It is said that Edward had been ut hunting in the hills and arrived at the castle to pay a visit to his step-mother who lived there and it was while he was drinking with her that one of his step-mothers servants stabbed him in the back. This made it easier for Elfrida's son Ethelred the Unready to be crowned King of England.

Even though no evidence was found to implicate the step-mother many rumours abounded and Edward was transported to be buried at Wareham and late canonized as Edward the Martyre, later his body was exhumed and he was reburied in Shaftesbury Abbey

A large moat separates the castle from the village most of which is natural and the castle and most of the village is built of local limestone in a dark grey colour and its unusual to see that some of the cottages have stone roofs. The village today though was mostly built in the 1700s but to a high degree of craftsmanship though there was a drop in its prosperity when the Purbeck Stone trade moved from Corfe to Swanage,  this resulted in the village keeping its picturesque unity which has made it a favourite setting for many historical films today.

The village is a favourite place for tourists in the summer and in West Street there is a Corfe Castle Model Village with a model of the castle as it was before the time of the Civil war and the Corfe Castle Museum is in the old Town Hall.

The Castle being fairly inaccessible was the ideal place to store treasure and regalia as well as to imprison political prisoners and even in 1106 it was an impressive fortress and state prison and said to be one of the most impregnable in the Kingdom. By 1212 it had become a fortified storage depot for the King's treasures and King John enjoyed his trips to Corfe to stay in the castle while hunting in the Purbeck hills and it was here that he stored 50000 marks just before his French campaign and here he starved 22 Frenchmen to death and kept his niece Eleanor for most of her life.

The fort had many additions put on and in the late 14th century Edward II was held here before being moved to Berkeley Castle where he was killed and Corfe was by this time largely in the poor state it was in when it was destroyed.

During the English Civil War a troop of republican horsemen came to Corfe but found the castle closed up. It was then put under siege and this lasted for three years before finally falling in 1646, a month later Parliament decided it should be destroyed and this was done over several months which shows how strong the fortifications were and this has helped to keep the castle as it is today.

The name Corfe derives from the Saxon 'Coresgea' which meant a cutting which is apt due to the location of the village in a cleft in the Purbecks, the castle built in the 11th century is on the site of what was once a Saxon Hunting lodge.

The Royal Prison of Purbeck was the title of the Norman Castle and it was later acquired by Sir John Bankes who was the Attorney General to King Charles I  and remained with the Bankes family until the 1980s when it was given to the National Trust.

Corfe station (Photo kindly donated by William Grierson, Brucklay, Aberdeenshire		Corfe Castle taken from the village photo kindly contributed by Dave and Diane Wills, Ontario, Canada

Like most English villages Corfe has its own local characters, one of the best rememberd being the innkeeper, Teddy Brown who decided that the castle was getting noticed more than his inn, The Fox (see photo below), and was known to read his newspaper by candlelight, so he decide to turn some of the castles floodlights around to illuminate his hostelry.

There is another local tale relating to a very drunk villager who was discovered wandering home long after the local inns had closed by a local policeman. His explanation was that "I bin watchin' television at Mr Brown's pub!". The policeman then told him that there had been a power cut and there had been no electricity since 8pm! But not to be outdone the drunk retorted "I knows but Mr Brown got the gas"!

On Shrove Tuesday the quarry men hold a court here, and young apprentices take part in an initiation ceremony that includes carrying a quart of ale into court as some of the older employees attempt to steal it from them, the ceremony also includes kicking a football through the local streets to preserve their right of passage.

On the road from Corfe to Stoborough can be found the Blue Pool country park, this was originally a clay pit that supplied the clay to some of the most famous potteries in Britain. most famous potteries.

IMAGES OF CORFE CASTLE

The old Pump and the war memorial