Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Building And Renovating Your Own Castle
Topic:	13th century castle construction

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T O P I C R E V I E W
skinneramos I am looking for information regarding the construction techniques and architectural details for castle walls, and castles built in the 13th century. Web sites, books, other any other information sources would be much appreciated. The information is needed in order to first build a 1/100 scale model and possible full scale later.
Thanks
Peter You may find your information quite spread out.
One good book is 'Medieval Fortifications'
John Kenyon, 1990, ISBN 0-7185-1289-8
Leicester Univ. Press; It discusses all the sections of castles.
Perhaps not castles, but containing many elements of them is the much republished work; The English Mediaeval House.
Margaret Wood, first out in 1981. This book once again goes through each section, with many plans etc.
Mine is Ferndale Publications
ISBN 0-905746-23-6
Erik Schmidt It would help if you could let us know what area/country. Castle design varied depending on where they were built.
Also, what sort of construction? Brick, rough(field) stone or cut stone. The techniques used sometimes depend on the materials used.
You may find it difficult to get good info on how the walls were constructed. Most info on construction I've picked up from examining ruined castles over many parts of Europe.
Let us know what you're after.
Erik
duncan Why don't you try readiing the back posts in the Model makeing and blue print forums?
When and if you get to the construction stage on a real building this forum contains many posts that will help.
------------------
Megan and Ralph
CASTLE DUNCAN
Vivo vivere vixi victum
simul Honorare
skinneramos Thank you for the comments. As for what part of the country I am looking at. I am looking to determine the differences and similarities between 13th century castles and walls, of the present countries of Scotland, Germany, and France.
Part of the reason that I want to see the true construction materials and techniques versus model construction techniques if due to the fact that I live in Canada and want to determine If building the outerwalls, and castle are feasible. We have plenty of land to complete this project on, and plenty of stone, but as with anything success lies in the details.
Once again thanks for the comments.
duncan You did say you were "to first build a
1/100 scale model" so the two forums i suggested would fit your needs best.
I'm still alittle in the dark about what phaze of the "construction techniques and architectural details" you need info on.
Is it the basics or the more advanced stages in construction you are looking for.
Are you looking for traditional methods of building or are you looking for a melding of new and old?
Erik Schmidt Plenty of land, plenty of stone. OOOhhh, sounds like a castle on the way to me!
What's the stone like? Are you intending to quarry or use surface stones?
When it comes to construction, most castle walls were constructed by building up the outside faces of the wall with a single depth of cut stone and infilling with a rubble/motar mix. The neatness of the cutting varied greatly, sometimes the outer face was recut after the wall was constructed to leave a very smoothe surface.
The hardness of your stone will determine the amount of cutting you will want to do.
There are quite a few books on building stone walls. I'll dig up a couple of titles currently available.
Depending on how accurrate you want to be, you'll need soft(ish) stone for feature stones such as in windows, columns, doors and the ribbing of vaults. Oh, and the ability to cut stone with amazing skill! If you have lots of $, you could get someone to do it.
Vaults are an important part of castle architecture but I am having trouble getting good information on exactly how vaulted floors were constructed. It is critical to get such things right, so you may want to learn the techniques from a master.
Are you intending to do the building yourself? It's certainly feasible if you have the time.
As far as information on castle architectural characteristics and methods used in that period, I can only recommend you buy a lot of books on the subject to make sure you get it right. It may take a lot of study to determine what you will want to emulate. Check the lists on the book forum.
Erik
duncan
This is a few places to start that might help in your search for the info you asked for. Your have to read through posts that may not fit your needs but there are alot of Tech. details and web sites in the subjet matter.
One of our members, Savoy, runs a masony school out of his Irish castle and his web site is included in the links below.
Best of luck with your project.
R. Duncan
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum5/HTML/000021.html
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum6/HTML/000050.html
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum6/HTML/000004.html
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum5/HTML/000031.html
Merlin The best book about castle-building in Germany in that time I can recommend is:
• ANTONOW, Alexander. Planung und Bau von Burgen im süddeutschen Raum [Europäische Baukunst, Vol. 1]. 2nd Edition. Frankfurt a.M. 1993.
I don't know if you understand german — maybe there's also an english edition available...
duncan Got a Babble Fish in your pocket or know of one on the net you can use?
skinneramos Thanks for all of your help, it is as I expected that there is not one single inclusive reference title for this endeavour. As such I suspect the next 8 to 10 months will consist of a significant amount of research versus actual construction.
Duncan I don't have a babble fish in my pocket, however, I know a couple of retired people that speak read and write German, they may be willing to do some translation.
Thanks Again
Amos
duncan IT's as i suspected also.