CASTLES Their rise… & demise

MOTTE & BAILEY Most of the earliest castles built by the Normans in the United Kingdom, during the 11th century, were of motte and bailey design. This arrangement consisted of two mounds, each surrounded by stockades and ditches. The higher mound would be surmounted by a fort or keep and the lower one would contain barracks and other buildings. They allowed two levels of defence with residents being able to retreat to the keep if the lower levels were breached. Original wooden structures were eventually replaced with sturdier stone materials

For many hundreds of years, castles provided major centres of control of the populace, administration of regions, defence and employment. Over the centuries since the Middle Ages, most have been abandoned, material from them used to build new structures in nearby towns or farms. Few people can trace their ancestry directly to members of castle staff of the Medieval period, or even to the Medieval period at all. Only members of former and present ruling classes (nobility or royalty) are usually able to do that, partly due to their penchant for recording their family lines and securing inheritance, in terms of both wealth and power. Most of these published pedigree lists are probably correct, but it is not unreasonable to think that many people exaggerated their influence or connections. Commoners had no such ambitions or use for pedigrees beyond a single generation. Yet, over time, as surnames were required, they adopted the names of those for whom they worked, the places they lived or the occupations in which they were engaged. To this day these may provide hints at a family connection to a castle centuries ago.

The Age of Castles

Castles, as we know or imagine them dominate from the Early Middle Ages (900 to 1300 AD), and the beginning of their demise can be timed to the Late Middle Ages – 1300 to 1850 AD. Those remaining today represent only a very small fraction of the total number that were built.