Artist in Residence - Berkeley Castle 2017

Berkeley Castle is the oldest inhabited castle in Great Britain

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Dating back to 1070, it was given to Robert Fitzharding in 1153 by Henry II as a reward for his support in claiming the throne from King Stephen.
 
Fitzharding’s son Maurice adopted the surname ‘de Berkeley’ and the castle has remained in the Berkeley family more or less ever since, apart from the occasional Royal confiscation and a period of Royal ownership during a Berkeley family dispute.
 
In 1327 the deposed Edward II was imprisoned and later murdered at the castle.
When Henry Bolingbroke invaded England in 1399 in pursuit of his claim to the throne, he met leading barons at Berkeley Castle before deposing Richard II to become Henry IV.
 
Thomas IV, Lord Berkeley was one of the nobles left to oversee the government of England when Henry V went to fight in France in 1415.
 
In 1574 Elizabeth I stayed at the Castle and hunted in the deer park.

Shakespeare wrote
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ for a Berkeley wedding, and Berkeley Castle is mentioned in ‘Richard II’.
Upon being asked by The Earl of Northumberland 
“How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir keeps good old York there with his men of war?”
Henry Percy replies
“There stands the Castle, by yon tuft of trees, Mann’d with three hundred men, as I have heard;
And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley and Seymour”  
Act II, Scene III
​During the early part of the Civil War (1642-46) the castle changed hands five times and was sacked at least once.

George, Lord Berkeley regained the castle in 1646 but only on the condition that he breached the Keep wall so it could no longer be used as a fortress. That breach remains to this day.
 
The Berkeley family continued to serve sovereign and country and from the mid eighteenth century the family led the life of country landowners.
In 1916 it was inherited by the eighth Earl, a scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
​
He and his American wife modernised the castle, installing electricity and plumbing and adding various tasteful alterations and improvements making it a more comfortable family home.
 
The eighth Earl had no children so upon his death in 1942 the castle passed to distant cousins, the Berkeley family of Spetchley Park.
Mr and Mrs John Berkeley are its present custodians.

In 1984 they had the tropical Butterfly House built within the old walled kitchen garden and this has already proved to be a source of inspiration for me.