Theme 73 - History

After getting my "Horseshoe" and "Archway" theme, we walked around the town of Oakham, which was rich in history, both national and personal to my hubby as this is where he attended school. We walked around the town, perused the shops and had some great coffee. We were about to head back to the car when I said we should look at the castle whilst we were there; hubby stated we had already been there!!!!?? Well no wonder I didn't realise, the place where the horseshoes are hung is in fact the castle - and this is it! Well it doesn't look like a castle to me - where are the turrets and moat?

Here is the history - The Great Hall was built by Walkelin de Ferrers, a Norman baron, in about 1180-90. The remains of other parts of this fortified manor house lie beneath the grass of the inner bailey. It was surrounded by earthen banks and stone walls which had at least two towers. To the north were gardens and fishponds. The castle was the residence of the lord of the manor of Oakham. Sometimes the king held the manor himself and visited the castle.

I had to abandon hubby to run back and get this shot, didn't really have time to wait for the other visitors to leave - so very average shot (wasn't going to return without it though).