Help for Users of The Gatehouse

This is a rather limited help page for the site, see the links page for sites with glossaries and other helpful resources.

Dates

I've used throughout the abbreviation C11 etc for eleventh century etc, this is to save bit space, occasional some dates are given as c. 1100, meaning about or around 1100. In the former case the C is always upper case and in the later lower case. I have generally avoided using AD or CE and all dates, unless otherwise specified, are common era dates.

The information in this site is collected from a variety of sources and the use of the term 'medieval' is not consistent. For some authors this term refers to the period from the withdrawal of Roman forces until about 1500, for others this period is two (or more) distinct periods with the 'medieval' period starting about the time of the Norman Conquest. This leads to problem where the description "early medieval" is used as for some this means C5-C10 whilst for others it means C11-C12. Care should be taken in such circumstances.

References

Because the information in this site is derived from a database which is meant to be downloadable the bibliographical references are in a plain text Harvard format. The form is author surname, forename, date, 'article or chapter title' book title or journal name (place of publication: publisher) Vol# p#. I use the abbreviation Vol for volume immediately followed by the volume number (That is without a space i.e. Vol1, this makes searching for a particular volume easier). The abbreviation p is used for page and pages; I have not used pp for pages as I feel this is unnecessary. Part is abbreviated as pt.

Types and Naming of Fortifications

For details of the classification scheme used in this web site click here.

For information on some of the classification systems that are used for medieval fortifications click here

Location of sites

For some more information on the location of medieval fortifications click here. This includes comments of map references, county boundary changes and the factors effecting the positioning of castles.

Site reuse and change

High status sites like manorial centres gain a certain kudos of place and the site itself becomes significant resulting in sites being reused, often repeatedly. My studies and the close association of many castles with parish churches leads me to believe many mottes and ringworks may be highly modified and reused thegnal burh sites. I am also sure that a number of square C13/C14 moated sites are actually much reworked low mottes recut to the latest style. How many moated manor houses started out as timber castles may be impossible to ascertain but some have been identified as such. Jean le Patourel work on Yorkshire moated sites shows the close association between some moated sites and timber castles.

Mounds of Earth