[samantha bowler]

what are they?

[Mrs Faithorn]

They are castles that the Normans built in the 11th and 12th centuries as a means of control and defence against possible Anglo-Saxon or Welsh attack.

The main part of the castle is called the 'keep' (where the baron or knight in charge of the castle lived together with his soldiers and servants). They were generally square in shape.

Very often they replaced the 'motte and bailey' castles that were quickly built after the Normans first invaded in 1066. These early castles were often built of wood (which can easily be set on fire and rots) and were then replaced by these 'square keep' castles built of stone.

There is a mini lesson on the History of castles here which you might like to look at
and a more detailed (but straightforward) page on The Normans and castle building here. This has a photo of a square keep castle too.

If you are going to do quite a lot of work at school about castles then you will find this page of links useful for any future research you may have to do.

[Cyrusislikeawesome]

samantha bowler, on Jan 26 2003, 06:25 PM, said:

what are they?

hi
i need info on square keeps aswell
could u message me wat u found out:D

[Mr. D. Bryant]

Cyrusislikeawesome, on Nov 14 2009, 03:01 PM, said:

could u message me wat u found out:D

Dear Cyrus, this is an open forum and therefore, for reasons of safety, the messaging feature is disabled. However, if you have look at the links already given in this thread, then that should give you most of what you need. If you want more, then do a forum search on +square +keep which will show you lots of other posts.

[Mr. D. Bryant]

samantha bowler, on Jan 26 2003, 06:25 PM, said:

what are they?

Some more links to add to the ones given above. Probably the best place to start is the History Learning Site link.

There is a brief introduction to 'stone keep' castles here.

The Channel 4 History castles microsite gives a lot of information on certain castles e.g. Rochester.

For information on different types of keep have a look at this page on the very comprehensive castles-of-britain.com site.

[02indyat]

samantha bowler, on Jan 26 2003, 06:25 PM, said:

what are they?

I only know as we are doing a topic on middle ages in history!

Here is my conclusion!

Finally, the last castle of the middle ages, a Square Keep. It was strong stone and had battlements. These helped to see from all around and fire arrows at any passers by! Hence the name, it had lots of squares, square lookout towers, square keep and more. At the front there was a gatehouse. A little building that stuck out adding an extra bit on to guard the entrance. The architects lost the ditch, and the moat to arrive at this scary looking and overwhelming castle.


Hope this helps!

[Mr. D. Bryant]

02indyat, on Nov 29 2009, 09:01 AM, said:

Finally, the last castle of the middle ages, a Square Keep. It was strong stone and had battlements. These helped to see from all around and fire arrows at any passers by! Hence the name, it had lots of squares, square lookout towers, square keep and more. At the front there was a gatehouse. A little building that stuck out adding an extra bit on to guard the entrance. The architects lost the ditch, and the moat to arrive at this scary looking and overwhelming castle.

I would disagree with you a little about it being the last castle of the Middle Ages. The stone keep replaced the earth and wood motte and bailey. However, later round towers were increasingly used as they were more difficult to undermine. The last type of useful castle is generally held to be the concentric castle. This had an outer ring of walls, within which was a higher inner ring, from both of which the defenders could shoot at any attackers. A good example is Beaumaris in Anglesey.

However, thank you for your post; it is good that we help each other.