Heir Apparent Coming in British Heritage
Leeds Castle entered history as a royal estate of the Saxon kings, at least as early as AD 850. The Saxon monarchy didn’t go much for castles, but they did fortify their large stone mill on the River Len. In all likelihood, this mill sat on a sharp meander curve of the little river, with its outflow forming a cutoff on the narrow meander neck; this formed a backwater lake with two islands in the middle. And this is what you see today. The two islands are now wholly taken up by the castle, while the meander lake forms the wide, lovely moat that surrounds it.
