There aren’t to many castles on our shores. Yet, everyone knows exactly what they looked like, and housed. The castle was built to be the icon for wealth and security. I will describe the parts of the castle, their origin, and their peacetime uses.
The first part of the castle is the hall. In one sentence you can call the hall, the standard living element to the castle. It is a large one-room structure with a high ceiling. In early castles the floor was the bare land it’s self. Early halls were aisled like a church, with rows of wooden posts or stone pillars supporting the timber roof. Windows were equipped with wooden shutters secured by an iron bar. By the 14th century glazed windows were common. Carpets were used on walls, tables, and benches, but not used as floor coverings in Britain and northwest Europe
Castles have always existed but the castles we know came about by means of the feudal system. Their strong walls offered protection from invasion and as technology advanced they were harder and harder to infiltrate. Castles were bread for siege warfare and the entire exterior of the castle signifies this. The cylindrical towers were added to give archers better cover and more range to fire from. The walls became thicker to prevent them from being rammed. And moats just made it even more difficult for any land faring attacker to easily get close. Castles did not come cheap either. Because of the finances needed to put one up, they became icons for their owner’s wealth.
Water for washing and drinking was often available at a central drawing point on each floor. Besides the well inside or near the keep, there mig