Post by Creative Consortium on Jan 22, 2008 19:18:32 GMT -6
Castle Keeps
© 1999-2005 by Marvin Hull
A keep was a self-sufficient structure that castle defenders could retreat to as a last resort during a battle. The keep was originally called a donjon or great tower.
In medieval documents the great tower is referred to as "magna turris", and the word "keep" didn't come along in the English literature until the later half of the 16th century. Sometimes the basement of the keep served as a prison, so the word dungeon soon developed as slang for the keep.
There were two basic shapes of a keep, square and round. Almost all early keeps were square or rectangular, and were the easiest and fastest to erect. Square keeps had one major drawback. They could easily be damaged at the corners by undermining or bombardment.
Then came the development of the round keep. They were very difficult to successfully undermine. Arrows and rocks glanced off the rounded walls.
Even in later times, after the invention of cannon, the cannon balls also glanced off the keep walls. The earliest round keep in Great Britain was at New Buckingham Castle, built in 1150.
Even after the military importance of castles changed, keeps were still being built. The role of the keep changed from a last resort stronghold to only a lord's private residence or chamber.
Another type of keep was the hall-keep. These were longer than they were high, and had very thick walls. They combined the castle keep, hall, solar and other chambers.
One of the first stone keeps to be built in Great Britain, during the medieval period, was at Chepstow Castle. This was a hall-keep erected in about 1070.
A shell keep was a masonry building completely surrounding the summit of a motte. They were round or polygonal and originated as a replacement of a wooden palisade crowning the motte. These types of keeps were hollow because mottes were not strong enough to bear the weight of a solid tower. The walls varied in height from 20-25ft, and were from 8-10ft thick, strengthened by a buttress and, sometimes, wall-towers.
The interior was usually an open court with surrounding buildings backing onto the walls, and the domestic buildings of the lord were usually placed within the circular enclosure of the shell keep. By the 13th century, these types of keeps had generally replaced the wooden tower on the motte, and often an additional stone gatehouse and towers were inserted into the shell keep. Examples of shell keeps are at: Arundel, Berkhamsted, Brecon, Wiston, Cardiff, Restormel, and other castles.
Yet another type of keep developed, this being the keep-gatehouse. Complete control for the entrance of the castle was gained by combining the gatehouse and keep into one structure. The inner gates were open and closed from within the gate passage, and not from the castle courtyards, providing isolation from the rest of the castle. The living quarters were in the upper floors. Some of the castles having a keep-gatehouse are Richmond, Ludlow, and Newark.
The House Keep, or strong house, became common in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was a high rectangular structure, and often had towers on each corner. The pele tower and Scottish tower houses are simular in looks. The stables, or barn, would be located on the bottom floor, or basement. The living quarters would be on the upper floors, and could only be accessed by a removable wooden ladder. The upper floors would also have very small and narrow windows so that no one could enter via a window.
Castle keeps varied in size. The round keep at Pembroke Castle is four stories, over 53 feet in diameter, 80 feet in height, and has walls 16 feet thick. It is one of the greatest keeps ever built. Here are some other heights and thickness of keeps:
The earliest known stone keep built in Great Britain is at Chepstow Castle, built in 1068.
Castle Windows
© 2001-2005 by Marvin Hull
Openings for light in the castle tended to be either loops or windows. The loops did not provide an overall good view, and windows offered little protection for defenders. In the basement and first floor areas there were no windows and very few loops. The loops were provided with no closure, except maybe a thick curtain. The second and third floors would have had windows fitted with seats. The larger windows would be closed with wooden shutters or with parchment. The parchment would be made of oiled sheepskin or goatskin. Windows would also have been protected from intruders gaining entrance, or protection from missiles, by a external iron grill embedded into the masonry.
In the 11th century, windows above the first floor were about 4 feet high and 12 to 18 inches wide. The heads of the windows were either round or flat, and were splayed or set at the end of a tall, wide recess. What is meant by splayed? This is an opening which widens as it progresses inwards. These early windows did not let much light in, but provided good protection from incoming missiles.
By the late 12th century, windows became larger. Two openings were made to one internal recess with window seats. In later times of the 13th century, the oriel and lofty hall windows were developed. An oriel was like a nook, with a window and often times contained a fireplace. In the 14th century this developed into a delightful and aesthetically pleasing upper bay-window. An oriel was built by King Edward I at Stirling Castle in 1304 to provide his queen an observation area for a siege.
The origin of the invention of glass is lost. Sand of high silica content and a fluxing alkali (often soda or potash) are combined and heated to a high melting temperature. Throughout the middle ages the limited amounts of glass produced were crude in shape and quality of metal.
Glass was expensive, so it was rarely used in castle windows. Diamond (or "angled") mullions, which indicate a window without glass, were found from at least the 14th century, and were used for bedrooms, store rooms and other chambers until the late 17th. These windows usually had grooves for sliding shutters; some windows had hinged shutters.
In later periods, some castle upper hall windows contained glazing. From the late 16th century diamond mullions were gradually replaced by ovolo (or "sunk quadrant") mullions or by roll molded mullions. Both types were used with glazed windows, some of which still retained sliding shutters. Glass was so valuable that it was removed from the windows and replaced by wooden shutters in the absence of the lord.
Glass was also heavily taxed, and this was not abolished until the 19th century. Some manor houses were fitted with window coverings made of animal horn, as this was a cheap alternative to glass. 12th century glass has been excavated at Ascot d'Oilly and Deddington castles.
Solars
© 2001-2005 by Marvin Hull
Originally the word solar, or soller, was used to describe any room above the ground level of a building. It refers to a well lighted parlour or chamber facing south, no matter the floor level.
In relation to the castle, the solar or great chamber was the lord's private apartment, or withdrawing room. Its location was beyond the dais (a raised platform for the high table) or high table end of the hall, usually on the first floor level over an undercroft (plain room used for storage). Sometimes, builders placed a solar in a mural tower or in the keep. In a keep, the solar was located on the protected side so that it could have windows instead of slits to take advantage of the sun. In later medieval fortified manor houses, the solar wing was located in a tower.
Oftentimes the lady of the castle reserved the solar for her use. This type of solar or apartment is referred to as a bower. These often had elaborately plastered walls and decorative fireplaces. The bower became an essential part of medieval domestic accommodation.
It is unclear what date solars first came into use, or who was responsible for their invention.
Castle Stairs
© 2001-2005 by Marvin Hull
There were several types of stairs in castles, from movable ladders to grand masonry ones. The earliest were movable wooden ladders. Most entrances were on a level above the ground, so when the defenders of the castle went to bed or needed to isolate the tower or keep, they would just pull the ladder up and store it.
Access to the wall walk seems most commonly to have been gained by temporary ladders or wooden stairs. The exterior wooden stairs would soon rot from the weather or could easily burn.
There were also non-movable wooden staircases. These were found throughout the castle, but mostly in the interior rooms.
Masonry stairs were found mostly in walls or towers and were either straight flights or rose in a spiral direction. There was a great concern for security, but the stairs also had to be convenient.
The newel stair was common. This consisted of a central column or post around which a spiral stair revolved. Each step took the form of an eccentric keyhole. The circular terminations fitted on top of each other to form the newel, while the opposite and much broader end was built into the wall.
The first spiral stairs were laid on concrete vaults, but by the 13th century they were cut into slabs and fitted into the walls. Also, the spiral stairs in castle towers were designed to ascend clockwise, to make the attackers expose more of their body in order to use their swords in their right hands.
