Part fortress, part luxury home, constructing the perfect castle required colossal amounts of money, men and patience
WORDS: RHIANNON DAVIES
Building a medieval castle was a serious business. The construction site would be a hive of activity: thousands of workers would swarm over the structure, with stonemasons adding to half-finished walls, as a horde of carpenters scraped and sawed fresh timbers into roof beams or fashioned new tools. And the master mason – an architect, building expert and project manager rolled into one – would stride through the scene, making sure the castle was growing according to his exacting specifications.
The castle-building craze had first reached England in 1066, when William the Conqueror claimed the country for his own. The Normans – finding themselves in a hostile land – hastily built motte and bailey castles (comprising a large mound of earth topped by a tower, alongside a shallower enclosure for other buildings). England’s rich forests provided a steady – and cheap – supply of timber for these structures, and a crew of carpenters could hammer a tower together in a relatively short timeframe. However, these wooden structures had a clear drawback: they were vulnerable to fire. And, if they weren’t being besieged by angry Saxons, mother nature would also sink her teeth into the structures, rotting the wooden timbers.
So if wood was unsuitable for building castles, what could replace it? The answer was stone. It was impervious to the elements and would last for centuries, making it the ideal material for building defensible structures.
This was crucial, as castles weren’t simply lavish homes for nobles – they needed to withstand attacks, too. With this in mind, building materials weren’t the only important factor: location was also key. Strategic positions that had natural defences, such as a major river, were prized – or else sites that controlled a communication route, like a bridge or a pass.
Once the location was decided upon, plans could start to be drawn up for the building itself. Castles were designed by master masons: senior builders who were as skilled with a quill as they were with a chisel, and used geometry to create their building designs.
THE CAUSE OF LABOUR
Planning the castle’s defences was a vital part of the process. Would it be encircled by a deep, water-filled moat? Would it have an iron portcullis at its main entrance,
