Rochester Castle in Kent England, a Norman fortress begun in the late 1000s and with a tower-keep of Kentish ragstone built about 1127. Close detail crop to 6 x 4 format of copperplate engraving by Richard Godfrey (1728 - 1795), from a drawing by Francis Grose (1731 - 1791), published in 1784 in Grose’s ‘The Antiquities of England and Wales’.
Rochester Castle, Kent, England. Close detail crop to 6 x 4 format of copperplate engraving first published in ‘The Antiquities of England and Wales’ by Francis Grose (1731 - 1791) and later coloured by hand. Engraved by Richard Godfrey (1728 - 1795), from a drawing by Francis Grose. ‘The Antiquities’ was published in London by Samuel Hooper 1772 - 1787. This engraving has the inscription ‘Pub 25 Augt 1784 by S. Hooper’. Rochester Castle is a Norman fortress guarding an important crossing of the River Medway. In 1087, Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and one of William the Conqueror’s greatest architects, began the castle’s construction and in 1127 King Henry I granted William of Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury and an important contributor to the castle’s construction, custody of the property. The castle’s Norman tower-keep of Kentish ragstone was built about 1127 by William of Corbeil. After an epic siege by King John in 1215, the castle was rebuilt under Henry III and Edward I and remained a viable fortress until the 1500s. Francis Grose was an English antiquary and draughtsman who aimed to make the past more intelligible to non-specialists. Grose’s ‘Antiquities’ was a vast, abundantly illustrated project and its full title was: ‘The Antiquities of England and Wales; Being a Collection of Views of the Most remarkable Ruins and antient (sic) Buildings, Accurately drawn on the spot. To each view is added An Historical Account of its Situation, when & by whom built, with every interesting Circumstance relating thereto. Collected from the best authorities.’
Size: 9993px × 6662px
Location: Rochester Castle, Kent, England, UK
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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