Warwick Castle: Inside the Castle

Our trip to Warwick Castle was not just a tour of the outside and the grounds, as awe-inspiring as that was. The inside of the castle is equally impressive, with various periods and events represented from nine centuries of use and inhabitation.

The castle walls and towers enclose many rooms themselves, most of which are not open to the public. The tower steps are quite a challenge, going round and round, up or down, endlessly--especially challenging when guiding or carrying a toddler (pic 1)!

Between the gatehouse and Caesar's tower is the 17th century wash-house turned armoury, filled with authentic weapons from various periods of British history. A chilling sight, especially when confronted by two "boys-at-arms" like these (pic 2)! The armoury also includes such fascinating treasures as Oliver Cromwell's death mask (pic 3) and what some believe to be Bonnie Prince Charlie's shield (pic 4).

Of course, what castle would be complete without a dungeon? Warwick is no exception, with the 14th century dungeon located below Caesar's tower (pic 5). The cold barrenness of the room, the inscriptions carved in the stone walls by past prisoners, the stocks and chain suit hanging up by the high ceiling, the oubliette to the side--all these made the experience of this room strangely fascinating yet profoundly disturbing.

Every good English castle had a chapel, often the centre of worship for the household. Warwick's current chapel was built in the early 1600s on the site of the original 12th century chapel (pic 6).

While the chapel was the religious centre of a castle, the great hall was the centre of daily life. In its early days as a castle, Warwick's great hall would have been the main sleeping quarters for the family as well as their dining hall and the centre of the Earl's administration of his lands and people. Warwick's great hall is filled with fascinating items, including Queen Elizabeth I's saddle (pic 7) and a huge iron cooking pot that goes back about 500 years but in the later 19th century dinner parties was used as a huge punch bowl (pic 8)! And of course, like all good castles, Warwick has suits of armour everywhere, both in the great hall and elsewhere (pic 9).

For the last several years the castle has been managed by The Tussauds Group, the company that began as the famous wax museum in London. Tussauds has brought its expertise to Warwick Castle, creating award-winning wax figure exhibits portraying specific historical events using period clothing, as well as original furnishings and artifacts as much as possible. We found this to be very well done--bringing these historical events and people to life while still keeping large sections of the castle untouched by such exhibits, and overall keeping Disney-like commercialism to a minimum.

One such exhibit portrays the Earl of Warwick preparing for battle in 1471 in the Wars of the Roses. One room shows the Earl being readied for battle, another depicts an archer preparing his bow (pic 10), and other rooms show various other scenes from the buzz of activity in the castle prior to this march to war (pic 11).

The other main Tussauds exhibit is the re-creation of a royal weekend party that occurred in 1898. The guest of honour that weekend was the Prince of Wales, soon to become King Edward VII, but other high society guests were there as well, including Dukes and Counts--and a young Winston Churchill. As one moves through the various guest rooms and drawing rooms of the main residence hall, one sees the dinner guests preparing for an evening of feasting and revelry. There's too much to show in this, but here are some sample photos: the bedroom of Daisy, the Countess of Warwick and hostess of the party (pic 12); a typical hallway in the residence hall (pic 13); the music room, with pre-dinner entertainment underway (pic 14); and the state dining room prepared for dinner (pic 15).

There's still so much more that we could say and show about Warwick Castle--but you'll all have to come see it for yourselves! Thanks for coming with us on our tour!

See also: Warwick Castle: The Castle and Grounds.