Denmark 10 Egeskov Slot Part 3 /the fairy tale castle , the not so interesting rooms /Reminders of William Burgess

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We had done with the display of fashion and it was time now to move on to the fairy tale castle that was Egeskov Slot. Picture the scene if you will . A moat with a beautifully manicured lawn running down to it . Waterlilies growing in the water . A gatehouse . Mellow red brick. Pointed arched windows . Somewhere where the young medieval lady would stand. Her hair flowing down . She would be waiting to be rescued by knight in shining armour . A copper witches hat roof turned green with age . And there you have it in a nutshell . The perfect medieval castle .

Only it was not medieval at all . It looked medieval . But the wrought iron gate hid the clue . 1850 - so this was only a copy . But a damn good one at that . We had seen castles like this before . We call them Victorian Gothic and they were much loved by architects such as William Burgess who harked back to medieval buildings and building techniques . There was one inside Cardiff Castle grounds . A second one again owned by Lord Bute called Castell Coch . And a third one another Lord Bute home in Scotland . The outside mirrored what we knew of this style of architecture so what of the inside ?

As we walked in I guess we thought how the owner made money . Did he hire out his castle to the film industry who wanted to film something about the Middle Ages? Was it used for weddings? I am sure the well heeled bride would love her photograph to be taken near to the moat or in the castle courtyard with the castle as a backdrop. Was it used for tours by the local Womens Institutes or wedding breakfasts ?

Certainly from the outside it had prettiness by the bucketload . Inside was not quite as interesting . If we were to go to a Chatsworth or to Buckingham Palace there would room after room of artifacts . Here there were only a handful of rooms opened. We climbed the stairs and the first thing we could see was the plasterwork with the cameos of the original owners . Here and there were odd plasterwork . Some more interesting than others but nowhere was there any description of what we were seeing .

The rooms were quite modern in design. One bedroom with white doors that you could see in any modern home . Bright yellow walls and simple beds . Nothing that looked ancient . Rather too modern to be fitting . I loved the writing room . Very small and intimate . Orchids in a bowl and ink bottles on the desk . A great deal of the furniture and the rooms were all looking rather Victorian and dark . Probably not the best of castles we had seen .

In fact the inside was rather disappointing . We climbed higher into a small attic with extremely low ceilings. In a display cabinet we could see a history of duelling. Duelling pistols were displayed. There were even the modern pistols belonging to the current owner of the house .

As we climbed higher we reached the top of the house and this floor held a display of old tin toys . Each toy was placed inside a bubble and hung in a frame. It was a very unusual way to show toys . They could be viewed at head height and from the round . Hundreds of toys . Some from the earliest days of tin plate toys and going through the 1920's, the 1930' and the war years . Toys right up to the 60's. All beautifully displayed . It seemed that this display was the most interesting in the whole house as the attic was full of people . Everyone seemed interested in the toys .

We left the top floor and walked slowly down through the floors until we reached the courtyard below. The weather was warm. Quite different to what we had expected . We headed for the outdoor cafes but although they were open it was hard to find anyone to serve us .

Further round the site was a museum of the Rescue services . This was full of ambulances from different eras. Police vehicles and fire engines . All of which celebrated the emergency services . This room was full. Particularly full of children who were enjoying climbing inside the ambulances and looking at all the equipment . They climbed on top of the fire engines and pretended to be policemen , ambulance drivers and fire engine drivers .

A second building was dedicated to camping through the ages . It was put together by the Danish camping association and tents and campervans were set up around a woodland setting . The tents were older ones from the 60's , frame tents and ridge tents . Equipment was placed inside each tent . Campagaz stoves , single ones and ones with toasters. Hobby caravans . Caravans from the 1950's and modern up to date ones . Hiking equipment . Motorhomes . Everything was there for camping including an introduction to the Danish camping club . I guess they wanted enthusiasts to join them in the same way as we joined the Camping and Motorhome Club and Caravan Club back home.

We left the camping section and decided to have a look at the last exhibition which was called the Depository . So what was the Depository all about ?

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