The motte and bailey castle

Soon after the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Norman's had to make sure that the newly conquered land was secure. The Normans may have used local peasants as force labour to build up mounds of earth known in archaeological terms as a motte. The mottes are conical or pyramidal mound of earth or sometimes of stone, and surrounded by, an embankment enclosure known as the bailey. We know that some were enclosed by water and other had no water at all in the ditches and then the bailey was strengthen by a palisade constructed of timber with a central tower on top of the motte. It has been suggested that only a small number of motte and bailey castle may have been constructed before the Norman Conquest. But, this is very hard to believe as many of them were built during the reign of King William I so; I would say that it’s very unlikely to be right. The recording shows that 700 mounds are known to exist in the British Isles and seventy sites are known to have been investigated by excavations.

By the twelfth century the motte and bailey changed its design from wood to a more permanent stage of construction with stone castles and fortified dwellings of different classes. The motte and bailey castle need not have been contemporary in origin. We do know that the motte could be added to an existing enclosure; while in some other cases known to us the bailey was added to an isolated motte. Also excluded are defended enclosures without mottes; these, defined as ringworks, are considered as a separate class too. The identifying of the motte and bailey castle in the landscape is a fairly straightforward and quite easily is carried out by anyone who has and active interested. Although, some people do jump to the conclusion that a round barrow is the motte or a windmill mound, this is easily done if you are not use to landscape archaeology.

I have found a couple of good examples on historic maps, which also can provide clue to the location of them. Historical documents listing motte and baileys are very few and far between. Using maps you may gain a much better understanding of the layout. The defences enclosures of such buildings they do vary a great deal some motte are only five metres in height whilst other are much more higher. The baileys also vary in size depending on the land they had at the time and making sure that the bailey fitted. The baileys are also known to come in many different shapes some are round others oval and rectangular with rounded corners have been known. They are seldom of more than 2ha; the length of the axis from the motte usually not more than say 100m i.e. within arrow range enabling the bailey to be dominated from the motte. The ditch was dug of a V shape profile, and wet ditches as deep as the water permitted.

Some had a double ditch dug whilst other only a signal ditch have been excavated. Inlet channels and outlet channels carrying water into the moat from a stream and preventing flooding may have served a wet ditch. In other cases a natural spring or watercourse within the line of the ditch may have supplied the water. The palisade would be set on this either right round the bailey or sometimes continued up the side of the motte. Space was sometimes gained, especially in small baileys; by filling the bailey with ditch spoil up to the level of the top of the bank thus forming a platform above general ground level.Most of the motte and baileys were near towns, villagers open countryside and also located at the intersection of Romano British roads these tend to be of much earlier date. They may also over looking rivers, town’s village or commanding a river crossing for example a ford.

These resources are maintained by and © Webmaster of these pages No part of any of this text or pictures must be copied without consent All Rights Reserved. All information published on this site is corrected and was working when the site was launched by its owners