AT the first meeting of the new programme, members welcomed Keith Cattel, a retired architect who gave us a most interesting talk entitled “An Englishmen’s Castle is his home”.

He defined a castle as “a private fortified house”. The first castles were built in northern France in about 900AD by the Dukes of Normandy, notably William, who when he came to England needed to fortify his possessions such as Pevensey Castle, then onto Hastings Castle.

They would have just been a motte and bailey built with layers of earth, but as techniques evolved the original wooden structures changed to be built of stone.

The early structures had a “shell” keep – Windsor Castle is a good example which would have originally been built this way.

The first big structure built in stone in 1077 was The Tower of London: The Archbishop of Canterbury also built a very imposing castle at Rochester. These castles would first have had a hall keep then a tower keep: Hedingham Castle in Essex deserves the title of the bestkept keep and was built by the de Veres in 1140. Techniques in design changed to incorporate a circular keep, while at Framlingham Castle Suffolk we see the first chimneys incorporated.

Although much castle building died out by the end of the 13th Century, many castles were built along the Welsh Borders during the reign of Edward I to strengthen the English presence, like Conway Castle and Caernarvon Castle, one of the most complex built in Britain with polygon towers, six portcullises and five gates.

Goodrich Castle is another of those first built by the Normans to assert their authority.

As design changed, brick became more used as a material.

In the 19th Century we see another phase of “castle”

building, with people like first Earl Somers who had Eastnor Castle built, as well as Cardiff Castle, originally a medieval castle and then a revival Victorian gothic mansion built by the Bute family.

The next meeting is on October 14 7.30 at Feckenham Village Hall.