Virtual Tour of Raglan Castle

Between the Hall and the moat and running towards the Great Gate, were the private rooms of the successive lords of Raglan, the State Apartments. Although badly damaged in the Civil War, enough remains to show the prestigious nature of these apartments. The first set of rooms, immediately behind the hall were the parlour, on the ground floor, and the dining room above it. The parlour was noted in the 17th century for its "inlaid wainscott and curious carved figures, as also for the rare and artificial stone work of the flat arch in a large and fair compass window on the south side, beaten down by the enemies great guns, and two neat windows at each end." Little remains of this splendor. All that can be seen of the "fair compass window" is the foundation of the projecting oriel overlooking the moat. However, the large dining room window still retained its fine stone tracery up until the beginning of this century, and is still impressive today.

The wall dividing the parlour and dining room from the state bedrooms has undergone considerable alteration. So too has the ground-floor room entered by the door off the parlour. The first floor was certainly the lord's bedchamber, and the beauty of the handiwork of the medieval craftsman who carved the masonry can be fully appreciated, especially in the internal details of the windows. Carved shields and badges can be seen above a first-floor chamber. The ground floor, possibly another bedroom, has lost the elaborate decoration of its windows, but still has one moulded jamb of a much-altered 15th-century fireplace in the opposite wall. Running along the present floor level is the top of the brick vault of the cellar below.

 

Below: close-up detail of the windows badges and shields above the State Apartments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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