History - Castles Coursework

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History                Candidate Name: Abu-Hurairah Dadabhai

Castles Coursework                Candidate No.: 3030

                Centre No.: 20283

Castles Coursework

Section 1

Ludlow castle has developed/changed and declined throughout the ages. The first part of the castle we saw was the gateway. The gateway was made from large stone; the stone was very good because it was very strong and hard to attack. The wall was roughly 10 metres high and 5 metres thick which meant they could not be knocked down by battering rams. Another great defence was the buttresses; these were good because they strengthened the walls.

I believe that some defensive features are missing, I can see no evidence of portcullises, murder holes or arrow loops. There is also a big window which would be easy to fire through or even climb through Due to the fact that so many defensive features are missing, I believe that this gateway was added when the castle became home.

The land that surrounds the castle is completely flat where you would normally expect the gateway to be on high ground; on flat land the attacker would find it very easy to attack the castle. Because of all these missing features you would probably have thought that the gateway was almost definitely added later.

A final thing which strengthens my point about the fact; the gateway was added later was that there are no buildings around the gateway to defend it.

After finishing at the gateway we move in to the outer bailey to see the three buildings and the curtain wall.

Surrounding the outer bailey was the curtain wall; the curtain wall was made from large blocks of stone which were very good for defence. The curtain wall had many defensive features; one good defensive feature was the height and thickness of the wall, the wall was approximately 6 metres tall and 1.5 metres thick. Another good defensive feature was the wall walk, the wall walk allowed troops to walk up and down the wall to keep a look out for enemies. A final defensive feature was the battlements; the battlements were good for the soldiers to hide behind during the battle so they wouldn’t get shot.

The curtain wall had many defensive features which meant that the walls original use was for defensive, which means that the castle was probably originally for defence.

On my visit I had noticed that there had been some changes to the wall over time, one change I had noticed was the battlements had fallen off and they were replaced with new ones, I could tell this because the stone work on some of the battlements was different to the original battlements on the curtain wall. The battlements were replaced to show tourists what castles look like. This shows how castles developed over time. This also shows how the castle has developed over time; from defensive to tourist attraction.

After looking at the curtain wall we moved on to the other three buildings in the outer bailey, the first buildings we saw was the porters lodge. The porters lodge had big windows which showed that it was not for defence as it was easy to attack and it even had very thin walls made from small stone which could be knocked down easily. The second building was the prison, this also had large windows and thin walls these were not defensive at all, the widows could be climbed through and the walls could be knocked down. The third building was the stable; the stable had a very big doorway for the horses, it also had thin walls and large windows like the other two buildings. The fact that these buildings were made from small stone shows that they were probably made after the great keep, when the castle became a home. Another reason why I think that these buildings were made when the castle became a home was because that they have no defensive features, such as arrow loops, strong doorways and murder holes. This is why I feel that these buildings were added later. This reinforces the fact that the castle probably became a home after it was a defensive structure.

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After I looked at the porters lodge, prison and stables I moved on to Mortimer’s tower. Mortimer’s tower was made from large blocks of stone which was very hard to attack. The main defensive feature of Mortimer’s tower was the arrow loops on the side of the building along with the D-shaped tower which helped to eliminate all dead ground. There were two holes in the floor which showed evidence that there may have been a portcullis within the building. There was also evidence of three murder holes and finally there was a spiral staircase inside which was very ...

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