Portchester Castle Essays -- Papers

Portchester castling Portchster stronghold is a concentric castle, dating from Roman generation situated at the top of Portsmouth hold in. It has a 9-acre site and was built from flinty and stone. The castle had bastions and a tidal moat, at the centre of the castle would pretend been accommodation. Portchester Castle was originally built by the Romans to protect the South swoop of England from invasion by the Saxons. Portchester was one of a series of forts built almost the country and was typical of Roman forts. Portchester was used as a prow for soldiers. Because of its location, troops could be sent out from the fort on ships to beating 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 woul d be safe from storms. What factors influenced the design and construction of Portchester Castle? During Roman times, Portchester Castle was an cardinal 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 non have the modern 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 preserve 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 5... ... aggressors 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 really important because the gate is the weakest part of a castle. On part s of the walls of Portchester Castle, the suitcase 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.