Portchester Castle Essays -- Papers

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 5... ... 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.