The Leaning Tower of Bridgnorth
Shropshire
11 March 2001

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Visiting Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle is situated in a small public park on a ridge overlooking the town and the river Severn. The site is open to the public free of charge during park opening times (roughly the hours of daylight).

Other websites

Out and About in Bridgnorth
http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~in2021/bridgnorth.html
Basic layout but packed with information and relevant web links about Bridgnorth and its history. Black-and-white line drawings accompany a timeline for the town.

Virtual Shropshire: Bridgnorth Town
www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/bridgnorth/bridgnorth.html
Illustrated virtual guide to the town of Bridgnorth.

Bridgnorth Cliff Railway
www.bridgnorthcliffrailway.co.uk/
Website of the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, the UK's only remaining inland electric funicular railway, as featured in the programme. History, technical information, photos and weblinks.

Castles on the Web
www.castlesontheweb.com
An extensive resource, the Castles on the website includes sections on medieval studies, myths and legends, virtual tours of castles, books, photo archives and even how to rent or stay in a castle. Its weblinks to sites which themselves provide links to other castle-related websites could keep you browsing until Domesday. Castles on the Web also has a useful message/question board and a variety of discussion forums on the subject.

The English Medieval Castle
www.britannia.com/history/david1.html
Three illustrated essays on the English Medieval Castle provide a good basic introduction to the subject.

Castles in Wales
www.castlewales.com/home.html
Jeffrey Thomas's site, with good general background information about Norman castles as well as being an excellent overall resource on Welsh castles.

Build a Medieval Castle
www.yourchildlearns.com/castle.htm
Free educational software. Make your own model medieval castle – a learning activity that teaches about history, feudalism and life in the Middle Ages. Build your own medieval castle, complete with towers, gatehouse and keep to help understand how an army laid siege to a castle, how a castle was defended or what it might have been like to live in a castle.

Siege engines
www.codesmiths.com/siege/
Information on siege engines by an amateur enthusiast who built his own trebuchet, or medieval siege engine.

Siege machines of the Middle Ages
http://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/treb_etc.htm
Armedieval is an organisation that builds and demonstrates modern reconstructions of medieval siege engines. This illustrated site shows how many of the machines look and work.

Further reading

The Medieval Castle in England and Wales by Norman Pounds (Cambridge University Press, 1994) £18.95 ISBN: 0521383498/0521458285
There are a lot of books around on castles but this is the best one for telling you what they're all about. I get tired of looking at plans and pictures without knowing the social and economic background to why castles were built and how they operated. This definitely fills that gap! 'The best book of all on the subject' – Mick Aston

Norman Castles in Britain by D F Renn (John Baker)
Standard text with gazetteer of the Norman castles of Britain.

Timber Castles by Bob Higham and Philip Barker (Batsford) out of print ISBN: 0713421894
Some of the greatest medieval castles survive only as earthworks and in pictures and written accounts of the period because they were made of timber. Timber castles were built throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and this, the first comprehensive survey, restores them to their rightful place in the history of fortifications.

Norman England by Trevor Rowley (English Heritage, 1997) paperback, £15.99 ISBN: 0713480602
The Normans left behind a rich legacy of buildings: castles, cathedrals, churches and abbeys. How much did the Norman Conquest change the lives of ordinary people? The author also discusses the Domesday Book in the light of recent archaeological evidence, as well as how the everyday landscape, away from major centres, still reflects Norman influence. This well-illustrated book discusses these material remains in relation to the social and cultural changes that took place following the Norman Conquest.

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