Inspired by Dorset

Today's post is about the setting for my work-in-progress, a historical novel which I'm very slowly drafting. 

Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle, near Swanage in Dorset, was the inspiration for my story. It is a National Trust building, and as you can see from the photo, half-demolished. I have a fascination with old buildings. The heritage of the past is words, ideas and revolutions, but buildings have the advantage of being solid and physical. Through buildings we can access the past. They make very distant, seemingly forgotten worlds seem close and relevant, and help us to understand the cultures our society grew out of. 

When I first saw this building my sense of curiosity was particularly strong. We'd lived near Arundel before we moved to Dorset. The castle there is magnificant, and intact. Looking at Corfe, I felt sad that it should have been reduced to the hollowed-out shell of its towers and a few walls. It was slighted by parliament in 1646 close to the end of the first part of the British civil war. I felt a whimsical urge to rebuild it, but in words rather than stone. 

I was, at the time, temporarily unemployed, having just moved to Dorset. I missed my university library, and the research (code for spending all day with my nose in a book) I'd had to do for my dissertation. So at the time, it seemed like a good idea. And now it turns out a big project isn't easy to get out of. I have to keep writing, editing and researching to prove that my very dubious efforts haven't been a waste of time.

Corfe Castle

I decided to go back to the early seventeenth century, an age when the era of the defensive castle was mostly over, and buildings like Corfe Castle had been rennovated into smart homes for the rich and affluent. The Bankes family bought the castle in a time of peace and prosperity, but then war arrived, disrupting the lives of the castle's inhabitants.

This was the backdrop I set out with, but once I'd started I couldn't keep my story within the confines of the castle walls. I made my main protagonist an 'ordinary' young woman from a middle-class family, rather than a member of the wealthy and moderately influential Bankes family. The narrative then spread outwards towards the coast, and I found myself creating a fictional place to serve as my heroine's hometown. 

Since this town doesn't exist in real-life, I can't say exactly where it is. I know a few things about it. It is a harbour town, perhaps a little like Lyme Regis, but it's close to Corfe Castle, somewhere between Weymouth and Poole. If it's not too misty, you can see Portland from the top of the hill on which my protagonist's family home stands. I imagine that if it were a real place, it would be located somehwere near Lulworth. 

Lulworth Cove

Durdle Door, nearby

I'll be writing about Lady Bankes and the siege of Corfe Castle another time, but if you'd like to find out more about the history of the castle there is some information here on the National Trust website.