Originally published in 1988, The Castles in England and Wales is a comprehensive treatment of the archaeology of the castles in England and Wales. The books looks at how following the Norman Conquest, one of the most characteristic structures of the English landscape, the castle, was used to control and survey the population. In its simplest definition a castle is a fortified habitation, however this book looks at the many uses of castles, from their most primitive kind, intended only for periodic use, or as magnificent decoration, such as Caernarvon and other Welsh castles of Edward I. It is essential reading for all archaeologists and historians alike.

The great walled castles of the medieval world continue to fascinate the modern world. Today, the remains of medieval forts and walls throughout Europe are popular tourist sites. Unlike many other books on castles, "The Medieval Fortress" is unique in its comprehensive treatment of these architectural wonders from a military perspective."The Medieval Fortress" includes an analysis of the origins and evolution of castles and other walled defenses, a detailed description of their major components, and the reasons for their eventual decline. The authors, acclaimed fortification experts J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann, explain how the military strategies and weapons used in the Middle Ages led to many modifications of these structures. All of the representative types of castles and fortifications are discussed, from the British Isles, Ireland, France, Germany, Moorish Spain, Italy, as far east as Poland and Russia, as well as Muslim and Crusader castles in the Middle East. Over 200 photographs and 300 extraordinarily detailed technical drawings, plans, and sketches by Robert M. Jurga accompany and enrich the main text.

In this engaging book Matthew Johnson looks Behind the Castle Gate to discover the truth about castles in England at the end of the Middle Ages.
Traditional studies have seen castles as compromises between the needs of comfort and of defence, and as statements of wealth or power or both. By encouraging the reader to view castles in relation to their inhabitants, Matthew Johnson uncovers a whole new vantage point. He shows how castles functioned as stage-settings against which people played out roles of lord and servant, husband and wife, father and son. Building, rebuilding and living in a castle was as complex an experience as a piece of medieval art.
Behind the Castle Gate brings castles and their inhabitants alive. Combining ground-breaking scholarship with fascinating narratives it will be read avidly by all with an interest in castles.

In this engaging book Matthew Johnson looks Behind the Castle Gate to discover the truth about castles in England at the end of the Middle Ages.
Traditional studies have seen castles as compromises between the needs of comfort and of defence, and as statements of wealth or power or both. By encouraging the reader to view castles in relation to their inhabitants, Matthew Johnson uncovers a whole new vantage point. He shows how castles functioned as stage-settings against which people played out roles of lord and servant, husband and wife, father and son. Building, rebuilding and living in a castle was as complex an experience as a piece of medieval art.
Behind the Castle Gate brings castles and their inhabitants alive. Combining ground-breaking scholarship with fascinating narratives it will be read avidly by all with an interest in castles.

A new way of looking at the medieval castle - as a cultural reflection of the society that produced it, seen through art and literature. Medieval castles have traditionally been explained as feats of military engineering and tools of feudal control, but Abigail Wheatley takes a different approach, looking at a range of sources usually neglected in castle studies. Evidence from contemporary literature and art reveals the castle's place at the heart of medieval culture, as an architecture of ideas every bit as sophisticated as the church architecture of the period. This study offers a genuinely fresh perspective. Most castle scholars confine themselves to historical documents, but Wheatley examines literary and artistic evidence for its influence on and response to contemporary castle architecture. Sermons, sealsand ivory caskets, local legends and Roman ruins all have their part to play. What emerges is a fascinating web of cultural resonances: the castle is implicated in every aspect of medieval consciousness, from private religious contemplation to the creation of national mythologies. This book makes a compelling case for a new, interdisciplinary approach to castle studies. ABIGAIL WHEATLEY gained her PhD at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.

'Somerville knows more about wooden barn construction than almost anyone alive.'-The Telegraph 'A joyful reminder of why nature, being outside, being together and creating beauty is so good for the soul.'-Kate Humble, broadcaster and author of A Year of Living Simply 'For all our advances, it's hard to deny the modern world brings with it new ills of disconnection and disenfranchisement, but here in Barn Club they've found their cure.'-Barn the Spoon, master craftsman and author of Spon Nature meets traditional craft in this celebration of the elm tree, beautiful buildings and community spirit. Barn Club calls on us to discover our landscapes more intimately and to explore the joys of making beautiful things by hand, together. When renowned craftsman Robert Somerville moved to Hertfordshire, he discovered an unexpected landscape rich with wildlife and elm trees. Nestled within London's commuter belt, this wooded farmland inspired Somerville, a lifelong woodworker, to revive the ancient tradition of hand-raising barns. Barn Club follows the building of Carley Barn over the course of one year. Volunteers from all walks of life joined Barn Club, inspired to learn this ancient skill of building elm barns by hand, at its own quiet pace and in the company of others, while using timber from the local woods. The tale of the elm tree in its landscape is central to Barn Club. Its natural history, historic importance and remarkable survival make for a fascinating story. This is a tale of forgotten trees, a local landscape and an ancient craft. This book includes sixteen pages of colour photographs, and black and white line drawings of techniques and traditional timber frame barns feature throughout.

