Saturday, September 24, 2016

Required reading - some important journals

Required reading.

Every so often, some important articles are written, that impart important information, reshape our ideas regarding specific castles or buildings, and expand our knowledge of castles, towers and other fortifications. Here are some links to some very important documents and articles, produced by experts and researchers who continue to bring castles, towers and fortifications to life.

Lancaster Castle Revealed - The Keep part 1 by Neil Guy.

Lancaster Castle's Great Tower, interim report.

Castle Gatehouses in Northwest England by Richard Nevell.

English Licenses to Crenellate 1199 to 1567 by Philip Davis and a comprehensive list of Licenses to Crenellate 1264 to 1294 also by Philip Davis.

Original Castle Gates and Doors by Peter Burton.

These all represent good starting points in formulating a good understanding of English castles, their forms, their symbolic and real world uses and the intentions behind their construction. Castles and towers are strange beasts....sometimes simple on the outside, but with complex hidden lives that can take a lot of reading and research to truly understand. 

1 comment:

Philip Davis said...

Thanks Matt.

Both Peter and I are amateur researchers and Neil is not an academic, although he is an important and well qualified figure in British Castle Studies. Richard is early in his academic career but all of us have tried to produced quality research that will be judged on its merits not on our qualifications.
My point in saying this is to say to anyone you can do valuable and worthwhile research. If you think you have something interesting and ORIGINAL to say about castles and related buildings etc do submits articles to the Castle Studies Group who will consider these for publication on the bases of their value and regardless of your qualifications. Don't be put off if you don't have 'qualifications' but do expect to have to the highest standards of research to get published.
http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/page8.html
Philip Davis