How far does the site of Warwick Castle and the supporting sources help you understand the way that castles changed and developed over time?

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Year 11 Coursework –

History Around Us – Warwick Castle

1) How far does the site of Warwick Castle and the supporting sources help you understand the way that castles changed and developed over time?

Warwick castle was first founded in 914 as an Anglo Saxon hilltop settlement built for defensive reasons. Then in 1068, Normans built a Motte and Bailey castle so therefore further increasing the defensive qualities of the site, and by the middle of the 13th century, the wooden wall had been replaced by a stone wall. These further developments carried on as new rulers came into ownership of the castle to strengthen and modernise the defensive features of the castle. In the second half of the 14th century, more reconstruction took place and now an imposing gatehouse and barbican were added. Also the guy and Caesar towers were built which could see all the way around the castle which was an extremely defensive feature for a castle to have at this time. Finally in the late 1640’s cannons were added into the towers and the mound as new technology was introduced. By the late 16 and 1700’s, the castle and rooms were changed to make an impressive stately home. So now the castle was no longer needed for defence, but for comfort and entertainment. Change of purpose!

We can learn a lot about the development of castles over time, simply by looking at them and analysing them. We can also learn about castles from looking at the sources made. However we are not sure how reliable these sources are. First we can look at the castle itself. From visiting and analysing the site of Warwick castle, you can see that there have obviously been changes and developments of the castles defensive features, many of these features still remain at the castle today, but you do have to consider that the castle is a tourist attraction made to please. However we can still take valuable points from the castle and its grounds. There are both natural and physical defensive features at Warwick castle. We can see by these that Warwick castle has always been a castle designed for defence. The natural features which you can still see today are that the castle is on a hill, there is a wide view from towers, there are hills all around, two rivers and there is a steep slope, all surrounding the castle. You can see that these have always been in existence because of the fact that they are completely natural. Another one of the main defensive features of the castle is Etheldas mound; this is where the first motte and keep would have been made. The first inhabitants of the castle would have built around these features and would not have built them themselves. The physical defensive features of the castle would have been developed and changed over time; they would have started off simple then become more advanced as technology also advanced. One main obvious change which you can see from visiting the castle is the development of the arrow loops. The arrow loop used at Warwick castle is the ‘cruciform’. This was an advance from the previous form of arrow loop. At the castle site you can not see that the arrow loops have changed or developed, because they are all cruciform’s. But from looking at sources of how the castle used to be, you can see that there used to be two other types of loops; a slit and a slit with an eyelet. These developments were made to further improve the defence at the castle. The original slits would have been used to fire arrows out from the castle to enemies below using a simple bow, but when the crossbow was introduced, they needed to make a hole more suitable for it. So they decided to make all of the arrow slits into cruciforms. The castle walls are still surrounded by a large ditch and we can see that the historians were correct in their imagery of this feature.

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Historians can also look at Warwick during the 14th century when the concentric ideas were beginning to develop. The towers are good examples of this. Although parts of the towers may have been changed but the pure fact that the towers are still standing shows the castle did undertake some concentric changes. Also the barbican and the gate house were added for defence and these still stand. Primary sources that I have looked at which help us to understand this are the evidence we have seen at Warwick castle itself. We can also gather a good idea of this from ...

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