Portchester Castle

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Portchester Castle

Portchster Castle is a concentric castle, dating from Roman times

situated at the top of Portsmouth harbour. It has a 9-acre site and

was built from flint and stone. The castle had bastions and a tidal

moat, at the centre of the castle would have been accommodation.

Portchester Castle was originally built by the Romans to protect the

South coast of England from invasion by the Saxons. Portchester was

one of a series of forts built around the country and was typical of

Roman forts. Portchester was used as a base for soldiers. Because of

its location, troops could be sent out from the fort on ships to

defeat Saxon raiders. The location of Portchester Castle was ideal for

the Romans for several reasons: The site of the Castle was a peninsula

which meant that it was protected on three sides and could only be

attacked from one. The harbour that the fort protected could be used

for anchoring Roman ships, as they would be safe from storms.

What factors influenced the design and construction of Portchester

Castle?

During Roman times, Portchester Castle was an important link with the

Roman Empire as it was situated on the coast. When the Normans arrived

Portchester Castles was considered to be important as it provided a

link to Normandy. The Normans did not have the sophisticated

technology, the resources or the amount of men that the Romans had

had. This meant that they were unable to maintain the Castle as the

Romans had. They made a number of changes to the Roman Fort: A keep

was built in the corner with a wooden fence around it. Some of the

Roman walls had been 10ft thick, the Normans thinned these down to

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attacker's entrance to the castle. Although Portchester Castle does

not have staggered entrances it does have a triple gate to make it

harder for attackers to enter. This was very important because the

gate is the weakest part of a castle. On parts of the walls of

Portchester Castle, the base fans out and slopes down.

This is to make it harder for the enemy to

destroy the foundations and also to keep an

attacker away from the wall so they can be

fired at more easily. This is a feature of a

typical concentric castle although this

defence technique is usually used on the

entire wall. A typical feature of a concentric

castle is the protective wood work at the top

of the walls. We cannot tell whether this was

a feature of Portchester Castle because any

evidence would have rotted away.

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