2-888-228 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Borstall Tower, [near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire], 1850. View of '...the north front [of Borstall or Boarstall Tower], a good specimen of the castellated architecture of the time of Edward II., when it was built by John, son of Richard de Handlo...The edifice is in plan square, with embattled turrets at each angle; the entrance to the tower is over a bridge of two arches, which supplies the place of the ancient drawbridge, destroyed by order of Parliament...in the year 1644. The gateway is secured by massive doors, strengthened with studs and plates of iron...One side of the moat has been filled up, but the other three sides still remain'. Edward the Confessor rewarded a huntsman named Nigel for killing a wild boar, and Nigel '...erected a large manor-house, and named it Bore-stall, or Boar-stall, in memory of the event through which he obtained possession'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.