As long as
I can remember I have been fascinated by castles. In the summer months during
my childhood my family went camping in various parts of the UK and we often
visited castles. Here I'm pictured sheltering from the rain at Pickering
Castle in Yorkshire with my father and sister.
Pickering
Castle has a fine example of a Shell Keep built on a motte
of about 1100. The penultimate time I visited it was winter and was again raining.
At that time the custodian was most surprised that I wanted to visit the
castle in such bad weather. but I'm afraid little puts me off when it comes
to castles.
I never lost the
habit of visiting historic sites. Here I'm pictured sat outside Santa
Maria del Naranco, a 9th century visigothic palace of King Ramiro, near
Oviedo, Spain, during a holiday in 1990. I managed to fit in visits to about
30 or so castles during this holiday in France and Spain including Falaise,
Coca, and Segovia's
Alcazar
I live in England and visit castles on a regular basis, assisted by my membership of English Heritage, who care for so many English castles. My main interest is the medieval castles of England and Wales although I do have a more general interest in medieval life and often visit churches and other medieval places. I don't travel abroad very often but when I do I'm always looking at the local castle and church.
I do occasionally allow myself to dream about building my own castle based
upon Castle Hedingham in Essex.
I have visited hundreds of castle
sites in England and Wales, ranging from grand
royal castles like Conwy
to half hidden mounds of earth in isolated church yards like Pulford, in Cheshire. To understand
castles in the wider context I also visit other medieval sites and I am always
reading some history book or other. I am currently (2008) taking an
Open University degree course in history.
I have, a while ago, been a bit more directly involved in the presentation of the past and here I'm pictured in my guise as a 17th century farm labourer (pictured here enjoying some potage. - Notice the square plate, properly called a trencher, leading to the expressions 'trencherman' and 'square meal')
I am not a professional historian and have, as yet, no academic qualifications in the field so please take my site as the work of an amateur enthusiast. However, I do try to apply the highest academic standards to my work, including this site, and my research on licences to crenellate has been published in the Castle Studies Group Journal. This inspired further articles on the subject from noted academics Charles Coulson and Colin Platt and I'm continuing to do further research on this subject with the hope of publishing further information on this fascinating subject which has often been badly misunderstood and very poorly considered.
My own thinking about castles is strongly influenced by "revisionist" writers who consider castles to be complex, multifunctional institutions of which military and defensive aspects are a small aspect much over stated by earlier authors (Although one of the social functions of castles was to deliberately state, and often over state, the military function and might of the castle owner.).