Stark? You mean York?

I doubt, very much that I am the only one that sees it as:

• Lannister = Lancaster
• Stark = York
• Joffrey = Spoilt Brat
• Dothraki = Mongols
• Beyond the Wall = Scotland
• The Wall =  Antonine Wall
• The narrow sea = North sea/English channel
• Night's Watch = The Black Watch

and

•  Kings Landing = London 
• (Feel free to add the rest to the comments.)

"Time changes everything" might be a saying, (though I think that it is, "Death changes everything".) London used to be Londinium. The house of Lancaster, (red rose) and the house of York, (white rose) ended the war of the roses by combining the two "sigils", (actuall heraldic symbols) into the Tudor red-and-white rose, (i.e. they married.)

 

In English we often equate a single lifetime to a year. Take for example the phrase, "A May to December relationship". This does not usually suggest that a Cancerian and a Sagitarius are having a relationship. Or, "she spent her autumn years living in the south." In this sense, winter is the end of our lives, and to that end we all know, to a greater or lesser extent, that Winter Is Coming!

 

What fewer of you may know is that you can visit the seat, (that means home) of one of Ned Stark's banner men/retainers. Today. For reals. Yes, in Yorkshire, England. Lord Bolton's Castle, aptly named Bolton Castle, (confusingly in the village of Castle Bolton - though as many of the houses are probably built using some of the stone from the castle, naming the village after the castle is probably appropriate.)

The castle is is indeed a "Dreadfort" in the North of England.

 

It is an impressive impediment. Set majestically into the north side of the valley of Wensleydale. From there the castle can survey the valley and protect the north. Sadly protecting the north is a tough job, even if you are made of stone. So some of the castle has fallen, (but most of it is still there - enough for a small boy, or even a fully grown Yorkshire man, to fall from and really hurt himself.)

 

There is even a website www.boltoncastle.co.uk . When you can find out that against the odds, Lord Bolton's family still own the castle and live there, (and what is more they are a really nice bunch.)

 

So if you are a real fan of Game of thrones, I feel you have to, at least once in your life, pay your tribute and stand on the battlements of Lord Bolton's Castle and truly know that Winter is coming.