TREACHERY, MURDER AND A PHANTOM ON THE BATTLEMENTS

CORFE CASTLE

Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror,

the castle dates to the 11th century and commands a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage.

The first phase was one of the earliest castles in England to be built at least partly using stone when the majority were built with earth and timber.

Corfe Castle underwent major structural changes in the 12th and 13th centuries.

In 1572, Corfe Castle left the Crown's control when Elizabeth I sold it to Sir Christopher Hatton. Sir John Bankes bought the castle in 1635, and was the owner during

the English Civil War. His wife, Lady Mary Bankes, led the defence of the castle when it was twice besieged by Parliamentarian forces. The first siege, in 1643,

was unsuccessful, but by 1645 Corfe was one of the last remaining royalist strongholds in southern England and fell to a siege ending in an assault. In March that year

Corfe Castle was slighted on Parliament's orders. Owned by the National Trust, the castle is open to the public and in 2018 received around 237,000 visitors.

It is protected as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

This dramatic ruined fortress in southern Dorset is associated with stories of murder, war and ghosts.

One of the more grisly legends is that of the murder of an 18-year old Anglo-Saxon heir to the throne, Edward the Martyr, killed by his stepmother

The poor soul was slain in the grounds of the castle at the orders of his stepmother Queen Elfrida. She wanted to bring about the succession of her own son, Ethelred, later known as ‘The Unready’.

In the thirteenth century King John imprisoned 22 captured Frenchmen in the Corfe dungeons – and left them to starve to death. While in 1327, Edward II was imprisoned at Corfe Castle prior to being murdered.

During the Civil War, Corfe Castle was the home of the Royalist Bankes family, who managed to repel repeated attempts to take the castle by Cromwell’s roundheads.

Treachery in the Civil War

But an act of betrayal in 1645 allowed the Roundheads to smuggle in their own soldiers inside the walls. They then attacked from within and without at the same time and finally seized control.

Later that year they blew up parts of the castle to stop it becoming an opposition stronghold again.

A woman in white

Ever since, the ghostly figure of a headless woman in white – said to be the woman who betrayed the Bankes – has been seen stalking the walls and battlements.

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