8




Invaders swarm the castle!

On Sunday morning Sar and I rose at a fairly decent hour and descended downstairs to have breakfast with a large group of our friends. After our hearty repast, I tracked down Nikke in the lounge and asked her if I could accompany her around Chepstow Castle. I had decided it was time I spent some time with her, as we hadn’t really had a chance to talk much yet. She agreed and we chatted until the coaches arrived. During this time, Kirsty appeared with a young American woman named Christina, who she had told me about the night before.

Christina had asked Kirsty if she ran that “Gisburne site”. Assuming that Christina meant the Robert Addie site, Kirsty said yes. Then, when Christina said how much she loved Gisburne’s NASTY Knight Page, poor Kirsty explained (possibly through gritted teeth) that she didn’t run it. Anyway, this charming, extremely intelligent young lady, who possessed such excellent taste, actually wanted to meet me for some unfathomable reason, so Kirsty kindly introduced us. I also found myself meeting a fellow webmaster when Heather from Ink Under the Skin said hello. As I had met her online a couple of years ago when she joined the RoS Webring, it was great to actually see her face to face. Then the coaches arrived and the conversations ended. However, as said coaches were transporting us to Chepstow Castle, we weren’t exactly heart-broken.

The Wall of Jericho – I think

I think Nikke and I were both worried about whether she’d be able to get on one of the coaches, but Janet kept her word and found a couple of strong, strapping lads to lift Nikke’s wheelchair onto the bus. We didn’t get a chance to sit together because the only empty seat I could find was near the back, but as I was holding Nikke’s camcorder I knew she’d make sure I didn’t get lost. Uh, I’m serious. Dummy here didn’t think to consult a map before the journey and had forgotten that this particular RoS location was in Wales. It wasn’t until we reached a border crossing that I began to grow suspicious. Then I noticed that the signs were in English and Welsh and I knew that something was up. There was also the fact that I had been to Wales in ’96 and could kind of recognize it.

When we reached Chepstow Castle, I returned Nikke’s camcorder to her and we joined the queue of people waiting to charge through the outer gatehouse. We met Rina in the line, and she ended up joining us for the day. In fact, I was very grateful that she did because I ended up needing her help with Nikke’s wheelchair. All of the paths throughout the castle were gravel and involved a lot of steep inclines and declines. As I didn’t have a lot of experience with wheelchairs, I really needed an extra person to help push and keep us on course. As it was, we almost rolled off the path a couple of times.

Oooooh! This is the place where the
Baron stood in “The Enchantment”!

Chepstow Castle is absolutely beautiful, and I can see why it would have been used for shots of Belleme Castle in “The Enchantment” and Caerleon in “The Inheritance”. As we made our way through the lower bailey, I snapped a couple of pictures. There would be a lot more. You’ll eventually find most of them in the RoS Castle Tour…once I’ve managed to complete the section on Chepstow Castle.

We were still in the lower bailey when we met up with Gary and Pernille. Gary asked me if I knew which parts of the castle had been used in RoS, and I was forced to confess ignorance. That was when he volunteered to take us on a little tour. He led us to the middle bailey and the first thing he showed us (and the most exciting find for me) was what he believed was the famous “Wall of Jericho”.



Hi, you might remember me as Caerleon
Castle in “The Inheritance”.

For those of you who haven’t seen the blooper reels, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Well, when they were filming the scene where the Sheriff and Gisburne are walking along the battlements of Belleme Castle in “The Enchantment,” Nickolas Grace turned to Robert Addie and said, “Gisburne…” Then he started singing, “Joshua on the Walls of Jericho…” At which point both actors began dancing and singing, “Jericho! Jericho! Joshua on the Walls of Jericho! And the walls came a-tumbling down!” I was practically rolling on the floor with laughter the first time I saw that clip, so I was really happy when Gary pointed it out to us.



Pernille and Nikke at the
south-west tower

The next feature of interest on the tour was the Great Tower. In this crumbling tower there’s a doorway with a beautiful faded arch above it. Anthony Valentine stood in this spot at the end of “The Enchantment” when we hear him saying, “Did you really think you could defeat me?” We took a few moments to ponder this question and admire the sight, before we headed to the upper barbican through the gallery and upper bailey, following the same route the Sheriff and Gisburne took when they approached Castle Belleme on horseback in “The Enchantment,” if I’m not mistaken.



We stopped outside the south-west tower and looked across the wooden bridge to a familiar sight. It turned out to be the location they used for the bailey of Caerleon in “The Inheritance,” the one you see Robin, Much and Isadora in when they’re attempting to defend the castle. We could also see the upper bailey gate where Raven and his men entered when they attacked Caerleon Castle. In fact, we were standing in the same spot (outside the south-west tower) Robin stood when Raven charged across the bridge, only to be met by a barrier of flames.

Remember when Raven and his
men charged into Caerleon
Castle? This was the gate
they rode through!

As Nikke switched on her camcorder and me and Rina began snapping some pictures, Gary broke the news to us that we wouldn’t be able to find “The Eye of Satan” (the little gargoyle thingie where the treasure was hidden in “The Enchantment”) because it had been constructed for the show by the props people. We also learned that the scene with Gisburne and Ralph (“He fell…”) was actually filmed in a building across from the castle, on the other side of the Wye River. Ah, the wonders of television.