The British Archaeological Association's 2013 conference was devoted to the study of Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. It also embraced Westminster School, which was founded at the Reformation in the Abbey precinct. Collectively, these institutions occupy a remarkable assemblage of medieval and later buildings, most of which are well documented. Although the Association had held a conference at Westminster in 1902, this was the first time that the internationally important complex of historic buildings was examined holistically, and the papers published here cover a wide range of subject matter.

Westminster came into existence in the later Anglo-Saxon period, and by the mid-11th century, when Edward the Confessor's great new abbey was built, it was a major royal centre two miles south-west of the City of London. Within a century or so, it had become the principal seat of government in England, and this series of twenty-eight papers covers new research on the topography, buildings, art-history, architecture and archaeology of Westminster's two great establishments - Abbey and Palace. Part I begins with studies of the topography of the area, an account of its Roman-period finds and an historiographical overview of the archaeology of the Abbey. Edward the Confessor's enigmatic church plan is discussed and the evidence for later Romanesque structures is assembled for the first time. Five papers examine aspects of Henry III's vast new Abbey church and its decoration. A further four cover aspects of the later medieval period, coronation, and Sir George Gilbert Scott's impact as the Abbey's greatest Surveyor of the Fabric. A pair of papers examines the development of the northern precinct of the Abbey, around St Margaret's Church, and the remarkable buildings of Westminster School, created within the remains of the monastery in the 17th and 18th centuries. Part II part deals with the Palace of Westminster and its wider topography between the late 11th century and the devastating fire of 1834 that largely destroyed the medieval palace. William Rufus's enormous hall and its famous roofs are completely reassessed, and comparisons discussed between this structure and the great hall at Caen. Other essays reconsider Henry III's palace, St Stephen's chapel, the king's great chamber (the 'Painted Chamber') and the enigmatic Jewel Tower. The final papers examine the meeting places of Parliament and the living accommodation of the MPs who attended it, the topography of the Palace between the Reformation and the fire of 1834, and the building of the New Palace which is better known today as the Houses of Parliament.

Paul Coby here proposes a new system for the recording and mapping of Roman forts and fortifications that integrates all the data, including size, dating and identification of occupying units. Application of these methods allows analysis that brings new insights into the placement of these forts, the units garrisoning them and the strategy of conquest and defence they underpinned. This is a new and original contribution to the long-running debate over whether the Roman Empire had a coherent grand strategy or merely reacted piecemeal to emerging needs. Although the author focusses on several major campaigns in Britain as case studies, the author stresses that his method's are also applicable to elsewhere in the Empire. Lavishly illustrated with colour maps, the book is also supported by a website and blogs, encouraging further investigation and discussion.

A few of the fortifications and fortified lines of the world wars are well known and have often been written about, illustrated and studied. But they tend to distract attention from the wide range of fixed defences constructed across Europe on an enormous scale after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, during a period of insecurity and aggression. That is why this new, highly illustrated study, which covers the entire continent, is so valuable. The authors examine the major fortified positions and describe their strategic purpose, their design and construction, and the role they played in military planning and operations. The outstanding contribution of the major military architects of the time is a key theme. The work of S r de Rivi res, Brialmont and others had a major influence on the course of the First World War and on the fortifications built before and during the Second World War. Their approach is visible in the designs for the Maginot Line, the East and West walls of Germany, the Vallo Alpino in Italy, the Soviet Stalin and Molotov lines, the Mannerheim and Salpa lines of Finland, the Greek Metaxas Line, the Bene Line of Czechoslovakia as well as the defences built by the Dutch and Scandinavians. The breadth of the coverage, the degree of detail and the numerous illustrations make the book essential reading and reference for anyone who has a special interest in the world wars and the history of fortifications.

