Was Conisbrough Castle A Typical Castle?

University Degree Architecture, Building and Planning

Matthew McCormack

Conisbrough Castle is a late stone keep castle. Its keep is 90ft (30 m) high and is supported by 6 buttresses.

The inner bailey is enclosed by a high curtain wall that follows the curve of the hilltop in straight sections. Here the main gate is protected by a barbican, a dogleg shaped corridor, which was also guarded by a drawbridge over a moat. The main gate was guarded by two flanking towers. The right-hand tower has now slipped down the hill.

As you enter the inner bailey, to your right and round the corner here is the remaining foundations of what is believed to be a chapel. This is thought because archaeologists found an altar stone with five crosses marked on it. If you continue go round the inner bailey anticlockwise you reach what was believed to be the kitchen. Here are the remains of a hearth and next to this the remains of several fireplaces. Next is the store where all the food was kept, the store had to be kept full in case of a siege. This is odd because usually the kitchen is right next to the main hall, which is next. The main hall is where the lord and lady would have had their meals and where everyone would sleep (except the Earl and his wife). From the great hall stairs lead to The Great Chamber Above (1st floor) where the lord and lady would sleep. This room and the room below had a fireplace made from ashlar stonework; the chimney runs through both. The lower floor was probably used for storage. Beneath the building next to the gate was a small cell where people who caused petty offences where put, the toilet in the corner was connected to a large natural crack in the limestone that was enlarged to create a cess pit.

The Keep

The keep was the main stronghold of the castle; at Conisbrough there is one of the first round keeps. Round keeps hand a structural advantage to square ones, the new shape made it harder for enemies to remove cornerstones with their battering rams and defenders had a clear view of attackers. In the keep, the walls where about 5ft thick so catapults didn’t work as well. The entrance to the keep was on the first floor and was accessible by a dogleg shaped staircase, which made it very hard for enemies to use their battering rams.

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The Keep

First Floor

On the first floor there is a grille, if you look through you can see a room below with another hole in the floor. This room must have been used for storage and the hole in the floor was a well, so if the castle was besieged all they needed for surviving a few weeks was already in the keep.

Second Floor

On the way up you notice that the staircase winds round to its left, in most other castles the staircase winds to its right so that people coming up the stairs (attackers, who are more than likely right-handed) cant swing their weapon properly, but defenders can. The large round room was the meeting hall, here is a large table which the earl would have spoken with important visitors and planned the running pf his estates. Also in the room are a piscina, a small washbasin, and a large fireplace.

Third Floor

More stairs lead to the third floor; the big round room was probably used as sleeping quarters, with the Earls bed hung with drapes for privacy. A small fireplace shares the chimney with the large one below. There was a large window from which the room was lit, there are benches here and it was probably used for when the ladies were doing their sewing.

On the third floor there is room separate to the bedroom, this is the private chapel for the Earl. There are two piscinas where the plate and chalice were washed after they had been used in a communion service. In the roof there are two boss’, one is severely worn but the other is still visible, it the been carved with a cross, these where used to join the roofing ribs. From the chapel there is another room that was probably the vestry.

The Roof

On the roof there is a chimney from the two fireplaces below. The 6 buttresses, 4 of them where hollow, one was used as an oven for baking bread. Another two was used for collecting rainwater. The other was a dovecot; this housed all the birds or messenger birds that became useful if the castle needed to get word out. Sometimes the birds could have been used as food if the castle was besieged. The other two buttresses were solid stone.

Conisbrough Castle was a typical castle in the sense that it guarded the River Don, a point of geographical importance. It was also a typical castle in the way that it had walls an inner bailey and a keep, and therefore looked like a castle. But not all castles where the same; there were many types such as Motte and Bailey, Stone keep, late stone keep, curtain wall, concentric etc. Conisbrough Castle was not a typical castle in the sense there is no typical castle, because there are so many different types.

Motte and bailey castles, as the name suggests, had two distinct parts. The motte was a mound of earth with steep sides and a flat area on top. The bailey was a largest area, usually level with the ground and protected by a ditch and a bank, with another fence on top. The motte was the safest place in the castle because it was the hardest to attack. Around the top of the motte there was a wooden fence, and inside this a wooden tower or house. The motte was connected with the bailey by a wooden bridge. The bailey contained living accommodation and storage for food and animals.

These were quick and east to build. Their greatest weakness was an attack by fire. Also they needed constant repair and would need rebuilding anyway. Stone castles replaced these in the long run.

After the Norman Conquest great stone keeps were built in the most important places, such as the Tower of London, just to show how powerful they were.

Like the motte the keep was the safest part of the castle. Square keeps were safe because of the strength of their walls, up to 5m thick. This meant that they were too heavy to build on mottes. As the strength of the keep was the walls, which kept the attackers out, special care had to be taken with the doors and windows.

The door was usually on the first floor reached by a dogleg staircase, which meant attackers couldn’t get their battering rams up to the door. Windows on the lower floor were slit windows as so nobody could climb in but defenders could fire out arrows. Higher up the windows got much wider.

Square keep castles had a weakness. There was not much the defenders could do to fight back unless the doorway was attacked. Usually the attackers tried to undermine the walls. Square keeps were weak against this type of attack.