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Dudley Castle is a ruined castle in the town of Dudley, West Midlands, England. Dudley Zoo is located in its grounds. The location, Castle Hill, is an outcrop of Wenlock Group limestone that was extensively quarried during the Industrial Revolution, and which now along with Wren's Nest Hill is a Scheduled Ancient Monument as the best surviving remains of the limestone industry in Dudley. It is also a Grade I listed building. The Dudley Tunnel runs beneath it.

Dudley Castle.

According to legend, a wooden castle was constructed on the site in the 8th century by a Saxon lord called Dud or Dado ^[1]. A castle was recorded at the time of the Domesday Book of 1086.

Much of the castle which can be seen today dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, although in 1530 it was rebuilt as a Renaissance palace by John Dudley (Dudley was later beheaded, accused of hatching a plot to behead Queen Mary). It became a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War, but was surrendered in 1646.

The castle was considered as a possible place of imprisonment for Mary Queen of Scots.

The bulk of the castle was destroyed by fire in 1750, previous to which the living accommodation was used by the Earls of Dudley. The Dudley family then moved to the neaby Himley Hall, but were responsible for the site until 1937, when the Zoo was established.

The castle gained fame in 2002 as the venue for the very first Live venue for Most Haunted Live on October 31 (Hallowe'en).

The castle also holds the distinction for being the site of the first concrete evidence of condoms and their use.^[2]

The maps of Christopher Saxton drawn in 1579 and John Speed in 1610, mark Dudley Castle in the County of Staffordshire not Worcestershire. ^[3]

The castle visitor centre was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in June 1994, and amongst other exhibits housed a computer generated reconstruction of the castle as it was in 1550, displayed through hardware that demonstrated the first use of the Virtual tour concept, prior to its widespread adoption as a Web based browser utility. More details of how Her Majesty became the first Royal to experience a virtual world here..Archive

1. ^ Himley House Hotel
2. ^ A History of birth control methods.
3. ^ Richardson, Eric, The Black Country as Seen through Antique Maps, The Black Country Society, 2000. ISBN 0904015602

• Dudley Zoo and Castle
• Aerial photo of Dudley Castle. Other map and aerial photo sources.

Coordinates: 52°30′52″N 2°04′48″W / 52.5143, -2.0800