A 12th Century Tower and a 21st Century Pothole in Conisbrough

In Brief.

Conisbrough Castle consists of a crumbling inner Bailey and an impressively preserved 12th Century tower that sits on a hill overlooking much of the small town of Conisbrough. Run by English Heritage, there are informative displays on the castle and the principal protagonists in its history, along with insights into what is involved in keeping a castle up and running. The town of Conisbrough itself is quite low key, and its roads are no better maintained than in other parts of the country; hitting a pothole with a bit of a thump at quite low speed near to the castle turned out to be enough to puncture a front tyre and radically change the plan for the day.

The tower from the inner Bailey.

What's Here?

The most striking feature of Conisbrough Castle is its tower, which was likely built in the late 12th century by/for Isabel and Hamelin de Warenne. Isabelle was the great-great-granddaughter of William de Warenne, a close follower of William the Conqueror, and Hamelin of Anjou was the illegitimate half-brother of Henry II. These seem to have been sufficient credentials to mean that Conisbrough was not their  main home, though it was seen fit to merit some home improvements. Each level of the tower has a single main room, such as a hall or a bedchamber, with smaller adjacent spaces, for example for a chapel (or a toilet). These levels include audio-visual displays featuring different people associated with the castle, and there are good views of the town and surrounding countryside from the roof.  The inner Bailey provides views of the tower and indications as to the additional buildings that provided essential services, such as the kitchens.  There is a small park on the lower slopes of the hill that hosts the castle.

Going nowhere fast.

I returned to the car to an immediately obvious front right puncture. As with most cars these days, I don't have a spare wheel, so the available response was a bottle of sealant and a compressor for injecting the sealant into the tyre. This process was fairly straightforward, with easily followed instructions, and thankfully I was parked on a quiet road. Alas, it was also completely unsuccessful. Web searches tend to suggest that sealant works quite well, but the word from the person who eventually rescued me was that it is fine for punctures caused by nails when the nail is still in the tyre, but not for much else. As the sealant also writes off the tyre, it seems that it can largely be used with repairable tyres that are then rendered unrepairable! The sidewall damage on my tyre was clearly too much for it.

The remainder of the process involved summoning Jaguar Assistance via the associated button in the car that yielded a connection to a call centre and told them where I was. Ninety minutes later, a van arrived. The process was then to phone local tyre dealers to see if they had a suitable replacement for on-the-day fitting (they did not) and then to head home at low speed with a space-saver wheel, accompanied by the roadside repair guy who then swapped wheels again on my drive.  Thus credit to Jaguar Assistance for getting me home on-the-day, but the overall lessons on low profile tyres and tyre sealant are not reassuring. A postscript to the unhappy saga is that tyre sealant may also gum up the valve, so if you use a sealant, when the tyre is changed also change the valve!

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 73 miles

Drive Time: 1 hour 30 mins

Price: Connisbrough Castle: $.  New tyre plus fitting at home: £210; new sealant canister £30.

Parking: There isn't a carpark but on street parking is available.

Food and Drink: There is coffee at the castle, but not a proper cafe. I didn't make it to the planned destination for lunch.

Retail Therapy: There is a small shop at the castle: goblets, jam, wine, cuddly knights, etc.

Child Friendly: There's nothing specifically for kids, thought the signage and videos are for a wide age range.

Toilets: Yes.

Do it justice in: 1 hour.

Inside-Outside: 60:40

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