From the Kenilworth Weekly News, 9th January 2008

A re-think over gates for castle?

There has been so much in the Kenilworth Weekly News of late about the castle and the planned, and very controversial, timber gates, fencing, metal barriers and solar powered ticket machines.

Support to stop this from happening has been coming in by the bucket load via letters, emails and phone calls. But I wonder this week if public opinion could be about to change on this?

According to revelations from our very own town centre manager Mr. Joe Baconnet, joy riders are ruining the grass area by the car park and there needs to be some way to stop these people getting in after hours.
When asked what solution he might suggest, the answer was "gates".

The land does look pretty bad and we can't allow this sort of thing to continue, after all we are about protecting the castle for people to enjoy.

Of course English Heritage want people to change their minds about their objections and as far as the ticket machines go it's doubtful this will happen. But gates to protect the castle and its grounds will hopefully seem more of an ideal proposition.

This would not be giving in to English Heritage but perhaps working with them on something that could prove important to preserve the town's most precious landmark.

The majority use and enjoy the castle but there will always be a small minority that choose to ruin what others try to protect. Let's not allow the grievances people have with English Heritage to stand in the way of what actually matters, Kenilworth Castle.




Chance to see historic garden being recreated

Gardening enthusiasts will get the opportunity to see a historic garden being created from the ground up this year thanks to English Heritage.

Work has already started to recreate the Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth Castle and visitors will be able to join special guided tours of the gardens. The tours will chart the progress of work on the site from its current appearance as a muddy field to a recreation of how the garden would have looked for Elizabeth I's visit to the castle in 1575, complete with aviary and fruit trees.

Holly Woodward, Kenilworth Castle's visitor operations manager, said: "When you look at the great gardens around the country you see wonderfully established shrubbery and topiary, but it is quite difficult to imagine the work that went into them. This project gives people a chance to see a real work-in-progress, allowing them to visit on regular intervals to watch how the recreation takes shape."

For the first few months of the tours visitors will have to don hard-hats and bring their wellies. The marking out and planting of the garden marks the start of the final stage for the Elizabethan garden, the culmination of years of meticulous research into how the garden would have been laid out.

Excavation work started in 2004 and ran for three years, as archaeologists uncovered evidence of the decorative features and fountain that stood in the garden. The recreated garden will be as close to the original as is possible, using contemporary descriptions made by Robert Langham who described the gardens in a letter in 1575.

Every detail, from the jewels in the aviary to the "fake" stone obelisks will be reproduced so that visitors will eventually be able to enjoy walking along the same paths as Queen Elizabeth herself.

The majority of the work is due to be completed on the gardens in summer 2008, with the addition of the fountain and official launch of the gardens in spring 2009. Tours will run every Friday (weather permitting) at 2pm and 3pm, departing from Leicester's Gatehouse. Tours last 30-45 minutes.

From the Kenilworth Weekly News, 18th January 2008

Neighbours back gates at the castle

Residents are backing English Heritage plans to install gates at the castle car park in a bid to curb 'doughnutters' wrecking the site and putting lives in danger.

Clare Crabtree and Natalie Bye of Castle Grove say that the joyriders have been making their lives a misery. They say that if you visit the car park after a certain time at night ‘you are taking your life into your own hands’. They also say that some people park their cars up and use the fields nearby and do ‘whatever it is they do in private’.

Mrs. Crabtree, who has lived in the town for five years and owns Quello bridal shop on the High Street, said: “I listen on a nightly basis to those joy riders who cause irreparable damage to that surface. The show starts around 9pm and can go on in to the early hours of the morning and we have to endure the screeching of every handbrake turn, speed reversing and near misses when they can’t control their spin. I wonder how long it will be before there is a serious incident. It certainly isn’t safe to walk your dog over there at night and after a certain time at night, you are taking your life into your own hands.”

Mrs. Bye added: “As a resident of Castle Grove for the last 10 years, I have seen the problem get progressively worse. We have spent many years trying to get the problem sorted which hasn’t worked so putting the gates on there should solve this problem once and for all. I walk my dog regularly over there and will not go in the evening because it is not safe. I also get fed up with seeing all of the litter and mess left from the night before on my morning walks.”

Mrs. Crabtree says that the residents have been following the progress of the castle gates with great interest and can see the point of view of those for and against the plans.

“There are pros and cons for everybody in Kenilworth but let’s not lose site of the longer term vision of Kenilworth. I have lived here for five years. After falling in love with our town I have opened my own business and intend to raise my family here. I am just as passionate about the wellbeing of our town and its heritage as somebody who was born here and genuinely believe we have to open our minds a little to change.”

A spokesperson for English Heritage said: “One of the main reasons we are installing gates is to keep joyriders out who use the car park and cause a nuisance. We resurfaced the car park last year which cost £120,000 and it has already been damaged. We have listened to the people of the town and will be keeping the gates open for ramblers and dog walkers until 9pm during the summer and 5pm in the winter.”

From the Kenilworth Weekly News, 5th February 2008

Protest to stop castle car parking charges

Protestors battling to stop English Heritage from imposing parking charges at Kenilworth Castle took action at the weekend, plastering a handmade banner to the castle's fence.

The banner, which said something along the lines of ‘Say no to parking charges at the Castle’, has been labelled as ‘tacky’ by Kenilworth Society chairman, Joanna Illingworth.

She said: “It was so very tacky. The sign looked dreadful, very amateur. It was a large piece of cardboard stuck on the fence by the castle. If whoever put it there thinks that will have an affect then they are hugely mistaken.”

For the past few months, the fight to keep Bray’s car park free and open 24 hours a day has been hotting up. Many residents have added their name to the campaign, which has been largely led by resident James Young, aka James De Young.

But public opinion changed in favour of the gates, just two weeks ago, when the Weekly News featured the plight of the residents living directly opposite the castle. Joy riders and other ‘dodgy’ happenings have been keeping neighbours, on Castle Grove, awake at night and they believe the gates will keep out these unwanted individuals.

Work on the controversial plans began yesterday (Thursday). The gates are being installed by Woods Building Contractor and will be overseen by Warwick Field Archaeological Services. The move means that joy riders are kept out and the castle ruins are protected. During the day, the gates will be open from 6.30am. The gates will be closed again at dusk. This will enable dog walkers and ramblers to continue to use the land surrounding the castle but provide greater security.

Steve Bax, head of visitor operations, said: “For many years, the car park at Kenilworth Castle has been blighted by joy riders who are entering the site illegally outside of opening hours and ruining the grassed approach to the castle. This has caused expensive damage to the car park area, which was resurfaced just 12 months ago at a cost of £120,000. Castle neighbours, who are regularly disturbed by the nightly invasion, have also reported their concerns to staff at the castle."

"For the visitor to Kenilworth Castle, first impressions are hugely important and for too long a few individuals have been able to damage the setting of this fantastic monument. We know that some Kenilworth residents have expressed concern at the introduction of the gates and we have thought about this issue extremely carefully. However, having listened to castle neighbours who are, naturally, extremely distressed by activity that is turning the area into a ‘no go zone’ after dusk, English Heritage feel that the protection offered by sensitively placed gates will be hugely beneficial.”

Car park charges are still being considered.

Four more old postcards of Kenilworth Castle, recently purchased.

A series of plans of the castle taken from the English Heritage booklet, written by M.W. Thompson MA PhD FSA.

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