SH Archive Secrets of the Castle: how to build one?

[plamski]

I often hear the argument that people from the past could not have possibly built the structures with the supposed technology of the time.
This documentary reenact the whole process of building a 13th century castles with all the original materials and skills required. The participants live, dress and eat according to the period. They try to be 100% authentic to the process.

Really enjoyable to watch. It has motivated me to take up a course in stone masonry.

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[plamski]

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Username: Divine Wind
Date: 2020-07-20 12:06:57
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I often hear the argument that people from the past could not have possibly built the structures with the supposed technology of the time.
This documentary reenact the whole process of building a 13th century castles with all the original materials and skills required. The participants live, dress and eat according to the period. They try to be 100% authentic to the process.

Really enjoyable to watch. It has motivated me to take up a course in stone masonry.

I popped in to see it 2/3 years ago, it was a deffo worthwhile trip, and there are enough people who have real experience in their trade, and at the castle to answer your queries/ technical questions. It's also only a short trip from the Loire Valley as well, if you are in the right location.

They call it French, but of course it's Norman (Northmannia, the land of the Northmen), and I wonder how many Castles/ Chateaus there are in France that are pre- Norman ie 150 years prior to 1066? Too busy today to check this.

I also wonder whether this castle building mania was a laid out plan to control both countries, and beyond, which of course eventually failed in France till the French revolution.

One phrase that has always annoyed me is "An Englishman's home is his castle", which even as a teenager I understood that the establishment were just taking the pizz.

The other thing that has more recently interested me was, who really paid for all these castles in the first instance, as judging by the 'conquest' of London in 1066, we know that the City of London was never taken, and I assume that there may have been a similar arrangement in France prior to that date.

 

[DanFromMN]

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Username: DanfromMN
Date: 2020-07-20 12:21:26
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I. Ever thought about WHO exactly paid for those things....

 

[plamski]

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Username: Divine Wind
Date: 2020-07-20 12:25:06
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I. Ever thought about WHO exactly paid for those things....

I was being rhetorical . The Normans were funded, a bit of research will tell us this, and I wonder if it's actually the Phoenicians/ pagan Israelites again.

 

[Whitewave]

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Username: whitewave
Date: 2020-07-20 14:50:44
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I often hear the argument that people from the past could not have possibly built the structures with the supposed technology of the time.
This documentary reenact the whole process of building a 13th century castles with all the original materials and skills required. The participants live, dress and eat according to the period. They try to be 100% authentic to the process.

Really enjoyable to watch. It has motivated me to take up a course in stone masonry.

Cool videos. I wonder how many skilled stone Mason's, architects there were back then and how long it took them to build just one castle. Europe has a butt load of castles and I imagine construction projects stopped for wars. How did they get so many of them built with the amount of people they had and time they had and money they had?