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The Norman Conquest of England was not completed in 1066. Rather it was to take many years to subjugate the native population under the rule of their new Norman lords. And everywhere the Norman lords went, they brought the art of castle-building with them. Their castles acted both as symbols of their power and status and as defensible bases from which to impose their rule.
William the Conqueror ordered the first castles built – at Cambridge, Warwick, Nottingham, Huntingdon, Lincoln and York – immediately after his victory at the Battle of Hastings. By the time the Domesday Book was completed in 1087, there were many hundreds of castles and 'defensible houses' throughout the country. These were built quickly in the aftermath of the Conquest, often using forced labour, to provide secure bases for the new Norman nobility. The great majority were constructed on similar lines as 'motte-and-bailey' castles.
Motte-and-bailey castles
The construction of motte-and-bailey castles followed the same basic process. First, a 'motte', or central mound, of earth was erected by piling up earth from a deep ditch dug around it. Other material would be brought in as needed to build it up to the required height.
The motte was surrounded by a 'bailey', or enclosure, which also had its own ditch and earthworks. This was topped by a wooden stockade, as was the motte, on top of which was a flat area on which a timber tower was built. The motte and tower, which were built to give a clear line of arrow fire over the whole bailey, comprised the last stronghold of the castle in the event of attack, but they were also the home of the castle owner, his family and servants. As time went by, and the defensive requirements of a castle were met, increasing emphasis was placed on the needs and comforts of those who lived there. Kitchens, storehouses, stables, workshops, and most importantly the great hall and chapel all jostled for space within the basic 'motte-and-bailey' structure.
The great hall
Every castle had its great hall: the heart of castle life. Here the lord would dine with his family and favoured guests, often on a raised dais overlooking the tables and benches occupied by the castle's less exalted residents. The great hall, which could be located within the bailey or inside the motte itself, would be lit with torches and heated by a large hearth built into one of the walls. Carpets would be hung from the walls and placed over tables and benches, but the floor was usually bare, compressed earth, perhaps covered with rushes. Windows, originally closed with wooden shuttering in bad weather, were later glazed – from the 13th century onwards in the grandest castles and from the 14th century in most of them.
Stone castles
Many of England's best-known castles started off as motte-and-bailey constructions, made of timber and earth. Windsor Castle, for example, was built around a motte and two baileys. But once the immediate need to build castles quickly had been met, their owners soon turned to rebuilding in stone. The Normans brought with them great technological capabilities and as well as raising many stone castles during the 11th and 12th centuries, they built or rebuilt most of the churches in the land in stone too. This included many of what are now England's most famous cathedrals.
In addition to being more durable and less vulnerable to fire or other attacks, then, stone was also used to impress Norman power and prestige upon the conquered natives. Indeed, the Norman lords did not need their new stone-built castles to fight off rebellions by the English half so much as they needed them in wars between each other. The civil wars of the time and Stephen and Matilda (1135-1154), for example, pitted lord against lord, and castle against castle, up and down the land. Such was the level of conflict that it is sometimes said that for every castle motte it is possible to find at least one 'siege motte' nearby, raised up by besieging forces as a base from which to assault the main castle. New siege tactics and weapons led in turn to increasingly sophisticated – and stronger – castle defences.
Keep and bailey
The shape of the stone Norman castles changed little from the original earth and timber stockades. The outer bailey was ringed by a stone rather than timber wall and the motte became the keep at the heart of the castle. There are two basic types of Norman keep: the shell keep and the tower keep. The shell keep is usually built around an original motte and so reflects the original circular shape. The tower keeps, the most famous of which is the White Tower at the Tower of London, are usually powerfully built, rectangular structures with special strategic or symbolic importance. They were invariably too big to be built on an existing motte and so are usually found within a bailey.
Both types of keep were intended to be able to survive long sieges, and so in addition to being the strongest part of the castle the keep included storage rooms, kitchens, living quarters and a well to guarantee a water supply. There is evidence that some keeps were also designed to collect rainwater for use in cooking and drinking. Nonetheless, windows were restricted to the higher floors and there was generally just the one, well-protected entrance; the needs of defence were paramount.
Gatehouse, outer walls and flanking towers
Over time, as new siege weapons and techniques were developed, castle defences had to become stronger and more sophisticated. Special attention had to be paid to the entrance, or gatehouse, which developed ever more elaborate methods of defence. Crenellated battlements maximised the cover available to defenders at the same time as increasing their line of fire. Moats were built around the bailey walls.
But perhaps the most significant development in the later medieval castle was the use of defensive flanking towers on the outer castle walls. These allowed well-protected defenders to fire at attackers along the line of the castle walls, concentrating fire on particular points of heavy attack. Eventually, the construction of flanking towers along the outer bailey defences made the inner keeps and castle towers far less important for defensive purposes.
Guarderobes and dungeons
Young visitors in particular are often especially drawn to two features of the medieval castle: its toilet facilities and its dungeon. The guarderobe, or lavatory, was most often a small L-shaped room built into the castle walls, or sometimes hanging out from them. The dungeon, meanwhile, gets its name from another French word, donjon, the name by which a castle's great tower was known in the later medieval period. The tower would not necessarily have contained the prison cells that we associate with the word 'dungeon' today, but the donjon clearly became associated with dank, miserable conditions of imprisonment to such an extent that the name stuck.
Time Team programmes featuring digs on castle sites include Queenborough in the 2006 series, Beaudesert in the 2002 series, Alderton and Bridgnorth in the 2001 series.