The story of Warwick Castle

William the Conqueror began this castle in 1068 as a wooden fort on a sandstone cliff above a bend of the River Avon – and four houses belonging to the Abbot of Coventry were knocked down to make room for it. The river below has eaten into the rock, forming a cliff, so the site was naturally strong. In the 12th century the wooden castle was rebuilt in stone.

During the Hundred Years War, the side facing the town was refortified, creating one of the best-known examples of 14th-century military architecture in England – the towering front you see today. The castle stayed a stronghold until 1604, when King James I granted it to Sir Fulke Greville, who turned it into a country house. His family, who became Earls of Warwick in 1759, owned it until 1978, when it was sold to the company behind Madame Tussauds.

Look up at the towers, then down at the river that guarded them.