The Mobile Mouse Trap.

When opening a medieval castle in the mornings, you never know what you may find. 9 am on Saturday 26th September looked like any other Saturday, ok , we were to have a wedding downstairs at 11am, other than that quite normal. With duster in hand I proceeded to climb the stairs to the six floors to open up. All rather mundane until I reached the third floor door, on opening it I discovered the biggest barn owl in flight I have ever seen. My first thought was how on earth did it get in, my second thought,and the most important one was, how am I going to get it out. I walked into the middle of the room with the owl flying round me. I was afraid he would be startled and fly into the stained glass windows but, he gave me one last glance and dissapeared through the open door I had just come through, and onto the spiral staircase. Experience told me that it was unlikely he would fly down wards, birds don't like to fly down stairs and tend to fly upwards toward the light. We have had peacocks climb the stairs before and found the easist and safest way to deal with them is to guide them to the top of the stairs and make them fly 100 feet off the top of the castle. I gingerly made my way up to the top, sure enough the owl was waiting there sat in a window, with a wire grill on to stop birds getting IN. I quickly opened the doors onto the battlements and the owl made his escape. We've never had to set any mouse traps in the castle before, but we never knew we had mobile mouse catchers before either. He/she was last seen flying for cover followed by a dozen rooks, so the danger wasn't over for him/her. It's another one to put onto my list, of visitors not having a entrance ticket. :(

Dullard of the week award

Regular visitors and eagle eyes local residents will have noticed over the past few months a large set up of scaffolding being erected and recently dismantled at Tattershall Castle. This was part of a project to restore and replace the stonework window frames from the West side of the building. The work started last November, and was completed in July at great expense, but the feedback we have received has been positive and we are all very pleased with how the work turned out.

The West side of the Castle is the 'back' when visitors approach from the entrance now, but in the Castle's heyday it would have been the front, the majority of the visitors (at least, the most important visitors) would have approached from that side. It is the side where the windows are all symmetrical and most impressive.

Imagine our surprise when we noticed the other day that one kindly soul has decided to seize an opportunity at immortality in the most selfish manner.

Congratulations Lee, you win our Dullard of the week award. Next time you drop into the Castle simply make yourself known to staff and we will be happy to present you with your prize.

Until Lee comes forward to collect his prize, we suggest you act mean and horrible to anybody you know called Lee.

House of Bling preview on BBC Look North

It is a little late but we have been mega busy (dusting, hoovering etc), but here is the Castle in all its glory on BBC look north.
Auntie came to visit us on the 7th August to preview the House of Bling exhibition, which opened that weekend. The preview was aired that evening.

How Clean Is Your Castle?

Our Clive has long had aspirations beyond his humble calling as Castle Custodian, and with the shock news last week that Kim Woodburn is quitting ‘How Clean Is Your House?’ Clive has become determined to seize to opportunity to become Aggie MacKenzie’s partner in grime.

Feel sorry for the man who has to clean a medieval castle which has six floors, all grand in dimension. The magnitude of such a task leaves lesser men quaking with fear. Clive simply bolts on his ghostbusters style vacuum cleaner and heads up the 149 steps and gets on with it.

The cleaning has to be done at least once a month, as the surface of the floors in the castle cause a lot of dust to be kicked up. The recent increase in visitors because of the summer holidays and House Of Bling exhibition has made the task even more daunting.

If any Channel Four executives are reading this, we won’t be letting Clive go without a fight.

Time to Say Goodbye

Francesco Sartori may have said it best, Andrea Bocelli may have sung it best (though here at the castle, we prefer Toše Proeski) but none of those chaps ever said it, and meant it, about a wombat.

After his stay at Tattershall Castle, it is time for the travelling wombat to bid us a fond farewell. The travelling wombat tours the world trying to see as much as is feasible for a stuffed, miniature marsupial. So far his travels have taken him as far as Italy, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

However, the unnamed mammal has assured us the breathtaking views of the Lincolnshire fenlands from the top of the Castle by far top anything he has seen as yet. He was also very complimentary about our audio guide, although he did complain about the lack of decent foraging area. As we all know, the wombat has an above average sized brain for an Australian marsupial, and he has been very helpful is explaining to us all the finer details and references of the House of Bling exhibition.

Some of us have become more attached than others, poor old Clive has been unapproachable all day because of the sense of loss he feels about his departure. Where he goes next, we do not know, but it will be a long time before any of us here forget the little guy.

Clive prepares to take the wombat to the bus stop.

The Travelling Wombat stays at the Castle for a week

10th August 2009














After a good rest and the end of quarantine restrictions Wombat finally decides he shoud visit the castle. First stop is to take the audio tour, unfortunatly the head phones he brought with him are a little too large for his head. If only he'd known that he could have down-loaded the tour onto his i-pod.


















