Castles

A staple of a British family day out at some point in a child’s life and a staple of a school trip in primary school has to be a castle or a fort or some other defensive structure. This staple has been the same for a long while. Now these castles and structures are often protected, and thankfully in the care of heritage organisations, including English Heritage (itself with an interesting history formed out of the Office of Works and later the Ministry of Works). But these sites, from all periods of history, have drawn countless visitors over the years.

One thing remains universal of these visitors… most want to say “look I’ve been here” … “I’ve been up the tower” or some other statement similar, even if they don’t utter it. Humans have a habit of memorialising their visits to places. Some draw the sites, some photo, some tag their location in their preferred social media site… others take a piece of the site home with them (highly discouraged and illegal at most sites) others decide to leave something of them, generally by marking their presence physically. Thankfully for the heritage organisations, most people will now memorialise their visits in the gift shop or with photos. Please do not graffiti or carve anything into historical sites.

So while we look at historic sites, such as Helmsley Castle, we can often see initials and years carved into walls from long ago. This can tell us some interesting things about the sites history. That people did visit the site before they became tourist attraction and owned by heritage groups. These visits give us a gauge into how these sites have been visited over centuries. But they also make you think about the lives.

On a visit to Helmsley Castle, I saw initials and the date 1914. It makes you wonder if it was someone visiting in those July days as the world spiralled to war, or even who it was and what happened to them. What did they see, feel and where did they end up. But above all it makes us wonder why did these people visit the sites, where were they from and who managed the sites in times gone by.

A simple visit can make you think not just about when a site was built, but about its use to the present day. So when your out and about keep your eyes open, and you’ll never know what you might find at historical sites.