Christchurch Castle

Christchurch Castle stands on a grassy mound beside the River Avon in Dorset. Built by Norman lords after 1066, it replaced an earlier wooden fort from 924. The castle’s keep and walls were added in stone around 1160, while the Constable’s House nearby was built at the same time. The site once controlled the harbour and the rivers that linked inland towns. During the 17th-century Civil War the castle was besieged and later partly destroyed on Cromwell’s orders. Today only fragments of the keep and a deep rectangular moat remain. The Constable’s House is one of the few surviving Norman domestic buildings in England. Its ground floor served as a storeroom with narrow slit windows, while the upper hall measured 20 by 7 metres. A rare Norman chimney and a garderobe tower added in the early 13th century survive in good condition. The house was built from local Purbeck marble and includes an external stair leading to the main floor. The bailey now holds a bowling green and gardens, though the original ditch has been filled in. The castle and house are Grade I listed and form part of a larger scheduled monument with the nearby priory. Visitors can walk among the ruins and enter the Constable’s House to see its Norman architecture. The mill stream still flows beside the garderobe tower, linking the site to its medieval past. Views across the rivers and town show why this spot was chosen for defence centuries ago.