Warwickshire Attractions
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Chapel, Great Hall  and State Rooms Warwick Castle

The Great Hall is the largest room in the castle and  throughout history has been its heart.

It is thought that originally, in the early middle ages, the Great Hall was  where the Cedar Drawing Room is now.

Straw and dirt covered the floor. Burning in the centre of the room would  have been a large fire, its smoke turning the air acrid. The only natural light  filtered through narrow lancet windows. Here it was that the nobility ate, drank  and even slept.

The Hall as it stands today, was first constructed in the 14th century. It  was rebuilt in the 17th century and then restored in 1871 after it had been  badly damaged by a fire which swept through part of the castleThe carved scenes that decorate it, which include such  famous Elizabethans as Philip Sydney, Francis Drake, William Shakespeare and  Walter Raleigh, are reputedly taken from Sir Walter Scott's 19th century  historical novel, 'Kenilworth'. After its display at the Great Exhibition, where  it won the woodcarvers a prize medal for their skill, the buffet was presented  to George, later the 4th Earl of Warwick, in 1852 as a wedding gift from the  people of Warwickshire.

In two of the window bays can be seen superb examples of  equestrian armour. The horse on the left is shown with 16th century Italian  armour, and the knight wears 16th century Italian 'field' (battle) armour. The  horse to the right is in a German 'bard' (armour for a horse) of the 16th  century whilst the knight wears Italian jousting armour circa 1540.

In the window is a huge cauldron known as 'Guy's Porridge  Pot', named after the 10th Earl of Warwick. About 500 years old, it was used to  cook stew for the castle's garrison of soldiers.

The miniature suit of armour is said to have been made  for the 4-year old son of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Also named  Robert, he never grew up to fight. He died at the age of 6 from one of the many  illnesses that made war on children and from which there was no  protection.

Chapel
Sir Fulke Greville, the first Lord Brooke,  authorised the building of the small chapel in the early 1600s. It may be on the  site of another chapel founded as long ago as 1119.

State Rooms
Retaining portions of the mediaeval  Castle of the 14th Century, the State Rooms have been extended, altered and  embellished during virtually every century since to lavishly entertain the  noblest of guests, and to display the family's most prestigious possessions.

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