Guildford Castle

These slopes would have been a riot of colour in the halcyon days of the 1950s.
Mostly tulips and pansies, as I recall.

Like this (taken in 1983):

That's more like it, but I'm sure there were flowers on the slopes of the mound too. I recall skipping round the encircling pathways and examining the different-coloured tulips that were nearly as tall as I was, as well as the faces of the pansies.

The seats by the bowling green had a profusion of rock plants hanging down from the top of the wall, alyssum, aubretia and saxifrage (where now they have those shrubs), so that it was like sitting in the rockery itself. We would stop there for "elevenses" whilst getting the shopping, and I would sit my teddy on top of the wall to sniff the flowers.

I dare say, though I only remember daffodils on those slopes in March/April in later years. On family outings in the 1950's we only went to the same picnic site near St Martha's, never to the Castle.

But it isn't only the flowers - see, here, the trees growing picturesquely on the top of the keep and the wild flowers clinging to its walls, and the huge tree, just to the left, all of which vanished in the 1990's when the castle was restored .