Bodiam Castle is one of the National Trust's most popular and spectacular properties.

It's everyone's idea of the classic medieval castle, sitting four-square in the centre of a beautiful moat and accessible only by a causeway.

A video was needed for visitors to watch on arrival to tell the story not just of the Castle, but of settlement in the valley from the earliest times.

Central to the story is the River Rother which, hundreds of years ago was accessible from the sea. Using animation, the video shows how first Romans and later Anglo Saxons settled in the valley.

Entering the 13th century - and the era of the castle itself - we employed a mix of animation and re-enactment to show how the castle came to be built - and the ambitions and background of its builder, Sir Edward Dalyngrygge.

The video also traces the eventual decay of the Castle as an inhabited 'home' but shows how from the late 19th Century it became popular with sightseers and, eventually, was rescued and restored to become the castle we see today.

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