Embedded Files
Fourteenth century depictions of fortifications and military equipment of the time, including trebuchets, crossbows, arms and armour on ivory plaques in the Bargello Museum, Florence (photographed 2015) .
As a special treat on my eighth birthday my parents took me with my sisters to Pickering Castle in Yorkshire. I was familiar with Clifford's Tower and the walls of York - including the Roman walls - and had seen other castles in Yorkshire, but Pickering had always been a ruin we passed on the way to the Yorkshire coast. Years later I was inspired by my class-mate Mark Headley to read more about castles and this led to me hauling my sister and a school friend around the Welsh castles in 1965. That same year we had holidayed on the Black Isle in Scotland and I had been puzzled by what looked like dock walls on the other shore of the Moray Firth, but could not understand why they remained well above sea level at high tide. What I was looking at was Fort George, one of the finest artillery forts of the mid-18th century, but it was not until I had worked with Andrew Saunders on his excavations at Launceston Castle a few years later that I discovered how much military architecture had been affected by the development of gunpowder weapons, nor how basic the walls of York were in contrast to those built by Renaissance architects and those who came after them. Although I have worked on excavations at Roman fortified sites and at Scarborough and Berkhamsted Castles, so far I have only ever really been a sight-seer, albeit one with certain goals and targets. The photographs included here give a flavour to some of the many fortifications that I have visited over the past six decades or so.
As a special treat on my eighth birthday my parents took me with my sisters to Pickering Castle in Yorkshire. I was familiar with Clifford's Tower and the walls of York - including the Roman walls - and had seen other castles in Yorkshire, but Pickering had always been a ruin we passed on the way to the Yorkshire coast. Years later I was inspired by my class-mate Mark Headley to read more about castles and this led to me hauling my sister and a school friend around the Welsh castles in 1965. That same year we had holidayed on the Black Isle in Scotland and I had been puzzled by what looked like dock walls on the other shore of the Moray Firth, but could not understand why they remained well above sea level at high tide. What I was looking at was Fort George, one of the finest artillery forts of the mid-18th century, but it was not until I had worked with Andrew Saunders on his excavations at Launceston Castle a few years later that I discovered how much military architecture had been affected by the development of gunpowder weapons, nor how basic the walls of York were in contrast to those built by Renaissance architects and those who came after them. Although I have worked on excavations at Roman fortified sites and at Scarborough and Berkhamsted Castles, so far I have only ever really been a sight-seer, albeit one with certain goals and targets. The photographs included here give a flavour to some of the many fortifications that I have visited over the past six decades or so.
One of four Romanesque donjons in the hilltop town of Chauvigny, Vienne, France (photographed 2007).
Carlisle, Cumberland ('Cumbria'); built for king Henry I, c.1122-35. The castle's position on the border with Scotland ensured its continued importance through the centuries. The profile of the keep is broken up by embrasures for cannon on the roof.
Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire; the 11th century keep (centre) is one of the earliest in Britain (photographed 2008).
Orford Castle, Suffolk; the 12th century keep built by king Henry II, 1165-73 (photographed 2015).
Castle Rising, Norfolk. Hall keep built for William d'Aubigny soon after 1138 (photographed 1988).
Bowes, Yorkshire; the keep was built for king Henry II in 1171-4 to guard the strategic cross-Pennine road, now the A66. After the Civil War (1642-1647) the castle, with the right to tax goods passing along the road, was granted by king Charles II to my ancestor, Christopher Hanby for services rendered to his father in the war.
Newcastle upon Tyne keep, built by king Henry II, 1172-77 (photographed 2018).
Conisbrough Castle, Yorkshire; built by Hamelin Plantagenet, c.1170-80 (Photographed 2014)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse