The existence of Canterbury castle will come as a surprise to many. Even though it was one of the first castles built by the Norman conquerers of England, it is almost unknown.

The castle is probably the most used and abused ancient monuments in England. It has been a prison, contained a gas works !!!! and neglected for many years. The screams and outrage would have been appalling if a gas works had been built within sight of the cathedral but they had no qualms using the much older castle to hide a stinking gas works with all of the damage that did.

Sad to say, I would not be able to take these photos today. Years of neglect and misuse are takiing their toll and the castle is falling to pieces so making it unsafe for visitors. The governments austerity policies are unlikely to change anything, even if the local population did care.

The map and photos on the site can be viewed in a "Lightbox" which will adjust to the size of your screen. They are also held in galleries.

To open a gallery, simply click on one of the thumbnails. The image will open in the lightbox. Clicking or tapping on the right side of the image will move forward through the gallery. Tapping on the left side will move backwards. Clicking on the X or outside of the lightbox will close the gallery. If you have a mousewheel, you can use that to scroll through the gallery.

To view a full size map of the area, click or tap on the map thumbnail. This will link to Google Maps.

WARNING! The large images are in high definition and the files are consequently quite big. They may take a while to download to your browser if you have a slow connection.