Overview

This book will make the reader see afresh the great stone keeps that still dominate the English and Welsh countryside - often more than seven hundred years after they were built. Castles used to be seen as essentially military structures. Over the last ten years researchers have begun to paint a more complex picture, emphasising the castle's symbolic projection of power, its position in the wider landscape and even its aesthetic role. This wide-ranging book makes this reevaluation available to a new generation of castle enthusiasts. The book focuses on the rich heritage of castle archaeology in England and Wales, most of which is now in the care of English Heritage and Cadw. Castles discussed in detail include Bodiam, Stokesay, Framlingham, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Conwy, Leeds (Kent),Beeston, Ruthin, Castle Acre and Dover. The book offers new insights into familiar themes such as the Norman Conquest and siege warfare, and also explores trhe less emphasised aesthetic side of castle life: castles' gardens, their depiction in literature, and the symbolic values that found expression in castle architecture. The book includes stunning images of castles in their landscape context by Mick Sharp and Jean Williamson.

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9780954557522

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Reviews

There has been a strong demand for books in English on castles over the last fifteen years...Liddiards book is based firmly on the revision of traditional views.' -- Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies 'It is a superb book that everyone interested in medieval archaeology should read, because it describes why castles where built and how they were used by people living in the area. It blows away the cobwebs that still surround medieval siege warfare. It's a book about the uses of power and how a large and spectacular building can attract attention over the centuries, simply by its presence.' -- Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History

It is a superb book that everyone interested in medieval archaeology should read, because it describes why castles where built and how they were used by people living in the area. It blows away the cobwebs that still surround medieval siege warfare. It s a book about the uses of power and how a large and spectacular building can attract attention over the centuries, simply by its presence. --Francis Pryor Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History

There has been a strong demand for books in English on castles over the last fifteen years...Liddiards book is based firmly on the revision of traditional views. -- Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies * Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies * It is a superb book that everyone interested in medieval archaeology should read, because it describes why castles where built and how they were used by people living in the area. It blows away the cobwebs that still surround medieval siege warfare. It's a book about the uses of power and how a large and spectacular building can attract attention over the centuries, simply by its presence. -- Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History * Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History *

There has been a strong demand for books in English on castles over the last fifteen years...Liddiards book is based firmly on the revision of traditional views.' -- Thomas E. McNeill Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies 2007 'It is a superb book that everyone interested in medieval archaeology should read, because it describes why castles where built and how they were used by people living in the area. It blows away the cobwebs that still surround medieval siege warfare. It's a book about the uses of power and how a large and spectacular building can attract attention over the centuries, simply by its presence.' -- Francis Pryor Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History

Author Information

Robert Liddiard is Professor of History at the University of East Anglia. His teaching and research interests are in medieval and landscape history, particularly the history and archaeology of high status landscapes (secular and ecclesiastical), the vernacular landscape, parks and hunting as well as aspects of tenurial geography.

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