User:Huligan0/Durlston Castle

The Durlston Castle stands within the Durlston Country Park, a 1.13 square kilometre (280-acre) country park and nature reserve stretching along the coast line south of Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, southern England.

Preamble
John Mowlem (1788-1868), a Swanage born man was stonemason and builder and he was the founder of the quarrying and construction company "Mowlem’’. John Mowlem, together with his Nephew and business partner Burt, wanted to give something back to their home town, which was the source of their Portland and Purbeck limestone, a popular building stone. John Mowlem built the Mowlem Institute, a reading room and pubic library, in 1862.

George Burt (1816-1894), purchased an undulating tract of land covering Durlston Head during the same year. This estate included quarries that supplied their firm with the limestone. Burt developed this estate as a tourist attraction.

Venue
Burt established the Durlston Estate upon the crest of the hill and here he built his folly Durlston Castle. The castle was designed by the Weymouth architect G.R. Crickmay (1830-1907) and built by W.M. Hardy in 1886-87 entirely of local stone. The 'castle' was never a real castle, it was purpose-built by Burt as a restaurant for the visitors to his estate. However it deserves the term because of its architecture and stature.

The sidewall of the castle features a sundial and two stone tablets inscribed with various statistics such as the clock times around the world and the tides. South of the castle is the most impressive object within the Estate grounds, the Great Globe, built by Burt in 1887. Around the castle, the Great Globe and the entire estate there are more stone plaques carved with quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible and further facts about the natural world. These surrounds were placed during the period 1887 to 1891.

The castle played a part in the evolution of radio and telecommunications. A team of Marconi's engineers used the roof of the castle in the 1890s for some of their early wireless experiments to transmit to the Isle of Wight.

The castle has passed through the hands of many owners until in 1973 it was finally been bought by the Dorset County Council. Today the castle is now the home of the Jurassic Coast Visitor Centre and is open to the public. Durlston Castle and the Great Globe are both being restored during 2010 by the Council. Also within the Durlston Country Park and within walking distance of the Globe are Durlston Bay, Tilly Whim Caves and the Anvil Point Lighthouse. The Park is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 153 km, from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks, in the east.