The Keep and Bailey
- Early Norman Castles - before Norman Conquest
- Roughly circular enclosure (bailey)
- Defensive walls (palisades) and ditches
- Central stonghold (keep) for added defence
|
An enclosure that is surrounded by a wall of stone or timber is called a bailey.
Baileys are usually roughly circular in shape and have a ditch around the outside. The
wall around the edge of the bailey is known as a palisade. If the attackers climbed the
ditch and managed to get over the walls, the people inside needed a second line of
defence. The keep was designed as this second line of defence. Made usually of wood,
the keep needed to be large
enough to hold the baron's family and household. Space could also be required to hold
soldiers and local villagers at times of attack. A keep could have been made in the
shape of a tower with a couple of floors or could just have been a wooden hall. Being made of
wood, the whole structure was always under threat from fire.
In some early castles the strongest part of
the construction could have been its gatehouse in which case this building would have
been the keep.
|
