The next feature which the attackers would come across would be the ditch, which would be extremely steep in medieval times and if the weather was wet it would be very slippery and could even cause people to break bones. It would also be very difficult to get heavy equipment in and back out without harming it, or even themselves.
The Curtain wall would be following and would be the set of walls that surrounded and protected the interior () of the castle . These walls are often connected by a series of towers or mural towers to add strength and provide for better defense of the ground outside the castle, and were connected like a draped between these posts. They were designed to enclose the keep itself and to help a last longer during a .
The keep walls would be next. They were the thick stone walls of the keep which protected the people who were in the keep, but the attackers would find it very difficult to break down. As breaking down the keep wall was almost impossible, the attackers would use their common sense and break down the door to the fore-building, but would then find it hard to break down the door to the keep as there would also be a portcullis making it a lot stronger and harder to break down.
The keep walls would also slope outwards at the bottom which was called a batter. It would mean that if you dropped rocks from the top of the keep, they would drop down onto the batter and bounce of and hit the people. This would surprise the attackers and they possibly in many cases not see it coming.
Another aspect of Rochester Castle was that at there were stairs up to the doorway to the Fore-Building, but the stair had a gap to get t the door and you would have to make a very large jump, which would take a lot of effort and especially to get the battering ram up the stairs would be hard, but would advantage the defenders as it would again give then time and also if the drop anything down on the attackers while jumping, they could easily fall and have to start all over again.
As you can see in the picture bellow (the doorway, fore-building and keep), the two doors which are very close together would make it easier said than done to turn around the tree trunk/ battering ram to get through the door to the keep without getting killed or even injured in any way.
Inside the keep, there was one main stairs which turned anti-clockwise and this would give an advantage to people who were coming down the stair (defenders) who were right-handed and make it more challenging for people coming up the stairs (attackers) who were right-handed. They would only take in mind right-handed people as left-handed people in medieval times were thought to be witches and warlocks.
A lot higher in the castle, there were hourdes which were covered platforms with holes in the floor for dropping missiles at the enemy at the base of the wall. The cover to the platform would protect the defender making them almost impossible to reach due to very small holes in the bottom being the only way of attack.
Even though Rochester Castle had many defensive features, it also had weaknesses, for example, it did not have its own unlimited supply although there was a well in the basement, but this didn’t stop it having all it’s features. It would have been very difficult to attack, but even more difficult to defend and build.
