Berkeley Castle wedding map print

The first castle here was a motte and bailey raised around 1067 by William FitzOsbern. Fitzharding built the round shell keep between 1153 and 1156, and much of the rest went up in the fourteenth century for Thomas de Berkeley. Historical sources record that King Edward II was murdered here on 21 September 1327, though some have argued he escaped.

The Civil War left its mark. In 1645 Parliamentarian troops under Thomas Rainsborough fired on the castle from the roof of the church next door and breached its walls. The family were allowed to keep their home on one condition: that they never repair the damage to the keep and the outer bailey. On the artwork the church of St Mary the Virgin stands just to the north.

Close by on Church Lane is the Chantry, Edward Jenner's home for 38 years and now a museum. On 14 May 1796 Jenner inoculated James Phipps, his gardener's eight year old son, and in his garden he later gave free vaccinations from a hut he called the Temple of Vaccinia. He is buried at St Mary's. The map also catches the start of Berkeley Pill on its way west to the estuary.