We had decided to go on a free tour of the Court House so we started to to walk up to the town at about 1015. We go down the road from bridge 49 and then turn right at the railway, under the railway and walk through the Priory Park up to the town centre. We then walk in past the old Gaol and Shire Hall. On the other side of Northgate Street the houses are being redeveloped and for sale at £1.5 million!!
The tour was taken by volunteers and four of us turned up for it. The building on the site during the great fire of 1694 survived, but on the other three corners of the square they didn't and were replaced by elegant Georgian buildings. They eventually knocked the old pub down and built the Court House in 1725. This is the front door and the gates are more modern. The Warwick Town Council now m,eet in the room to the right of the door.
The figure of justice has recently been restored and had the sword replaced, as it had been lost in the 1930's. The Coats of Arms had been painted but originally they were not so they restored them and painted them stone colour.
This is taken from the ballroom up stairs and through the original windows looking up Church Street to St Mary's Church.
This is on one of the buildings on the corners opposite the Court House giving away when they were built.
We walked up to the Market Place to look round the market. We succumbed to a pork and apple pie, a couple of cheeses, a couple of buns and a loaf of bread, oh and some joss sticks. Helen even managed to find a present.
After that we wandered down Smith Street to look round the shops there and to find somewhere for lunch and then back up the hill. Warwick is built on a ridge of Sandstone, of which much of the castle, churches etc is built of. Many of the building of the town are built directly on the rock as it outcrops right at the surface.
We poked our noses through the railings at the entrance of the castle but were quite shocked to see that it would cost over £30 to visit the castle and grounds and the dungeon. Over £100 for a family of 4, and £6 pound for parking!!
It is a good job that we visited the Lord Leycester Hospital last time we were here as there was a wedding taking place to day. It is such a lovely jumble of roof lines though that I had to take another photo.
There is one of these Victorian Doric Column, vertical slot, post boxes at both the East and West Gates.
In the Market Place is a statue of boxer Randolph Turpin. His father had been born in Guyana but came to Warwick to recuperate after fighting in WWI. The family lived in Leamington Spa. He had two brothers Dick and John. His eldest brother was also a good boxer, but Randlph went on to take the British, European and World Middle Weight title after beating Sugar Ray Robinson of America after 15 rounds in 1951. He was thought to be one of the best European boxers of all time.
2 comments:
Very nostalgic post for me - I took Olek to Warwick Castle last year - had to take out a mortgage almost ... And they wanted to charge some ridiculously huge amount for the use of the handheld audio guides. However the birds of prey displays were great, the Horrible Histories play was a good way to find out the history of the place and the dungeon experience was well done, but extremely scary in parts and made light of the actuality of how and why the dungeons were used. Lesley, Olek and I did have fun though.
Hi Marilyn, We have no grand kiddies as yet but when we do I expect that we may well be happier to pay that sort of money! Oh the joy's, I better start saving now. You both seem to be well in to the work side of life at the moment down there. Does that rule out a trip over to the boat? We are enjoying the few days of sun at the moment.
Tony and Helen.
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