Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle is a late 11th-century castle keep with a curtain wall and inner bailey, significantly altered in the mid-12th and mid-14th centuries. The original circular keep, begun around 1067 by Fitz Osborn, Earl of Hereford, retains the base of a shell keep from that period. The shell keep was expanded in 1153. The curtain wall to the east and south was constructed between 1160 and 1190, incorporating the walls of the Great Hall, which was further altered in the 14th century.

The castle is remarkably well-preserved, retaining many original features, including doors, arrow slits, and windows, alongside iron catches and other details. Between 1340 and 1350, Thomas, Lord Berkeley, extensively remodelled the interior, although the work from this period primarily survives in the inner bailey. The castle remained largely unchanged until the 1920s, when the 8th Earl of Berkeley modernized the interior and introduced artifacts from elsewhere, such as fireplaces and stained glass.

The castle is constructed from local pink, grey, and yellow Severn sandstone, with roofs primarily covered in Cotswold stone slate or lead. Ashlar flues are scattered across the structure, some cylindrical or polygonal. Fenestration is mainly stone mullioned and transomed, with some latticed windows. The keep retains a cell believed to be the location of the murder of Edward II in 1327, and a semi-circular dungeon approximately 11 meters deep.

During a siege by Cromwell’s troops in 1645, the curtain wall was breached in the northwest. The curtain wall incorporates several important rooms, including the Great Hall, which features a mid-14th-century ceiling of eight bays with tiered wind bracing. A wooden screen brought from Wales in 1920 retains original painted decoration. A 15th-century stone fireplace is said to originate from Wanswell Court, and there are fine examples of linen-fold panelling on oak doors, along with several "Berkeley Arches"—polygonal shapes with four or more straight sides enclosing a cusped inner arch. The Great Hall is believed to have been the site of a meeting of West Country Barons prior to their signing of Magna Carta. A screens passage at the east end contains three Berkeley arches and leads to a service area including a hexagonal kitchen with three fireplaces and an original medieval star timber roof, and a bakehouse spanned by two large flat stone arches. Upstairs, the Morning Room, previously the Chapel of St. Mary until 1923, features cusped arcades that retain painted ceiling decoration related to John Trevisa’s 1387 translation of the Book of Revelation. The Long Drawing Room contains a 15th-century wooden gallery originally from the chapel, with a projecting bay carved with the arms of Henry VII. The Little Drawing Room, originally accessible from the Long Drawing Room via a projecting octagonal lobby, features a ceiling of closely set, large, chamfered cambered beams. The private apartments of the Berkeley family extend around to the gatehouse adjoining the Keep on the west side.