Lincoln Castle

The other weekend I headed up north a little ways to visit Lincoln Castle.

I was able to take a guided tour while I was here.  Tour guide was great.  She was very friendly and full of interesting facts about the castle.  If you do ever get the chance to visit Lincoln Castle, I highly recommend the tour.

In the East Gate entry way is an ornate oriel window.  This window is not orginally built into the gate.  It was once part of Sutton manison.  In 1849, Sutton manison was pulled down, but the oriel window was saved.  It was sold and then presented to the county magistrates in the hopes that it would be preserved in the castle.



The castle was constructed by William the Conquerer on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress.  It was used as a prison and law court into modern times.  In fact, the Crown Courts continues to meet here.  Unfornately you are not allow to tour the Crown Court.  That is unless you commit a crime, and they don't recommend that you do that!

To the right of the main entrance is Cobb Hall.  This use to serve three purposes, defense, imprisonment and public exectuion.  When the tour guide was telling us about Cobb Hall, she used those of us in the group to help tell her story.  I was the one she chose to excuted.  I was to be hanged, which was rare for a woman to be hanged.  For a woman to be hanged she would have been found guilty of killing her husband.  There were only a few women hanged here, maybe 3 or 4 at the most. 

Hangings were a major event back then.  People would travel for hours to see them.  They were held at the top of the tour on the outside wall.  Once, a woman hung herself before she was to be excuted so she wouldn't suffer the humilation of being hung in public.   When the people found out there was to be no hanging, they rioted.  After that happened, prisoners who were to be excuted always had two guards with them at all times to prevent them from taking their own lives.

Today you use Cobb Hall to access the Wall Walks.  You can walk all the way around the walls and see some amazing views of Lincoln.

The prison chapel is very unquie.  It is the only one left in the world like it.  Is was designed for the "seperate system."  The sperate system was designed so that the prisoners would have no contact with each other.

The chapel was designed to enclose each prisoner individually so that the preacher could see everyone, but they could only see him.  The seats were slanted so that they couldn't sit properly.  This was to encourage them to stay awake and pay attention.  However, those prisoners who were to be excuted had a bench in the back row.  Their souls were considered to far gone to save, so they didn't care if they fell asleep.

One of four surviving orginal copies of the Magna Carta, sealed by King John is on exhibit here.  The exhibit is nice, but to be honest I went through it rather quickly until I got to the Magna Carta.  I was the only one in the exhibit at the time and I wasn't 100% sure I was allowed to be there.  But once I got to the Magna Carta there were other people there, so I knew I was ok.  I wasn't allowed to take any photos of the Magna Carta, but it was pretty cool to see.

There is also a bust of King George III, also known as "The King Who Lost America."  The bust use to be part of a 15 foot statue of the monarch that was on top of a pillar on the south side of Lincoln.  It was taken down during World War Two because the RAF feared the structure could be hazard to low-flying aircaft.  The tour guide told us that they had built the airfield in the statues path, so it probably wasn't the best laid out plans.  They still have all the pieces of the statue and are in talks of putting it back together.  At one point they had it all laid out within the grounds of the castle.  The tour guide said that it was still in great shape, considering how old it is.  However the plans have been put on hold for now due to lack of funds.  I did take the opporitunity to tell him thanks for losing America though.

They are doing a lot of work to improve the castle.  They even hope to make it free to enter in the future.  All of the improvements is going to make this an even more interactive place to visit, and I hope that I will be able to come back and see it when they are done.  But I have a feeling that the improvements are going to take several years to get done.  But don't let that stop you from visiting now.  It is a great place to visit and the veiws are breath taking.  Oh, plus there is a great shopping area just outside the castle walls!  So, get in a little history and then have some fun shopping!