My Visit to Lewes Castle
------------------------

Hello !

My name is Ben and this file tells you all about my
visit to Lewes Castle.

Please make sure that you have !EDIT and !PAINT
loaded before you use this disc.

I went to Lewes on the last Sunday in February.

I thought that I could go and 'do' the castle and get
home in time for Eastenders.

BEFORE visiting it, I got a hold of a guidebook to the
castle.

It was quite difficult to read, but I got the
following information out of it :

- when William the Conqueror invaded, he built
  MOTTE and BAILEY castles. The MOTTE was a mound
  of earth, with a wooden fence (STOCKADE) round
  the top of it and a wooden tower (KEEP) inside it.
  There would be a ditch around the motte and a
  wooden bridge over it.
  
  The BAILEY had a wooden fence around it as well
  and you would find buildings like houses for the
  soldiers to sleep in, a chapel,.....

  These castles were soon rebuilt in STONE.

- Lewes castle has 2 'mottes' or mounds (WOW).

- the towers of the KEEP were added in the 
  13th century (older than my mother !).

- it has a BARBICAN, or outer gatehouse (that's a
  gatehouse outside THE gatehouse - confused yet ?),
  built in the 14th century.

- William de Warenne, the builder of the castle,
  was given land around Lewes by William the
  Conqueror.

- His wife, Gundrada, died in 1085 and she was buried
  at the PRIORY in Lewes.

- After William died, his son William Rufus became
  king. William de Warenne was with Rufus at the
  SIEGE of PEVENSEY castle in 1088. William de
  Warenne was injured at this and died.

- By 1382 the castle was in a bad state of repair.
  The people of Lewes broke into it in 1382 and did
  a lot of damage to it.

- In 1620 the castle buildings were pulled down and
  the stone was sold.

- In 1733 the barbican (and the keep in 1750) were
  given to Thomas Friend, a wool merchant.

- At one point the keep was converted into a summer
  house.

- In 1850 the Sussex Archaeological Society rented
  it.

- The keep and Barbican were bought by Sir Charles
  Thomas-Stanford and given to the Society
  in 1922.

My first view of the castle was from the car on the
A259.

If you look at the !PAINT file called SKY you will
see that the castle is almost the tallest building
in Lewes and it really stands out (or would if I had
a reallly decent camera).

I got dropped on the High Street.

I couldn't see the castle now, but decided the
sensible thing to do would be to head up the High
Street, instead of down.

I passed a sign that said CASTLE DITCH.

I must be near the castle now.

On the wall of a house there was another sign.

Look at the file called SIGN.

I must be near the castle now !

Yes, I was.

Turning right I could see a huge tower.

I paid my entrance fee in the castle museum and then
came back out to look at and walk under the tower.

Files BARB and BARB1 show you what the 'tower' looked
like.

I soon found out what this 'tower' was.

Walking through the arches I found a sign on the wall.

Look at file SIGN1 and you will see what the sign
said.

So, this was the castle gateway or entrance. In fact,
there were two gateways here. The original one and
another one (an OUTER one) that had been built later.

WHY do you think they built the OUTER GATE or
BARBICAN ?

Looking round the walls of the barbican I saw two
grooves'.

Look at file GATEW and you will see them.

WHAT do you think they were put there for ?

Walking along the road here, I came across another
sign on a wall.

If you look at file TLT you can read what it says.

I think that TILTING means a place where knights used
to practise jousting and things like that (maybe
not !).

Looking over the wall of what is now the bowling
green, I could see the castle keep, on top of its
mound.

If you look at file BOWL you can see what I saw
over the wall.

Using !PAINT why not see if you can put the following
labels on the diagram :

KEEP OR TOWER; MOTTE OR MOUND;BAILEY OR TILTYARD.

I got out my guide book and had a look at a plan of
the castle.

If you look at file PLAN you can see a plan of the
castle.

Can you work out where I was standing to take the
photograph in the file  BOWL ?

The plan of the castle was made looking down from 
above.

Maybe now was a good time to climb to the
highest point in the castle and look at the
view.

There are now steps in the side of the MOTTE or
mound that take you up to the KEEP.

About half way up I looked round and got a really
good view of the BARBICAN.

Look at the file called BACK.

In the photograph you can see the BARBICAN and the
INNER GATE.

There would have been a DRAWBRIDGE in front of the
INNER GATE and in front of the BARBICAN.

Can you draw them on the photograph using !PAINT ?

Only half of the keep was standing.

If you look at the file called KPHF you can see
this.

I climbed the tower that you can see in this 
photograph.

The view from the top was excellent !

There is a photograph of the view in the file FRMKP.

Examine the file called WLS. You should be able to
see the remaining castle walls. Use !PAINT to mark
them more clearly on the photograph.

The file BLY is a view from the KEEP, looking across
the BAILEY. Using !PAINT you should be able to
mark where the second mound of earth is. See if you
can draw in where the castle walls would have
joined this mound on either side.

In my guide to the castle there was a sketch of what
it might have looked like.

Look at the file called LWSOK and you will see this
plan.

Can you find on the plan where I am standing at the
moment ?

OOPS ! It's neary 1 o'clock !

Time to go.

Before I do, look at file XXXX

Do you know what this is ?

It's somewhere in the castle.

Any way, got to go now.

I want to find out if Michelle will marry Geoff.

Bye.