Secreta Secretorum
This site is
designed to be a comprehensive listing
of the medieval castles, castle sites, fortified houses, urban and
coastal defences and other fortifications of England and Wales built or
in use from 1000 to 1600. It's not a history of castles and users of
the site are expected to have a basic understanding of castles and
medieval England and Wales. The site is a resource for those interested
in castles studies both professional and amateur. It is probably of
more interest to the archaeologist than the historian. It is unlikely
to be of much interest to the genealogist.
This is an ambitious project and any such list is bound to have omissions and errors. However, it is hoped that by using the flexible and responsive media of the Internet that this list can be as comprehensive and as current as possible. I've taken, as my standard for what is a fortification, that which the various authors I draw my information from consider to be a fortification, although some sites have later been rejected as fortification and these are noted as such. Sites which consist of entirely passive defences such as moated houses and walled sites without wall walks and parapets are generally excluded. However, as a 'control group' I do list all the royal and episcopal residential houses and hunting lodges of the period (lumped together under the title 'palace'). Some of these were fortified but many were not. Defining castles is difficult and any definition of a castle should also explain why some places of equal social status were not castles.
The site consists of three main sections. The first is the listings of medieval fortifications; the second is a listing of the texts and online sources used in compiling information for these lists, this section also contains details of some other important or useful texts and Internet resources; the third section is a collection of other resources of interest to castle studies such as distribution maps and a list of licences to crenellate.
There are relatively few pictures in this site since the
information on the site takes up several ten of megabytes of space. I
hope the content will make up for the lack of bells and whistles.
 |
 |
 |
||
SOURCES |
LISTS OF SITES |
OTHER INFORMATION |
In the web site are over 5000 individual pages for medieval fortified sites. Unfortunately, at the moment, it is not possibly to directly search for an individual site from within the web site, although I hope this will change in the future. In the meantime please use the Google site search form below.
A project of this type is certain to require the help of others. My thanks those who have helped.
While I have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the data held within this web site and the associated downloadable databases, it must be appreciated that much of this is compiled from secondary sources and that the information supplied may not be a full or reliable statement of the archaeological resource. I shall not be held liable in respect of any errors or omissions from the listing provided. (i.e. If you use this site for something important check the secondary sources that I give and then the sources they have used.)
NEWS |
||
Ill health has forced me to end this project. The databases and web site have undergone a final revision. The site will go offline at the end of October 2007. Please feel free to download the databases and any parts of the website, including pictures and maps, for your own use.
A new essay "Defining the Castle" has been added. This essay attempts to debunk the castle as a military building, arguing the main function was administrative. It also looks at the gatehouse as a symbol of lordship, acknowledging that this aspect of the castle is a pre-Conquest, saxon, tradition. It calls for a greater appreciation of the psychology factors that effect the choice to fortify a building and to describe a building as military.
English and Welsh site pages and indexes again reposted because of more small additions to the bibliographies and the addition of a couple more dubious sites. A slight change to the site page design template should make the site pages a little easier to read.
English and Welsh site pages and indexes reposted mainly because of widespread but relatively small additions to the bibliographies. I'm starting to go through Leland's itinerary and this is producing some interesting results (I suspect that there may have been a medieval castle on the site now occupied by Lullingstone Castle) including a few new possible sites, such as Glasney College. A few other possible English sites entered. A new updated and more detailed distribution map of artillery fortifications posted. Some slight additions to the licences to crenellate listing, most notably Moigne Court which was licenced to be fortified with an uncrenellated wall. This is not a licence to crenellate but an important document if licences to crenellate are to be truely understood as recognition of nobility rather than as some permission to fortify. I've added a link from the page of sites issued licences to crenellate to the details of the licence. I've also reposted the databases and added an excel version of the databses to the downloadable formats. See the download page. The individual site pages and the indexes are being reposted because of;
A distribution map has been added to the article on licences to crenellate.
Three weeks of intense research has updated the list of licences to crenellate. These now have much more information and detail, licences have been added and reference are now given to the PRO translations of the original Patent and Charter Rolls. Some analysis of the details of these licences is added. This research has identified another 18 or so possible fortified manor houses which have been added to the database, the pages have been added and the indexes updated. A direct link to the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service has been added on the individual site pages. This gives a direct look at the 1:25,000 scale map, which is useful for understanding the landscape form.
A reorganisation of site has introduced an 'Other Information' section. I've gradually been adding extra bits to the site such as distribution maps and a list of Licences to Crenellate and these now have their own section and menu link. The latest addition to this section is some contemporary late medieval list of castles and towers in Northumberland.
A slight reorganisation of the bibliography into three sections should make this feature more usable by reducing the length of lists to scroll down. The Bibliography is now split into General Texts, for background information; Gazetteers, my main sources; and Journal web sites.
The major part of my work continues to be expanding the bibliographical references for sites. (Sitting in libraries trawling through books is much less enjoyable than going around the countryside taking photographs. There are quite a few web sites with collections of castle photographs, there are very few with proper bibliographical references.). I've recently moved to Manchester where I have better access to quality libraries so this major part of the project continues with somewhat renewed vigour. A provisional list of Licences to Crenellate is now included and available for download. A short essay on minor Norman earthwork and timber castles has been added under the help section. A section with distribution maps derived from the databases has been added, this is, as yet, in it's early stages and I intend to add many more distribution maps in the future. (The latest addition is a map of early castles, mottes and ringworks. Many sources are still using Renn's map of 1959, and King's map of 1966 so an update of this probably due). Also added to the help section is a short piece on some of the difficulties in classifying medieval fortifications with details of the currently used classification schemes as they apply to medieval fortifications. Click here to view. I'm doing some work on the the various forms of castle mounds and this may result in something. If you have suggestions for what you would like see added to the site please contact me. They tab
delimited ASCII files of the databases from
which these listing are derived are available in the file sharing part
of the web site (Use the Downloads link).
Please feel free to download this listing to use for your own studies. Remember
the site and the database are being continually being updated so please update
your own files as often as you want. The databases were last updated on 15 June
2006. |
||
