Bruce Castle Museum - an excellent example of the rich English manor of the XVI century with a varied past, reflects the history of the UK.

The name of the castle, the mention of which occurs at the beginning of the XVI century, gave the house once stood here Bruce. The house was owned by the ancient Scottish clan, a leading lineage, according to some assumptions on Norman knight Robert de Bruce (sailed to England with William the Conqueror in 1066). The successor to the house Georgian castle built of red brick - it is one of the first uses of typical British building material. The building was rebuilt in the XVII, XVIII, XIX centuries, but basically it kept the original look.

The first owner of the castle was Sir William Compton, noble times of Henry III, the function of which, among other things, included the observation of the portable toilet King. Incumbent court by natural causes was quite close to the monarch. In the XVII century the castle suffered during the Civil War: Army seized the building of the parliament. British politician, historian and antiquarian baron Henry Hare was inherited the castle and lived there with his first wife Constance - by some accounts, she threw herself from the balcony of the castle with a child in her arms after learning about the relationship her husband with another woman. One of the legends of the castle - the "Phantom Lady" supposedly scary screaming on the anniversary of the suicide.

But the most famous owner of the castle - a teacher, Sir Rowland Hill, who bought the building in 1827 to house the school here. School Hill made a breakthrough in the British pedagogy: there taught foreign languages ​​and science, abolished corporal punishment. Hill is also known as a radical reformer mail Britain: it was he who introduced the use of a postage stamp (the famous "black penny").

The castle is open to the public as a museum in 1906. The exhibition tells the history of the county Herindzh (north London), part of it is devoted to Sir Rowland Hill and British mail. For example, here represented by one of the most comprehensive collections of British mailboxes. An impressive collection of historical portraits and landscapes.

In addition to the exhibition, it is wise to examine the actual castle and its park - one of the oldest in Tottenham. Tottenham District today notorious as a point of social tension, often starting from the civil unrest. However, the estate of Bruce forget this: in a quiet park of 20 hectares, there are tennis courts, a children's pool, basketball courts. There grows a magnificent sprawling 500-year-old oak.