Corfe Castle

The next home and garden was Corfe Castle, down very close to the coast, established originally by William the Conqueror, but later acquired by the powerful Bankes family. They were loyal to the king, Charles I, in the Civil War, and stoutly defended Corfe Castle, succumbing only to trickery by the low-life Parliamentarians. After the war was over, the king beheaded, etc., the victors "slighted" Corfe, as with so many other monuments that would have come in handy in this age of travel and tourism. It's still there, though, bits of it, and certainly takes less time to tour than it would have had it not been slighted. Anyhow, after the Parliamentarians rendered Corfe uninhabitable, the Bankes moved on, establishing Kingston Lacy. I'll just let the pix below speak for themselves: this is what an 11th-12th century castle would look like if it were blown up in the mid-17th century (except for the Victorian choo-choo I was going to video for Penelope; but didn't).