Half way round his tour he runs into Trusty the Hedgehog. Trusty is also visting the castle on his nationwide tour of National Trust properties. Although very much different in sizes they share a love of castles and historic houses

11th August 2009



Alarm bells were ringing at the castle today, Wombat had gone missing!!! where could he have gone? Lost alone in a foreign county where could he be? After a comprehensive search he was found inside the castle sliding down the hand rail to the spiral staircase. NAUGHTY Wombat! It was so much fun though.









12th August 2009

Wombats day off today, so clive took him to see the sights of Lincolnshire, starting with the Humber bridge and then onto Lincoln.

After a long day out wombat decided to spend the evening bellringing with Clive. He got rather dizzy holding on to the rope.












After Bellringing he decided to sample the local ale. Unfortunatly it was a little too strong for him and he had a sore head in the morning.

House of Bling

From tomorrow, Tattershall Castle is opening up to visitors for its House of Bling exhibition, a very exciting project for everyone involved, and a first for the Castle. The Castle is playing host to six international standard artists, who have each been given a specific area of the Castle to work in. The project is the start of an ongoing collaborative effort between the National Trust and the Arts Council England.

The artists have all drawn inspiration from the Castle and its history. The six floors of the Castle have been transformed with interesting installations ranging in scale and concept; including the transformation of the old Castle stables by landscape designer Sarah Price, who is also designing the gardens for the 2012 Olympic Park in London.

On the main castle lawn designer Linda Florence has cut a carpet design, which from the top of the castle looks stunning. The projects inside the castle include an audio installation which recounts the names of the visitors who signed the visitor book when the castle was opened to the public for the first time, and one of the floors has been taken over by golden cobwebs.

In addition to the art installations a series of extra events will be running alongside the House of Bling project, including star gazing, cloud spotting, bat watching and an archaeological forage specifically for four to six year olds. See future blogs for further details.

The exhibition opens this Saturday at 11am and closes Sunday August 23^rd. The exhibition is free to Castle visitors though normal admission charges apply, admission is free for National Trust members.

A brief history of Tattershall Castle

The current building was not the first castle to be built on the site; the very first was built in the eleventh century. The next one was built of stone in the early thirteenth century by Robert de Tateshale. In 1201 King John had granted Tateshale's father a charter to hold a weekly market in the village of Tattershall in exchange for a trained Goshawk. In 1231 Robert de Tateshale received a license to build a fortified stone house. Very little of the first castle can still be seen, but its layout of lengths of walls with round towers at each corner determined the shape of what does still survive.

Tattershall Castle had passed to Ralph, 3rd Baron Cromwell (1393-1456) by the early fifteenth century; Cromwell was a politician, landowner, diplomat and soldier. In 1433 he was appointed Lord Treasurer to Henry VI (the medieval equivalent of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, perhaps making the castle the medieval equivalent of Number 11 Downing Street?). With his new position came greater financial rewards and Cromwell invested his wealth to enlarge the castle. One of the masterpieces of medieval brickwork, the castle's
33.5 metre high great tower was built. In that period the tower would have been contending with the great cathedrals of the age. In the main rooms of the castle ,the impressive fireplaces proudly displayed the coats of arms of the affluent families the Cromwells had allied themselves to by marriage, and the Treasurer's Purse, Cromwell’s badge of office.

The great tower was a not too subtle expression of Cromwell’s power, but in addition to being a status symbol the castle was built to furnish Cromwell and his guests with comfortable and salubrious accommodation. This is evidenced in the sizeable and exquisite traceried windows (a delicate ornamental pattern from ornamental stonework), which would have likely provided insufficient resistance were they to come under siege.

The Castle was inherited by Joan Bourchier, Cromwell's niece, when he died in 1456; only to have it confiscated by the crown after her husband's death. Tattershall Castle went on to be owned by Kings of England from Edward IV to Henry VIII. During the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was occupied by the Earls of Lincoln, until 1693, when its defences were pulled down following the Civil War, leaving the property abandoned as a residence and left to decay into ruins (albeit picturesque). The grounds became part of a neighbouring farm and the moat was filled in. The tower itself was faced with the shame of being used to house cattle.

The great tower came under immense threat of demolition in 1910, when the castle was purchased by an American syndicate for architectural salvage, as part of the process the fireplaces were ripped out and sold. It wasn't rescued until 1911 when Lord Curzon, alerted by the outcry caused by the sale and removal of the fireplaces, bought the site and started the process of restoring the buildings, reinstating the fireplaces and excavating the moats. The windows and floors were replaced, the battlements were reconstructed; and Tattershall Castle was transformed back to its true glory. The survival of the castle and its stature today is testimony to Lord Curzon's campaign for the conservation of Britain's ancient monuments.

Lord Curzon opened the property to visitors in 1914 and bequeathed the property to the National Trust on his death in 1925. To this day the castle remains open to visitors who come and explore the six floors of the castle, enjoy the grounds, moats and bridges and climb the 150 steps from basements to battlements to enjoy the outstanding views of the surrounding Lincolnshire countryside.

(Ash)