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:11.639 to over time, various marks and inscriptions have been observed 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.640 and cataloged around the castle, and some of these are 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:18.120 obviously pretty modern ish, believed to have been left there 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:21.840 between the eighteenth and early nineteen centuries. These are mostly 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:24.280 cases of people carving their names. You will find the 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:28.679 names Hoggins, James Brian, and Lady Tompkin at various places 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.200 in the castle, but other marks are much much older. 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.560 Some of them are simply part of the castle's construction. 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:40.040