Key to the Castles

You don’t have to be a member of the royal family to enjoy a standing invitation to England’s most romantic castles and stately homes. You don’t even have to be rich. This summer, castles and cathedrals, stately homes and palaces, famous battlefields and Roman forts can all be at your command. And you can come and go as often as you like.

It may sound too good to be true, but it’s not. By joining an organization called English Heritage, you will gain access to more than 400 historic properties, including some of the most popular destinations in Europe. And all for less than the price of a ticket to a theater performance in London’s West End. It’s one of the best bargains in Britain, and membership is open to everyone. Even Yankee tourists.

English Heritage is a quasi-governmental agency spun off from the Ministry of Works in the 1980s to manage and care for historic properties. Its mission, as described by the current chairman, Jocelyn Stevens, is “safeguarding the best of the past so that it has a place in the future.”

This has been good both for tourists and for England’s historic legacy. Many heretofore unkempt and deteriorating monuments are now being cared for more conscientiously, and their accessibility and presentation to the public have never been better.

Some English Heritage holdings, though charming, are little more than romantic ruins. Others, such as Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall, are World Heritage attractions that bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to Britain every year. Other popular destinations include Dover Castle, the great houses of Kenwood and Audley End, and the site of the Battle of Hastings.

You can buy your way into any of these one ticket at a time, but most visitors would be better off becoming members. Let’s do the math, in dollars.

At Stonehenge, it costs almost $7 for adult admission and about $3.50 for each child. At these prices, a family of four will spend $21 for one visit. For less than $60, that same family can have a 14-day Overseas Visitor Pass that will allow all four of them to come and go at any English Heritage location as often as they like. Alternately, they may choose the seven-day pass for about $43.

Even if you don’t care about saving money, you may still want to join English Heritage for the other perks available to members. These include a large, fold-out map marking all the holdings, with special codes identifying them as castles and forts, historic houses, Roman and so forth. You will also want the handbook full of descriptions, first-rate color photographs, directions and opening hours.

Perhaps most enticing is the calendar of events. English Heritage stages hundreds of special activities throughout the summer, including reenactments of famous battles, musical performances, plays and demonstrations of medieval archery and falconry, all presented in historic settings. Most are free to members. And, if you book in advance, you may even get to walk inside the stone circle at Stonehenge, something ordinary visitors haven’t been able to do for years.

Our family has spent several enchanted weeks wandering from one English Heritage site to another. When all was said and done, we decided that the very best part of our membership was the way it led us to the discovery of treasures unknown to most tourists. One of these was Castle Rising Castle.

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Two summers ago we were exploring the coast of Norfolk, a county on the northern shore of what was long ago the Kingdom of East Anglia. It is a lowland area in northeastern England known for its farms, sandy beaches and endless tidal flats.

Using our English Heritage map, we found Castle Rising Castle just off “The Wash,” an enormous shallow bay across which the wind blows incessantly. Unlike some castles that dominate the surrounding landscape, this one lies hidden behind great earthen ramparts that have provided its outer layer of defense for nearly 1,000 years. Until you pass through this immense doughnut of dirt, you can’t see much more than a flag and the small gable of a hut atop the 12th century keep.

But in the center of the bailey, or courtyard, you will find one of the most impressive and well-preserved fortified houses in Britain, a structure elegant enough to have housed a queen and strong enough to protect her. Though not the kind of castle that would have garrisoned an army, it has a unique place in the political history of the medieval world.

For nearly 30 years, Castle Rising Castle was the home-in-exile of Isabella of France, the queen consort of King Edward II. Remember the dark-eyed princess in Mel Gibson’s fanciful “Braveheart”? Well, she went on to finesse the overthrow of her effete husband, after which she and her lover, Roger de Mortimer, ruled in the name of her son, Edward III. All went well for the usurpers until young Edward reached the age of 18. Then, in an impressive act of teenage rebellion, he seized the reins of the kingdom, slew De Mortimer, and exiled his mother to the grounds of Castle Rising Castle, where she remained until her death in 1358.

We learned the story of Isabella and her castle through a recorded audio tour, one of the many ways English Heritage tries to make its holdings more user-friendly.

These portable tours are increasingly common, and they are now available at more than 40 of English Heritage’s most frequented sites. It is easy to understand why they have become so popular. There is no waiting for a tour to start; you’ve never “just missed” the last one; and you don’t have to jostle in a crowd to get a better view of the guide or the subject being talked about. And, if you wish to linger, or to hear the narrative repeated, you can do so without holding up the group.

Digital recording has made these guides extremely easy to use and exceptionally interactive. Various topics are accessed by entering numbers posted at different locations along the path. These can be visited in sequence, or in any order you wish.

The tour of Castle Rising Castle begins with a straight-forward narrative that walks you through the various rooms and fortifications, describing things such as Isabella’s kitchens, the function of the portcullis (an iron-grate gate) and various architectural details. Most selections conclude with a menu of sidebars that offer more in-depth information on particular subjects, such as how the murder hole above the portcullis was used to repel invaders from the gate. There are even recorded performance pieces in which actors and actresses portray period characters through fictional dialogues and monologues illustrating some aspect of the history of the castle.

Such material is, of course, highly speculative, but it is a marvelously entertaining way to learn about the daily lives of the men and women who peopled the past. We enjoyed similar audio tours at other English Heritage locations, including Stonehenge, Dover Castle and Rievaulx Abbey. In every case, the quality of production was superb and the attention to historic detail was meticulous. And, these tours are free to members.

Without the hospitality and guidance provided by English Heritage, our visit to England would have been much more expensive and far less educational. And we would never have discovered Castle Rising Castle and other out-of-the-way treasures. We may not have been part of the royal family, but with our membership cards in hand, we were able to enjoy some of the same privileges.

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For information on English Heritage membership, write to English Heritage, Keysign House, 429 Oxford St., London, W1R 2HD; telephone 011-44-171-973-3434; Internet https://www.EnglishHeritage.org.uk.

English Heritage cannot accept fees in U.S. dollars, but all major credit cards are accepted. In Britain, memberships can be purchased from any English Heritage property.