The Origins and Development of Nottingham Castle

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The Origins and Development of Nottingham Castle The castle now looks as if it is now a place for tourism. Many of the original walls and buildings have been either taken away, destroyed or are hard to find. From where the original foundations were there are now; a playground, shop, museum and mansion house. Also there are gardens which are taking up a lot of the original space. From a distance the castle itself looks like a mansion on a hill will parts of a wall surrounding it. Fro the front of the castle the gatehouse is still standing but now has been converted into a shop. It still has its arrow slits and drawbridge. While walking around the castle grounds there are some of the original ruins. The castle itself is placed on top of the highest hill in Nottingham. This was done as a defensive and strategic reason. The castle had a view of the whole of Nottingham and the River Trent. This was good because it meant that no attackers could easily get to the castle without being spotted and the River Trent was the only way into Nottingham using boat. So it was used for bringing supplies and other things to the castle. The hill has natural outcrop of it and that’s where the castle was built. From my own knowledge and looking at the castle I can tell that it was a motte and baily castle. The motte part of a motte and baily castle was a mound wither natural or man made, that had a watchtower placed on top of it. Then the baily part was the surrounding land which was used for the place where the people who worked in the castle ground would live. This area also had a wall round it that was firstly made of wood but changed later in time. The whole castle would have been built out of wood but during the years it was all changed to stone for more defence. Looking at the site itself no one would know that it used to be wood.

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