Today we are going to look a little deeper into the features of a castle.
Did you ever wonder why some castles have towers and some don't? Why some castles have a moat and some don't?
Watch this video - 'A mini-guide to medieval castles'
There were two main reasons to build a castle in medieval Britain:
• ‘Show down’ – to provide a place of protection.
• ‘Show off’ – to show your importance and wealth.
Some features of a castle where to built to defend it and others where built to show off and impress people.
How might we find out the purpose of a particular castle?
We can tell by looking closely at the buildings, by counting up the number of 'show down' features compared to 'show off' features. But which are which?
Activity: Have a look through this list of features and discuss each one with your grown up to decide. Is it used to defend the castle or just to impress people?
Now have a go at labelling the features of a castle on this sheet and write sentences to explain the purpose (show off/show down) of some features.
Have fun!