In 21st-century Britain, we are deluged with imagined visions of castles – in historical novels, fantasy films and computer games.
They don’t all aim at historical accuracy, but they underline the enormous popularity of these buildings and the idea that castles are somehow special buildings with a distinct character of their own.
What were the realities of life in castles as they existed across Britain in the past, and what informs our popular understanding of them?
The second question is easier to answer than the first. Castles have long been understood as being distinctive because they were houses designed for war.
The conventional view is that they were introduced to England by the Normans in 1066 as a tool of conquest and offered a practical means by
