This post was 50 years in the making! When I was a teenager I visited as many castles as I could from the largest to the smallest. Merdon Castle is a large castle on private land and not normally open to the public, around 1974 the closest I could see this site was standing on a box looking over a boundary fence. Last week I saw the Castle was going to be open on 2 special Heritage days. Merdon Castle is located just outside Winchester near the village of Hursley.

About the castle taken from Heritage Open Days web page.
“Recently removed from Historic England’s “At Risk” Register, following restoration work by Home Farm Estate and Historic England, this is a rare opportunity to visit the remains of one of the castles built by Henri de Blois, Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen during the tumultuous years of “The Anarchy” that ended the Norman era in England.

Although the ramparts date back to pre-history the castle was built around 1138 but lasted only until the accession of Henry II. For the next four hundred years it was the manorial court for the Manor of Merdon and a palace from which the bishop could enjoy hunting in Hursley Park. Largely forgotten for the next five hundred years, as the focus shifted to Hursley Park House, it has remained little changed since the Eighteenth century, covered in ivy and hidden within the park. Now, cleared and the walls stabilized, it is possible to imagine what the castle would have looked like and wonder what the soldiers who visited it from the Army Camps in and around it in WWI and WWII would have thought.”