Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Medieval Life And Culture
Topic:	Castles=Damp /gloomie

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Miko What was it like in castles in mediievil times
Maria It depends on the type if castle. People were trying to make them as confortable as they could. Tapestry on the walls, herbs on the floor (not 100% sure about this...read it in Makers of Britain). Renaissance castles should have been pretty comfy, as they kept paintings and drawings on the walls (dampness being bad for such things). And they warmed up beds with...uh... not sure about English word... something like a metal frying pan, which was warmed and put between the sheets. At night, light was provided by torches and cables. More an this to come...
[This message has been edited by Maria (edited 03-02-2005).]
Levan Castles were nowhere near as damp and gloomy as the houses peasants were expected to live in! In many places, peasants houses didn't even have windows. Some had no fireplace - just a fire in the middle of the floor.
Nowadays, castles have lovely things like roaring fires and underfloor central heating!
I can speak from experience, having lived in a castle for a number of years - even when our 'modern' heating wasn't working the castle didn't get exceptionally cold (apart from the staircases, which were cold). The reason for this is that the thick walls acted as an insulating material, so once the place was warmed up, it stayed quite cosy.
If one allowed the place to get cold by not heating at all for several days, well yes, it'd be cold - but the main aim was to maintain a steady background warmth by keeping the main fire burning - the heat going up the chimney would also warm up rooms on the upper floors.
Levan