While the Edwardian castles of Conwy, Beaumaris, Harlech and Caernarfon are rightly hailed as outstanding examples of castle architecture, the castles of the native Welsh princes are far more enigmatic. Where some dominate their surroundings as completely as any castle of Edward I, others are concealed in the depths of forests, or tucked away in the corners of valleys, their relationship with the landscape of which they are a part far more difficult to discern than their English counterparts. This ground-breaking book seeks to analyse the castle-building activities of the native princes of Wales in the thirteenth century. Whereas early castles were built to delimit territory and as an expression of Llywelyn I ab Iorwerth’s will to power following his violent assumption of the throne of Gwynedd in the 1190s, by the time of his grandson Llywelyn II ap Gruffudd’s later reign in the 1260s and 1270s, the castles’ prestige value had been superseded in importance by an understanding of the need to make the polity he created - the Principality of Wales - defensible. Employing a probing analysis of the topographical settings and defensive dispositions of almost a dozen native Welsh masonry castles, Craig Owen Jones interrogates the long-held theory that the native princes’ approach to castle-building in medieval Wales was characterised by ignorance of basic architectural principles, disregard for the castle’s relationship to the landscape, and whimsy, in order to arrive at a new understanding of the castles’ significance in Welsh society. Previous interpretations argue that the native Welsh castles were created as part of a single defensive policy, but close inspection of the documentary and architectural evidence reveals that this policy varied considerably from prince to prince, and even within a prince’s reign. Taking advantage of recent ground-breaking archaeological investigations at several important castle sites, Jones offers a timely corrective to perceptions of these castles as poorly sited and weakly defended: theories of construction and siting appropriate to Anglo-Norman castles are not applicable to the native Welsh example without some major revisions. Princely Ambition also advances a timeline that synthesises various strands of evidence to arrive at a chronology of native Welsh castle-building. This exciting new account fills a crucial gap in scholarship on Wales’ built heritage prior to the Edwardian conquest and establishes a nuanced understanding of important military sites in the context of native Welsh politics.

An illustrated study of the history of the Moscow Kremlin, a metaphor for Russia, a symbol for its government and an enduring icon of the country. A fortified complex covering 70 acres at the heart of Moscow, behind walls up to 18m high and watched over by 20 towers, the Kremlin houses everything from Russia's seat of political power to glittering churches. This is a fortress that has evolved over time, from the original wooden guard tower built in the 11th century to the current stone and brick complex, over the years having been built, burnt, besieged and rebuilt. Starting with the initial building of a wooden watch tower on the banks of the Moskva river in the 11th century, this book follows the Kremlin's tumultuous history through rises and falls and various iterations to today, supported by photographs, specially commissioned artwork and maps. In the process, it tells a story of Russia, and also unveils a range of mysteries around the fortress, from the 14th-century underground tunnels built to permit spies to enter and leave it covertly through to today's invisible defences such as it GPS spoofing field (switch on your phone inside the walls and it may well tell you you're at Vnukovo airport, 30km away) and drone jammers.

One of Scotland's finest late-medieval strongholds, Doune Castle stands high on a promontory between the River Teith and the Ardoch Burn in Perthshire. It is a testament to the power of one nobleman, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. He was known as Scotland's 'uncrowned king', and the castle was one of his main residences in the late 1300s. For a long time Albany has been credited with the complete construction of the castle, making Doune a remarkable example of a medieval fortress built as one man's vision. However, fresh research is casting new light on Doune Castle, suggesting a much more complex history dating back to the century before Albany and beyond.

The stories of Ireland's best-known castles. Majestic and magnificent, designed to both intimidate and inspire, castles are a common feature across Ireland's landscape, with over 1000 examples remaining - some intact, some in ruins, all awesome. This book celebrates the most popular Irish castles, from the Norman fortress of Bunratty to the five-star splendour of Ashford, from medieval Malahide to dramatic Dunluce, as well as introducing you to some of Ireland's most famous castle owners such as Grace O'Malley (Rockfleet) and W.B. Yeats (Thoor Ballylea).

This book examines the social role of castles in late-medieval and early modern Ireland. It uses a multidisciplinary methodology to uncover the lived experience of this historic culture, demonstrating the interconnectedness of society, economics and the environment. Of particular interest is the revelation of how concerned pre-modern people were with participation in the economy and the exploitation of the natural environment for economic gain. Material culture can shed light on how individuals shaped spaces around themselves, and tower houses, thanks to their pervasiveness in medieval and modern landscapes, represent a unique resource. Castles are the definitive building of the European Middle Ages, meaning that this book will be of great interest to scholars of both history and archaeology. -- .

The Edwardian castles of north Wales were built by a Savoyard master mason, but also by many other artisans from Savoy. What is more extraordinary, is that the constables of Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy and Harlech were also Savoyards, the Justiciar and Deputy Justiciar at Caernarfon were Savoyards and the head of the English army leading the relief of the sieges of Flint and Rhuddlan was a future Count of Savoy. The explanatory story is fundamentally of two men, the builder of castles, Master James of St George and Justiciar Sir Othon de Grandson, and the relationship of these two men with King Edward I. But it is also the story of many others, a story that begins with the marriage of Alianor de Provence to Edward's father, Henry III, and the influx of her kinsmen to England, such as Pierre de Savoie. It is impossible to understand the development of the castles in north Wales without an understanding of the Savoyards, where they came from and their impact on English and Welsh history. The defining work of Arnold Taylor in exploring the Savoyard history of Welsh castles is now many years past, and mostly out of print, it is time for the story to be revisited and expanded upon, in the light of new evidence.

