Corfe Castle Holidays

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Self catering holiday cottages in Corfe Castle, Dorset

CORFE CASTLE & VILLAGE
is a beautiful and historic village in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. It takes its name from the ruined Castle. Purbeck is called an “Isle” because it has sea on three sides and a river for most of the fourth.

Bronze Age barrows on Corfe Common and the Purbeck Hills date from about 3,000 BC, and there are Roman sites close to the village.

In Saxon times there was a royal hunting lodge where the Castle now stands. In 978 AD 18 year old King Edward was murdered here on the orders of his stepmother. Edward was an unpleasant young man and bad king.

Work on the Castle was started in 1080 by William the Conqueror and continued by his successors. By about 1300 this was one of the strongest fortresses and most splendid palaces in the country.

Enemies of the king were locked in the “Oubliette” and were left forgotten till they died. The King visited frequently and in his absence the Constable of the Castle governed the Isle of Purbeck.

By Tudor times the Castle was considered dank, and out of date, and Queen Elizabeth sold it in 1585. In 1635 it was bought by Sir John Bankes by which time it was again a magnificent palace. During the Civil War Sir John Bankes stayed with the King leaving his wife at Corfe.

She and a few retainers twice withstood sieges by Parliamentary forces commanded by Sir Walter Earle before the Castle was captured by treachery, and destroyed in 1646. The Bankes family continued to live near Blandford until 1980 when Mr. Ralph Bankes died leaving the Castle and the rest of his estate to the National Trust. Descendants of Sir Walter Earle still live near Wimborne.

Corfe Castle's parish church of St Edward the Martyr is dedicated to King Edward. Folklore has it that the church stands on the site of a blind woman's cottage where the King's body was taken after the murder. In the 13th century the original church was replaced by a larger church but by 1859 the state of the construction was so bad that everything except the tower was demolished and a new church in gothic style was built. After a century and a half the new church has blended in well.

Church Knowle is a couple of miles from Corfe Castle by a twisty road or less if you walk across the fields. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1085 as having a priest. The oldest parts of the present church of St Peter date from about 1230.

Corfe Castle boasts two hotels, both with restaurants, three pubs, a bistro, two tearooms, a general store (which featured in the TV programme “Mary Queen of Shops” in 2010), an excellent baker, a Post Office, two jewellers (one of London's West End quality), a National Trust shop and other attractions. Corfe Castle Model Village shows the castle before it was destroyed. There is a regular bus service and steam railway link to Swanage.

Then and now; it is remarkable how little the village of Corfe Castle has changed over the centuries, the photographs show Mortons House as it was almost a century ago and how, as a hotel, it is today. Corfe Castle has taken the strain of the growth in visitors and has lost none of its charm in doing so.

Self Catering Holiday Cottages, in Dorset

• Stone Lodge Cottage
• Riddles Cottage
• Folly Cottage
• Sue's Cottage
• Woadden's Cottage
• Gable Cottage
• Purbeck Cottage
• Chaffeys Cottage
• Diggory Cottage
• Stansfield Bungalow
• Fulbeck Cottage
• Littlemead Cottage

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