Yes, I took the picture of Clifford’s Tower, such a striking sight in the middle of a busy town! Originally, towers were built in a square shape. These structures are known as ringworks, a particularly impressive example being at Castle Rising in Norfolk. Horses were extremely valuable in Medieval times. ( Log Out / Previous Blog Post: When Pineapples Were The Height Of Luxury, You may like: What happened after 1066? The Great Hall was the focus of social life in any Medieval Castle. An important centre of government? Curtain walls had to be tall enough to make scaling the walls with ladders difficult and thick enough to withstand bombardment from siege engines. Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence
These changes were brought about by many factors like changes in warfare and the influences of different cultures. As we will see, many castles were surrounded by water-filled moats, meaning that attackers would have had to find a way to cross these moats before even reaching the gatehouse.
Is it being used to repair defences?
In later castles, moats were designed to make the castle appear grander and more impressive, rather than have a real defensive role.
They embody the romantic ideal of chivalry, of epic battles, of loyalty and personal sacrifice to crown and country. If an attacked made it across the moat, they would then come up against the curtain wall. This was later rebuilt within the exiting defences, and then rebuilt a second time, this time with the defences enlarged and strengthened. The bailey was usually enclosed by a bank, thrown up from the ditch and topped by a wooden palisade. Besides providing accommodation for the lords of the castle, the keep was also the last line of defense. A gatehouse could have been equipped with one or more portcullises. The records used cover a range of material including royal grants, extracts from pipe rolls and the Calendar of Patent Rolls, royal orders, licences and pardons. Clue: think about what a castle might represent: an intimidating fortress? Stunning and amazing history. The “classic” Norman castle is the motte and bailey, consisting of a tall conical mound (the motte) with a tower on the top, and a kidney-shaped enclosure adjacent (the bailey), all surrounded by a ditch. Secondly, the moat could prevent attackers from burrowing beneath the castle to undermine the outer walls. Some were new foundations, such as Oxford and Wallingford (the defences of Wallingford can still be seen today), others were recommissioned Roman sites like Winchester and Portchester, and others utilised Iron Age defences, like Dover. The Harrying of the North, List of Blog Posts: here Blog Homepage: here, A blog all about history, but generally focusing on the medieval and early modern periods These were in Wessex and Mercia, and the defences were massive earth ditches and banks, the banks revetted in timber with a palisade above, the timber later replaced with stone. A well-known statement by Archbishop Wulfstan of York says that someone might achieve the status of a thegn if he had five hides of his own land, a bell and a burh-geat, and a seat and special office in the kings hall. Attribution: By Simon Ledingham, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8861479. That’s great to hear! They were usually crossed by a drawbridge which was removed (lifted with a simple crank) when attackers were nearby. Water could also be poured down these holes to extinguish fires. Regards, Potential activities: Carousel activity examining different castles to compare and contrast. Many thanks in advance.
Mention the Middle Ages and most people immediately visualize a great stone castle, surrounded by a sturdy moat, and protected by Knights on horseback and legions of spearmen. Simon Forder, a writer, researcher and historian who specialises in castles, has written a great introductory post about their origins in Britain. Historical origins of fantasy stories, Stand and Deliver, Your Money or Your Life: Female Highwaymen of the Seventeenth Century, Historical Fashion: Georgian Men's Hairstyles, Ancient Wonders: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, When Pineapples Were The Height Of Luxury, What happened after 1066? Castle Rising, Norfolk. Attribution: By Fraser Sutherland (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons. Starting in the Norman period, he explores what different types of castles appeared in Britain after the conquest, and just how original they may have been. Although contemporary accounts talk of castles being erected in days, and this has led to a common belief that a motte and bailey castle was quick and easy to build, even a modest castle of this nature would take several weeks to excavate, with larger ones taking several months. Alternatively, teachers may wish to use the sources to develop their own lesson in a different way or combine with other sources. Today, Simon explores pre-Norman fortifications in Scotland, and how far they may be recognised as castles. That is why late Medieval Castles had circular towers. Most medieval castles did share some common features, so let’s take a look at some of the most important aspects of stone castle construction. It is now believed that in order to emphasise status, some of the lesser nobles erected larger and more impressive gate-towers if their site was perhaps less than overwhelming. Unfortunately, all the sewage from inside the castle would have been directed straight into the stagnant moat, so you can imagine the smell! I was wondering if I could interview you or send you a few questions as part of the project. Britain has a long history of castles, traditionally beginning with the arrival of the Normans under William the Conqueror in 1066 on the south coast of England.
Via English Heritage. In the early stone castles, the keep was the biggest and most important tower, while the rest of the towers (if there were any) had a secondary role. The documents included in this lesson relate to the following castles: Framlingham, Portchester, Stokesay, Berwick, Alnwick, and Pevensey some of which also feature in the specification for OCR History GCSE module: Castles Form and Function c1000-1750 as specified sites in conjunction with English Heritage. The ‘motte’ was made up of a large mound of earth with a wooden tower on top, while the ‘bailey’ was a large ditch and bank enclosure which surrounded the motte.
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