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Belvoir Castle

            Belvoir Castle is a faux historic castle and stately home in Leicestershire, England, situated 6 mi west of the town of Grantham and 10 mi northeast of Melton Mowbray. A castle was first built on the site immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and has since been rebuilt at least three times. The final building is a grade I listed mock castle, dating from the early 19th century. 

The castle is situated at the extreme northern corner of the county of Leicestershire and is sandwiched between Lincolnshire to the east and Nottinghamshire to the west, and overlooks the Vale of Belvoir to the northwest on the Nottinghamshire border. It is surrounded by the villages of Redmile, Woolsthorpe, Knipton, Harston, Harlaxton, Croxton Kerrial and Bottesford. The antiquarian John Leland (d.1552) stated: "the Castle stands on the very nape of a high hill, steep up each way, partly by nature, partly by the working of men's hands".

In 1799, the 5th Duke of Rutland married Lady Elizabeth Howard. The new Duchess of Rutland soon chose architect James Wyatt to rebuild the castle in the romantic Gothic Revival style. The Duke, one of the wealthiest landholders in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, sold seven assorted villages and their surrounding lands to fund the massive project. The project was nearing completion when, on 26 October 1816, it was almost destroyed by a fire. The loss - including pictures by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, and Reynolds - was estimated at £120,000 (£11.6 million today).

Rebuilt, again, to largely the same designs, at a cost of an additional £82,000 (£9.62 million today), the castle was largely completed by 1832. The architect Sir James Thornton  (who was the Duke's friend and chaplain and Vicar of nearby Bottesford) was chiefly responsible for this rebuilding, and the result bears a superficial resemblance to a medieval castle, its central tower reminiscent of Windsor Castle.

The castle's name Belvoir means beautiful view in Norman French. Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland has said the name Belvoir was brought over by the French-speaking Normans in the 11th century. As the Middle English–speaking Anglo-Saxons were unable to pronounce the name, they preferred to call it "Beaver Castle" – a usage which persists today.

Taken on: June 5, 2020

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Vale of Belvoir

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Camera: Fujifilm X-T3, f/10.0, 1/250 sec, 16mm (=24mm), ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm X-T3
Lens:	XF16mmF1.4 R WR
Aperture:	f/10.0
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	16mm (35mm equivalent: 24mm)
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.0.1 (Windows)
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