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24-Nov-2023

There's not much of it left now, but in its day Duffield Castle featured England's third largest keep...

According to Luke Foddy, it was initially a motte and bailey, and the keep (the main tower) was added, probably by the first earl of Derby or a successor, at some point after 1138.

What happened to it, though, is a matter of some dispute: "The popular view, including that of the National Trust, is that the fortress was destroyed in 1266 following the rebellion of its owner, Robert de Ferrers III, the sixth earl of Derby. Other historians reckon it was long gone before Robert was even born."

Piecing together the evidence, Foddy maintains the castle came to grief in 1264, when Edward, son of King Henry III, turned up on a punitive expedition. After all, we have "a powerful royal army on record as levelling Tutbury castle, carrying out destruction through Robert’s lands, and popping up just nine miles away in Wirksworth". Sounds like a smoking gun.

But Duffield Castle features again in the records in 1273, so possibly it was badly damaged but still standing. That's the last we hear of it. Unlike Tutbury, which was repaired, Duffield just faded away...

What you can see now is a capped well and some stonework (Foddy says it's Victorian, and maintains there's now no sign of the original fortification).

But at sunrise on a winter's morning, it's very atmospheric. The views are great, and the surrounding avenues are very gracious:

nigel

tree

walls1

walls2

house

stone

sunrisered

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If you walk to Duffield not at sunrise but at lunchtime, you can feast at the Bridge Inn (thoroughly recommendable):

lunch
Sausage and mash, with bacon, red onion, and peas. Delish...

*_*_*

Just up the road from us in Milford, meanwhile, is a cute row of houses called Banks Buildings:

bb

Just along from them is the rather picturesque Milford railway tunnel:

tunnel

fromtunnel

And no walk away at all, but visible from "our" garden is "our" chimney, looking wonderful in the bright sunshine of a cold winter's day:

chimney

I've really enjoyed the scenic qualities of our immediate area. It's been great to have these walks on our doorstep.