Rochester Castle
Rochester Castle in Kent is a Norman fortress of extraordinary scale and impressive preservation, its massive rectangular keep rising 34 metres from the ground to make it one of the tallest and most dramatic castle towers in England. The castle stands on the banks of the River Medway where the Roman road of Watling Street crossed the river, a strategically critical location that has been fortified in one form or another since the earliest period of the Roman occupation of Britain. The current keep was built by William de Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury, under a licence granted by King Henry I in the 1120s, and its scale and quality of construction reflect both the resources of the church and the political significance of controlling the crossing of the Medway. The walls of the keep are up to 4.5 metres thick and are faced in high quality Kentish ragstone, giving them a strength and durability that has survived the multiple sieges the castle has endured over eight centuries. The most famous of these sieges came in 1215 during the conflict between King John and the rebellious barons who had forced the signing of Magna Carta earlier that year. A baronial force held the castle for two months against John's army before the southeast corner tower was undermined using a technique that involved tunnelling beneath the foundations and then burning the wooden props to cause the tunnel roof to collapse, bringing the tower above down with it. The round replacement tower that was subsequently built on the southeast corner remains clearly distinguishable from the square Norman towers on the other three corners, a permanent record of this episode in the castle's history. The interior of the keep, though lacking its floors and roof, retains the framework of its original arrangement including the dividing wall that split the building into two halves for security reasons. Climbing through the levels to the roof provides exceptional views across the Medway estuary and the surrounding Kent and Essex countryside. Rochester's cathedral, medieval castle and the connections with Charles Dickens, who lived nearby at Gad's Hill and set significant portions of The Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations in the city, make it one of the most rewarding historic destinations in the southeast of England.