Help! The inside of Norman castles from ca. 1200!

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Topic: Help! The inside of Norman castles from ca. 1200!

SarBear
Member

posted 03-11-2001 06:13 PM

Hi!
My name is Sarah and I'm in 6th grade. I am building a cut-away castle for my "Medieval Europe" assingment. I decided to do a Norman castle. This is not definate, but I would like to find as much information as possible about Norman castles, particulary the interior. Building right now is not a problem, but I need to research the rooms of a Norman castle from ca. 1200 and what would be in them (furniture, fireplaces, stairs, etc.). If anyone could help me with this, I would very much appreciate it! Thank you!
~Sarah

Philip Davis
unregistered

posted 03-12-2001 01:01 AM

Furniture in the 12C was very simple. The hall was the main room used for pretty well everything. In it would be trestle tables and benches, folded up out of the way if the hall was being used for meetings set out for the main mid day meal. There would only be one or two chairs for the lord of the castle and either his lady or his important guest. A small table might be at one side with a display of the lord's gold and silver plate and cup (This is where we get the terms sideboard and cupboard from - a trestle being a board on props). There might also be a small pile of palliasses in an out of the way corner for retainers to get out to sleep on in the night. None of this furniture, except perhaps the chair, would be decorated and the main table and the sideboard might well be covered in table cloths (The very rich might even have a richly decorated table carpet)

By the 12C most lords now had there own apartments, often called the solar, often above the hall. This also would have very little furniture. A large wooden bed, possible of the four poster type, a several chest for storing clothes and cloths, which might get a cloth over them and double up as a seat or table.

At this time most major lords had many castles and houses and travel around between them, so all of this furniture, except perhaps the cheapest benches and boards, would be put on carts and travel with the lord. Roads at that time were very rough so, therefore, furniture was made very tough out of thick pieces of strong oak wood.

As for stairs and fireplaces I'd look at Duncan picture of a spiral stair at http://www.castlesontheweb.com/archive/files/Miscellaneous/Trnpke.jpg
and at these site with pictures of Castle Hedingham - one of the best preserved Norman keeps in England.

The picture does give an idea of the sparseness of the furniture and the use of clothes to decorate but have too many chairs in them.
The walls in the castle Hedingham pictures are also a little misleading in that originally they probably would have been white with a simple pattern painted on them (A horizontal red zigzag seems to have been used in some places) but clothes and tapestries may well have been displayed on the walls. Remember also fireplaces weren't that efficient so things got smoke stained fairly quickly.

Finally there is a plan and cross-section of castle hedingham at my site at http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/blbum/pages/hedingham_gif.htm . You will need to download this plan to your hard drive to view it properly.

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