The Home Park includes parkland and two working farms

The Home Park includes parkland and two working farms, along with many estate cottages mainly occupied by employees and the Frogmore estate. The Long Walk, a double lined avenue of trees, runs for 3 miles (5 km) south of the castle, and is 240 ft (75 m) wide.^[63] The original 17th-century elms were replaced with alternating chestnut and plane trees. ^{Sony PCG-91111M Battery} The impact of Dutch elm disease led to large scale replanting after 1945.^[64] The Home Park adjoins the northern edge of the more extensive Windsor Great Park, occupying some 4,800 acres (1,900 ha) and including some of the oldestbroadleaved woodlands in Europe. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5J4M Battery} In the Home Park, to the north of the castle, stands a private school, St George's, which provides choristers to the chapel.Eton College is located within about half a mile of the castle, across the River Thames. Windsor Castle was originally built by William the Conqueror in the decade after the Norman conquest of 1066. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5K1M Battery} William established a defensive ring of motte and bailey castles around London; each was a day's march – about 20 miles (32 km) – from the city and from the next castle, allowing for easy reinforcements in a crisis.^[66] Windsor Castle, one of this ring of fortifications, was strategically important because of its proximity to both the River Thames, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5K2M Battery} a key medieval route into London, and Windsor Forest, a royal hunting preserve previously used by the Saxon kings.^[67] The nearby settlement of Clivore, or Clewer, was an old Saxonresidence. The initial wooden castle consisted of a keep on the top of a man-made motte, or mound, protected by a small bailey wall, occupying a chalk inlier, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5J5M Battery} or bluff, rising 100 ft (30 m) above the river.^[68] A second wooden bailey was constructed to the east of the keep, forming the later Upper Ward.^[69] By the end of the century, another bailey had been constructed to the west, creating the basic shape of the modern castle. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5L2M Battery 5]} In design, Windsor most closely resembled Arundel Castle, another powerful early Norman fortification, but the double bailey design was also found at Rockingham and Alnwick Castle.Windsor was not initially used as a royal residence; the early Norman kings preferred to use the former palace of Edward the Confessor in the village of Old Windsor. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-6S4M Battery} The first king to use Windsor Castle as a residence was Henry I, who celebratedWhitsuntide at the castle in 1110 during a period of heightened insecurity.^[73] Henry's marriage to Adela, the daughter of Godfrey of Louvain, took place in the castle in 1121. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-6W1M Battery} During this period the keep suffered a substantial collapse – archaeological evidence shows that the southern side of the motte subsided by over 6 ft (2 m).^[74] Timber piles were driven in to support the motte and the old wooden keep was replaced with a new stone shell keep, with a probable gateway to the north-east and a new stone well.^{[75] Sony VAIO PCG-6W2M Battery} Achemise, or low protective wall, was subsequently added to the keep.^[75] Henry II came to the throne in 1154 and built extensively at Windsor between 1165 and 1179.^[69] Henry replaced the wooden palisade surrounding the upper ward with a stone wall interspersed with square towers and built the first King's Gate.^{[69] Sony VAIO PCG-7Z1M Battery} The first stone keep was suffering from subsidence, and cracks were beginning to appear in the stonework of the south side.^[75] Henry replaced the keep with another stone shell keep and chemise wall, but moved the walls in from the edge of the motte to relieve the pressure on the mound, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2M Battery} and added massive foundations along the south side to provide additional support.^[75] Inside the castle Henry remodelled the royal accommodation.^[69] Bagshot Heath stone was used for most of the work, and stone from Bedfordshire for the internal buildings. King John undertook some building works at Windsor, but primarily to the accommodation rather than the defences.^{[77] Sony VAIO PCG-8Y3M Battery} The castle played a role during the revolt of the English barons: the castle was besieged in 1214, and John used the castle as his base during the negotiations before the signing of the Magna Carta at nearby Runnymede in 1215.^[77] In 1216 the castle was besieged again by baronial and French troops under the command of the Count of Nevers, but John's constable, Engelard de Cigogné, successfully defended it.^{[77] Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1M Battery} The damage done to the castle during the second siege was immediately repaired in 1216 and 1221 by Cigogne on behalf of John's successor Henry III, who further strengthened the defences.^[78] The walls of the Lower Ward were rebuilt in stone, complete with a gatehouse in the location of the future Henry VIII Gate, between 1224 and 1230.^{[69] Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2M Battery} Three new towers, the Curfew, Garter and the Salisbury towers, were constructed.^[77] The Middle Ward was heavily reinforced with a southern stone wall, protected by the new Edward III and Henry III towers at each end.^[69] Windsor Castle was one of Henry's three favourite residences and he invested heavily in the royal accommodation, spending more money at Windsor than in any other of his properties. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-8Z3M Battery} Following his marriage to Eleanor of Provence, Henry built a luxurious palace in 1240–63, based around a court along the north side of the Upper Ward.^[80] This was intended primarily for the queen and Henry's children.^[69] In the Lower Ward, the king ordered the construction of a range of buildings for his own use along the south wall, including a 70 ft (21 m) long chapel, later called the Lady Chapel. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7112M Battery} This was the grandest of the numerous chapels built for his own use, and comparable to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris in size and quality.^[82] Henry repaired the Great Hall that lay along the north side of the Lower Ward, and enlarged it with a new kitchen and built a covered walkway between the Hall and the kitchen.^{[81] Sony VGP-BPL15/B Battery} Henry's work was characterised by the religious overtones of the rich decorations, which formed "one of the high-water marks of English medieval art".^[83] The conversion cost more than £10,000.^[78] The result was to create a division in the castle between a more private Upper Ward and a Lower Ward devoted to the public face of the monarchy. ^{Sony VGP-BPS15/B Battery} Little further building was carried out at the castle during the 13th century; the Great Hall in the Lower Ward was destroyed by fire in 1296, but it was not rebuilt. Edward III was born at Windsor Castle and used it extensively throughout his reign.^[84] In 1344 the king announced the foundation of the new Order of the Round Table at the castle. ^{Sony VGP-BPL15/S Battery} Edward began to construct a new building in the castle to host this order, but it was never finished.^[3] Chroniclers described it as a round building, 200 ft (61 m) across, and it was probably in the centre of the Upper Ward.^[85] Shortly afterwards, Edward abandoned the new order for reasons that remain unclear, and instead established the Order of the Garter, ^{Sony VGP-BPS15/S Battery} again with Windsor Castle as its headquarters, complete with the attendant Poor Knights of Windsor.^[3] As part of this process Edward decided to rebuild Windsor Castle, in particular Henry III's palace, in an attempt to construct a castle that would be symbolic of royal power and chivalry.^{[86] Sony VGP-BPS15 Battery} Edward was influenced both by the military successes of his grandfather, Edward I, and by the decline of royal authority under his father, Edward II, and aimed to produce an innovative, "self-consciously aesthetic, muscled, martial architecture".^[87] Edward placed William of Wykeham in overall charge of the rebuilding and design of the new castle and whilst work was ongoing ^{Sony VGP-BPL15 Battery} Edward stayed in temporary accommodation in the Round Tower.^[84] Between 1350 and 1377 Edward spent £51,000 on renovating Windsor Castle; this was the largest amount spent by any English medieval monarch on a single building operation, and over one and a half times Edward's typical annual income of £30,000.^{[88] Sony VGN-P series Battery}