ne of the most important types of building constructed in the time of William the Conqueror and William Rufus were the Norman keeps. The keep had two primary requirements, the first was to provide comfortable accommodation for the noble and his family, and the second was to protect the noble from being attacked.
Although many were rebuilt in the following century there are many good examples still
remaining. The White Tower in London, Dover and Rochester in the south east, Newcastle, Appleby, Carlisle, Brough, Richmond in the north are all examples of this type of castle. Other examples
include Portchester, Guilford, Goodrich, Norwich, Castle Rising, Hedingham and Colchester. A keep was also known as a donjon, a French word. This word was probably altered over the years and its meaning changed so now the word dungeon means a small room used as a prison.
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Desktop/Laptop version
Explore the keep
Explore three complete floors of a Norman square keep plus a fourth gallery floor using this 3D reconstruction built using the Unity 3D game engine. Based roughly on the layout of Dover Castle explore the basement and dungeon on the ground floor.
The castles are all built from a roughly uniform plan. A massive square tower with a square turret at each of the corners that project slightly. Each of the main faces of the castle has a flat buttress running up the centre of the wall for extra strength. The only parts that have decoration are usually the main doorway at the entrance and the chapel. At the centre of the keep are large halls. Some keeps have a dividing wall down the middle. Access to different levels and sections of the castle are by passages and spiral staircases built into the thick walls.
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