Bam!  Bang!  That’s the last peg to finish the drawbridge.  Now our castle is finished.  Come in!  We’ll show you around the castle.
     Early castles were built of wood in 1050 A.D.  These castles were easy to build but easily burned too.  Later on, castles were built with stone.
    Every once in a while, the King would check on how the builders were doing.  It took 30 blacksmiths, 400 masons, 2,000 laborers and carpenters to build the castle.  Blacksmiths made the metal parts, masons did the stone work and the laborers built the castle.  Carpenters made the doors and furniture.
    Sometimes workers would build wooden parts to the castles first, then put the stones on top of it to finish it.  They made the foundations very carefully.
    Builders built castles on hills, near roads, with moats around them.  Some castles had either two walls or one huge wall around them.
    Now we will give you a tour around the castle.  The first room was one of the biggest rooms.  This room was called the Great Hall.  It’s where the Lord would settle arguments.  They would also have feasts in the Great Hall.  When they were done eating, they would swipe the food off the table.  It would land on the floor.  They would not clean it out.  They would cover it with hay and flowers because of the bad smell.
    The next room was the dungeon.  It was like a basement.  It was dark and cold.  Prisoners were kept down there.
    A third room was the kitchen.  The kitchen was sometimes built away from other parts of the castle so if they had a fire, the whole castle would not be destroyed.  It was so big it looked like one huge room.  There were sometimes passageways to the kitchen.
    The chapel of a castle was a church.  It had stained glass windows and was one big room of the castle.
    The last room of our tour was the Keep.  The Keep was a building with three rooms on three floors.  The lowest level had stored food and weapons.  The second floor might be the kitchen or Great Hall.  The room above was where the King and Queen lived.  It was the most comfortable room and the safest place in the castle.
    The King ruled the castle and all the lands in his kingdom.  Once he married the Queen, the queen’s lands belonged to the King, too.
    The Queen ran the castle and had the children.  The children would help run the castle one day.  The King and his family were the most important people of the castle.
    Lords and ladies are the second most important people in the castle.  The lords were very powerful and they protected the King and Queen.  The lords helped the King keep his lands.  The ladies made clothing and quilts.  They helped the Queen and the princesses with work in the castle.  The princesses had to learn to ride a horse and how to become queen.  Princes had to learn how to be King.
    Knights rode on horseback to protect the castle.  Knights wore armor to protect themselves.
    Maids and servants helped with all the work in the castle, like cooking and making clothes.  There were lots of servants in a castle!  There was even a food taster who tasted food to see if it was poisoned.
    Entertainers sometimes came to live in the castle.  Minstrels sang songs.  Jugglers and jesters entertained guests and the King while they were eating.
    Life was hard in castle times.  There were no refrigerators, no heat, and no running water.  It was also hard because it was cold and dark at night.  Many people had hard jobs like the servants who made all the food and clothes.
    Servants made all food themselves by hand.  They made flour by grinding wheat.  Birds were baked in pies to fly out when they were cut open.  Servants did this.  Food was baked in brick ovens or over the fire.  The food they had to eat was often rotten or stale.
    People had to make their own candles with wax for light.
    People did many jobs.  The police chief was also the judge.
    In castle times, people married at an early age.  They were usually about 14 when they got married.
    Even though this sounds like a lot of jobs and a hard life, the men and women who lived in the castle liked living there!
    Animals in the castle were used for hunting, food, and other things.
    Wild porkers were used for hunting.  They were also used for food.
    Badgers, squirrels, wild cats, and geese were all wild animals.  They were hunted for food.  Peacocks, swans, and deer were other wild animals that were eaten.  Deer were eaten in thick, spicy sauces.
    Dogs were used for hunting these wild animals.  They were also kept as pets.  Hawks were also trained to hunt for wild birds.
    Sheep wool was used for clothing because it was soft and used to keep people warm.
    Cattle were used for food and milk.  Longhorns were also used for defense.
    The bagot goat gave milk and had long hair used for clothing.  It was not usually killed for food.
    Cats lived in the castle and hunted for rats and mice.  Rats and mice often lived in the Great Hall.  They ate the food that was scraped onto the floor and covered with hay.  Cats hunted the rats and mice that lived there.
    Pigeons were used to send messages back and forth to other castles.
    Horses were used for the King to ride and used in wars.
    Most of the castle animals lived right in the courtyard.  Wild animals lived in the fields around the castle walls.
    Bam!  Bam!  We were under attack.  There were many ways to keep the castle safe.
    The guards were the people who protect the castle.  The chief porter is a different kind of guard who controls the drawbridge.  Under the drawbridge there was a moat.  Some moats even had alligators in them!
    The portcullis was a sliding metal door behind the drawbridge.  It raised and lowered.  Behind the portcullis were two wooden doors.
    Archers were people with bows and arrows.  The bows were 5 to 6 feet long.  An outer wall was higher than an inner wall.  Archers would protect the castle on these walls.
    Every castle had their own wells inside the walls so nobody could poison their well.
    Early swords were called “slashing swords.”  Knights used them in battle.
    Horns were blown when guards saw enemies coming and it was time to protect the castle.
    Da-ta-da! The horn is signaling another warning.  It’s time to raise the drawbridge to keep us all safe.

Bibliography
(Sources Where we Found our Facts)

Castles by David Alderton
Castles by Francesca Baines
Castles by Philip Steele
Castles by Philip Wilson
The Castle Book by Michael Berenstain
Castle Diary by Richard Platt
Castles: A First Discovery Book by Gallimard Jeunesse, Claude Delafosse, and C. and D. Millet
Castles and Mansions by Alan James
Days of Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles by Christopher Maynard
Defending a Castle by English Heritage
Eyewitness Books: Castle by Christopher Gravett
Imagination Express Destination: Castle Compact Disc
Kids Discover: Knights and Castles edited by Stella Sands
Knights and Armor by Daisy Kerr
Knights and Castles by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne
Knights in Shining Armor by Gail Gibbons
Look Inside a Castle by Laura Driscoll
A Medieval Castle by Fiona MacDonald and Mark Bergin
Medieval Castles by Brian Adams
Random House Children’s Encyclopedia edited by Ann Kramer
Stephen Biesty’s Cross-Sections: Castle by Richard Platt and Stephen Biesty
The World Book Encyclopedia – Volume C,- 2001
 

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