Learn all about castles

CASTLES!!!

By ps123 and jbnumber1fan

• (First castle) Motte and Bailey castles• (Second castle)Stone keep castles• (Third castle)Concentric castle• Famous castles• Bibliography

Contents

The first ever castles to be built were called Motte and Bailey. These castles were built by the Normans to protect William the confessor (as he defeated the old king Harold Godwinson.) The height of the Motte is from 25 feet to 80 feet or maybe higher. They were built nearly 500 years ago. That is a long time! The Bailey was surrounded by a ditch, which was called fosse. Motte was made out of earth, and Bailey was made out of wood. This was very bad because earth and wood burn down easily so everyone who hated William burnt it down over and over again.

Motte and Bailey castles

After the Motte and Bailey castles they built stone keep castles. These were better because they were: fire proof ,water proof and they had thick walls. In the stone keep castles there are 2 floors. They usually had stone stairs on the outside. Stone castles don’t have many windows at all. A stone keep can have either a sides like a polygon or like a circle. The polygon sides are better for defence because there are so many sides. However the round circle sides are stronger. Turrets were high up so the guards could keep watch for any enemy

Stone keep castles

Concentric means a circle within a circle. In the Concentric castles there are different levels. The inside walls were built bigger than the outside walls. Dover castle in the UK was, and still is one of the first concentric castle ever built. Concentric had a stronger keep and a main tower. Moats were also introduced in these castles. All of these concentric castles have glass windows. They also have a gatehouse and a outer wall.

Concentric castles

There are so many different castles in the world starting from Motte and bailey to stone keep and then to concentric castles they were all from the medieval times to now 2013. There are now more castles there are called• Windsor castle • Conwy castle• Edinburgh castle• Tintagel castleSo these are some of the most famous castles in the world. However there are lots more. Do you know any famous castles?

Famous castles

• http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/castles/concentric.html

• http://medievalcastles.stormthecastle.com/tintagel-king-arthurs-castle.htm

• http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/tour/castle.html

Bibliography