The bailey is where followers of the lord of the castle lived. Many building would be built inside the bailey for stables, kitchens, houses, soldiers quarters, bakeries, and storehouses. The bailey was designed to be defended by archers.
The design of the bailey made it so that any point on its outer edge would be within bowshot range of the tower. Ditches surrounding motte-and-bailey castles could be combined. These would form a number eight shape around the castle and it could be filled with water as well to create a moat. Many modern castles started out as a motte-and-bailey design. Over time they evolved and were developed and renovated into new designs. Almost no motte and bailey castles are used today, but many still exist.
The most famous example of a motte and bailey castle that is still in use is Windsor Castle , home to the Queen of England. They were an easy type of castle to build. With a large number of workers, it was possible to build a motte and bailey castle in just a few weeks. Four out of every five castles built by the Normans were motte-and-bailey castles. They really did love the design of this type of castle!
It is thought that as many as 1, wooden motte and bailey castles were constructed by the Normans in England. Model of a typical motte and bailey castle, showing the artificial mound surmounted by a wooden keep the motte and the fenced enclosure surrounded by a ditch the bailey.
Castle sites were well chosen to maximise their defensive value — bends in the river, as is the case in Durham, were ideal because the river provided an additional line of defence. Sources of fresh water were also essential for their own sake — ensuring that the inhabitants of a castle would have constant supply of drinking water. The steep river banks of the Durham Peninsula made it an ideal defensive site for a castle.
Stone walls constructed in the 12th century added to this natural line of defence. Mottes were artificial mounds constructed by piling consecutive layers of earth and stones and then compacting them.
The stones were essential to ensure that the motte would remain solid and also helped with drainage. The first record of a motte and bailey castle in France appeared at the start of the 11th Century.
The first recorded motte in England was in when French castle builders were building one for the English king in Hereford. However, the French were unpopular with the local population and the French builders left without anything substantial being built.
After his victory at Hastings in , William moved around the south coast to Dover. Here he built his third English castle after Pevensey and Hastings. Was such a feat possible? Building castles then was very labour intensive. William and his men were invaders and his army would have had to be on a constant guard especially in the immediate days after Hastings.
This motte took fifty men eighty days to build. Using this as a guide, the motte at Dover would have needed men to complete in eight days. It is possible that local towns people were coerced into working extremely hard to complete the task. However, building a motte was a skilled achievement.
The mottes were built layer upon layer. There would be a layer of soil that was capped with a layer of stones that was capped with a layer of soil and so on. The stone layers were needed to strengthen the motte and to assist drainage. William accepted the surrender of the Anglo-Saxon nobles at Berkhamsted Castle, north-west of London — arguably his finest motte and bailey castle. This meant that he did not have to fight for London — and the people of London were spared their city being torched.
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