Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	Sketchy on layout...

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Sephiras As I look at more and more castle layouts(those that are more sutible for miliarty uses) I am trying to figure out what they really look like from the inside.
If anyone can link any pictures for me from the "inside" I would really apreciate it.
Philip Davis I'm not quite sure what you mean here? Are you talking about the inside of the castle courtyard (or bailey) or the inside of the various rooms within a castle, if the later what rooms in particular.
for the former you can try http://www.castlewales.com/home.html and look at some of the larger castles. (Conwy, Beaumaris etc.)
For the later a vague idea can be got from http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/magor/images/castle_hedingham.htm although a very few other sites also have pictures.
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And the astronomyours beheldyne the constellacions of hys bryth by thare castle, and foundyn that he sholde bene wyse and curteyse, good of consaill
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Sephiras Yes, if I was standing in the courtyard, what would it look like.
Sephiras Ok I think I have an idea now, though this may be a stupid question...
I am looking at the layouts of castles and Ive been reading and said in a siege that the keep was the last line of defense once the outside force took the baily; yet I can't find "the keep" in any of the layouts, or am I looking at the keep for say, in this example,
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/album/pages/bodium_gif.htm

Yet that example has a baily and I don't see if a group did take the baily where the last line of defense would because they essentaily took the castle, unless what I was reading meant the outer baily.
Philip Davis Ah Ha. Well the problem here is that not all castles have keeps (or great towers as they are sometimes called). There are, in fact, several different types of castle. Some early or particualy small castle are little more than a wall or earthbank around a house and other buildings. The first true castles built a tower in the form of a small hillock called a motte (although some of these motte are pretty big) initally probably just as a watch tower but this soon became the place of last refuge and the strongest point of the castle. Some stone castles just followed this example from earthwork castles by building a big strong keep either instead of a motte or on top of an already exisiting motte (although others just strengthened the hall house in the bailey until it was a keep).
A few castles contined not to bother with a keep and just maintain strong walls (Framlingham is a good example - see http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mwcook/framlingham%20castle.html ).
Keeps developed and several types of strong tower are known - shell keeps, square towers, transitional towers, round towers.
A special type of keep was the gatehouse keep where the strong tower was combined with the part of the castle needing the strongest defence, the gate house. Richmond castle is an early example, Tonbridge a rather later one.
However, where the castle was important and large enough the walls where always strong and large enclosure castles where the peak of castle building (such as those built by Master James of St George - Conwy, Beaumaris, Caernarfon et al some of these actually had two lines of walls and are know as concentric castles. With some of these castle either one of the wall towers or the gate house is particually large but they don't really count as keeps.
Bodium itself is a late castle, is actually quite small (not much larger than a large keep such as the White Tower in the Tower of London) and was built to be a defensible whole.
If you read the introduction to my plans section (at http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/intro.html ) you will see I do group the castles. With many of the plans of the various keeps all you get is the plan of the keep and not that of the entire castle. However the plans for Pembroke and Chepstow are of the entire castle and show the keeps.
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And the astronomyours beheldyne the constellacions of hys bryth by thare castle, and foundyn that he sholde bene wyse and curteyse, good of consaill
Secreta Secretorum
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/index.html