In this piece of coursework I am going to be developing an well formed sheet of perception of how castles developed in general and in particular whether or not Goodrich Castle follows the development of castles throughout history.

Castles at the outset were used for defensive purposes, however as time evolved castles got caught up in the monotonous cycle that is change and developed into “grand” homes for the Lord and Lady.

The first types of castles were named Motte and Bailey castles, these were around between the succeeding years: 1066-1100. The Motte and Bailey castles were constructed like stated in the following description, a man made hill was created and this is the “motte,” then situated on the top of the immediate hill was a structure which was named the “keep,” this construction would be made from the material, wood, the “bailey” would be situated at the bottom and it would be where ordinary people lived, merely because they thought it provide protection. The Motte and Bailey was made from wood because of the fact that the castles had to be made swiftly and wood was easy to assemble.

The Great Hall was identified because there were large windows and the remains of a great fireplace. The window in the Great Hall supported window seats and these were a sign that castles were used to live in. There was a walkway between the Kitchens and the Great Hall and I believe this was where the food was transferred. The presence of the Great Hall and kitchens tell me that the Lord and Lady once used it as a home.

Square towers had their weaknesses as well, the corners were of a weak standard, the defenders were unable to obtain a 360 degree view and the square towers could be mined or battered with a ram, so because of these transactions another stage in the development of castles was appointed and that stage was round towers. Round towers enabled the defenders to see attackers with increased ease and there were no immediate “weak” corners to be battered. Round towers were built higher than the walls so arrows could be fired down onto the attackers by the defenders.

Source B is an excellent primary source. It is a scene taken from the Bayeux Tapestry, made in 1080, The Battle Of Hastings. It shows the first type of castle. It shows soldiers attacking a Motte and Bailey castle; we can determine it is a Motte and Bailey castle by the hill and the keep, which is posed on top. You can see that the soldiers are using fire as their attacking technique in this particular situation and from this use of fire your thought processes automatically assume that the Motte and Bailey castles were made from wood. Therefore because the wood was easily burnt down castle designer authorised a change from wood to stone, for defensive purposes. Subsequently from this source you can assume that’s why Goodrich Keep is made from stone, because it was made of wood then changed to a more resourceful material or you can also hypothesize that the designers of Goodrich Castle thought there is no point in building it out of wood we might as well build it out of stone, for stronger resistance.

Some topics in this essay:
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