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 Castle Quest
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 Life Outside Castle Walls
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| Author | Topic: Life Outside Castle Walls |
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Heatherlystar Member |
posted 01-09-2002 01:19 AM
  
I have a 13th Century Castle Project I'm working on and every web site I have vistited focuses on the inside of the Castle. I need information on the layout of the outer castle such as Villages and types of Fields. Thank you for your help. -Heather (age 15) |
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Merlin Senior Member |
posted 01-09-2002 03:47 AM
Not sure if you saw that I just posted something about the developement of new towns outside castle-walls at http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum9/HTML/000382.html What do you mean by "villages and types of fields"? If you need information about medieval economy and population density I'd try your local library. So much for now: Many castles had economic buildings belonging to them which were placed outside the walls. This was a very common layout in mountain-areas because the space inside the walls was usualy small. If the castle was not accessible with horses, the stables had to be kept outside, normaly at the feet of the rock where the castle stood. Many other castles had a bigger farmhouse nearby which was the agronomic centre of the noble families possessions and could also be a residence in times of peace. These farms often survived the castle in later times. |
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Heatherlystar Member |
posted 01-10-2002 02:10 AM
Thank you for your help..I'll take your advice on checking the library ( I shouldve gone ther first but I wanted to go the easy way first of course). |
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Erik Schmidt Senior Member |
posted 01-11-2002 06:52 AM
The layout of villages outside the castle varies a lot, and there are a lot of factors which influence the layout. In many cases the castle was situated on a rocky outcrop or hill, with the village situated on a stream or river at the base of the outcrop or hill. Some village industries often relied on the water flow in the stream for milling grains, supplying tanneries or driving 'machinery' in an armoury, so they needed to be near the water. In some parts of France and Italy it is common to see the castle at the very peak of a hill, with the village arranged below it on the sometimes very steep slopes in terraces. The village will tend to face South(so not built on the North facing slope) to take advantage of the sun. In Switzerland I have seen villages, made up of two rows of houses, arranged along a single road leading from the castle, such as at Erlach and Gruyeres. An interesting point about many villages which are built on the hill with the castle is that the outer row of houses act as the wall. There are no windows or doors in the lower part of the outer wall on these outer houses and they are all built against eachother, which forms an unbroken wall of 6 or more meters in height. I can't put a date to all the developments in village arrangement I descibed, but I know much of it had become common by the 14th century. Erik |
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