Ruined cities overgrown by jungle. Towns buried beneath the ground. Statues lying half- hidden in the sand. Why do civilisations collapse? Why are towns abandoned? And how do once mighty cities come to be forgotten about? From the pyramids of Egypt to the ruins at Angkor in Cambodia and on to the mysteries of the Easter Island moai statues, Abandoned Civilisations is a brilliant pictorial work examining lost worlds. What emerges is a picture of how vast societies can rise, thrive and then collapse. We admire how whole cities develop, but equally fascinating is what happens when their moment has passed. From the 9th century temples at Khajuraho in India which were lost in the date palm trees until stumbled across by European engineers in the 19th century to Mayan pyramids in the Guatemalan jungle to Roman cities semi-buried - but consequently preserved - in the North African desert, the book explores why societies fall and what, once abandoned, they leave behind to history. With 150 striking colour photographs exploring 100 worlds, Abandoned Civilisations is a fascinating visual history of the mysteries of lost societies.

With a documented history stretching back a thousand years, Dunster Castle in Somerset is one of Britain's oldest and most intriguing great buildings, its turrets evoking centuries of warfare, dark deeds, bloodshed and treachery. What makes it particularly unusual is the prominent role women have played in its fortunes, from the indomitable Joan de Mohun in the 14th century, who promised as much land to the villagers as she could walk around barefoot in a day, to Lady Jane Luttrell, who saw off a Royalist attack during the English Civil War by personally commanding the cannons. Jim Lee worked for many years at the castle and knows more about it than just about anyone. Here he presents an entertaining history of the roles, from the heroic to the self-indulgent, its women have played over the centuries.

A collection of the most significant articles in castle studies, with contributions from scholars in history, archaeology, historic buildings and landscape archaeology. The castles of the late medieval period represent some of the finest medieval monuments in Britain, with an almost infinite capacity to fascinate and draw controversy. They are also a source of considerable academic debate. The contents of this volume represent key works in castle scholarship. Topics discussed include castle warfare, fortress customs, architectural design and symbolism, spatial planning and the depiction of castles in medieval romance. The contributions also serve to highlight the diversity of approaches to the medieval castle, ranging from the study of documentary and literary sources, analysis of fragmentary architectural remains and the recording of field archaeology. The result is a survey that offers an in-depth analysis of castle building from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, and places castles within their broader social, architectural and political contexts. Robert Liddiard is Professor of History, University of East Anglia. Contributors: Nicola Coldstream, Charles Coulson, Philip Dixon, Graham Fairclough, P.A. Faulkner, John Goodall, Beryl Lott, Charles McKean, T.E. McNeill, Richard K. Morris, Michael Prestwich, Christopher Taylor, Muriel A. Whitaker.

From coast to coast, the English landscape is still richly studded with castles both great and small. As homes or ruins, these historic buildings are today largely objects of curiosity. For centuries, however, they were at the heart of the kingdom's social and political life. The English Castle is a riveting architectural study that sets this legion of buildings in historical context, tracing their development from the Norman Conquest in 1066 through the civil wars of the 1640s. In this magnificent, compellingly written volume, which includes over 350 illustrations, John Goodall brings to life the history of the English castle over six centuries. In it he explores the varied architecture of these buildings and describes their changing role in warfare, politics, domestic living, and governance. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Once an essential part of nautical navigation and commerce, the world's lighthouses have become historical relics of days past, their primary function now replaced by modern technology. Yet these magnificent structures continue to fascinate us, not only for their intrinsic beauty, but also as monuments to our shared history, and as symbols of hope and salvation to those cast adrift on the stormy seas of life. From the mid-eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries, the waterways of coastal Georgia from the St. Marys River in the south to the Savannah River in the north were an integral part of the state's economy, vital to the trade in cotton, rice, timber, naval stores, and other products shipped to ports in America and around the world. Georgia's barrier islands are today the site of five existing lighthouses, each with its own unique style, history, and role in events over the past decades and centuries. In addition, focusing on these beacons, Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast reviews the basics of lighthouse design and construction, the role, lore and legacy of lighthouse keepers, the significance of lighthouses as strategic structures during the turbulent days of the Civil War, and more. Richly illustrated with both contemporary and historical photos, the reader or visitor will gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Georgia's lighthouses and of similar structures on coasts and waterways around the world.