Raby Castle

[dawn_felagund]

Bobby and I woke early on this day to try to squeeze in the Tynemouth Castle and Priory--literally a five-minute walk down the street from Sharon and Kirsty's flat--before Kirsty's dad Joe picked us up to go to Raby. Despite the lady in the castle shop being quite certain that the castle would be open yesterday--today at the latest--it was still

Comments

[greenknight33]

Hey there Brew! I think that I may be able to shed a little bit of light on the size of the castle doors. In my most educated guess I would think that they were built so small for a combination of both the size of people back then and the requirement to retain heat. As you mentioned, they certainly couldn't just put the heatin' on in those days :) Therefore it is highly likely that they were small and narrow in order to prevent heat from escaping, especially in the winter months when fires were roaring throughout the castle. We know that heat retention was always on the minds of castle architects so this is not surprising.

On the other hand, it has been suggested that on the whole medieval people were a bit shorter than we are today. If you look at suits of armor and such from about 1000-1500, you see that most would not fit a person from our era. However, this fact is actually hotly debated in the medieval history community as other studies that have examined skeletal structures indicate that medieval people were just as tall as we are today! In fact, while some suits of armor would not fit because they are so short, others would not fit because they are so big!

You can read more on this here if you are interested: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/medimen.htm

The diet of the medieval person from about the 11th-15th century was surprisingly good because of favorable climate changes in Europe that positively influenced agriculture. This certainly supports the idea that medieval people were as tall as we are today. The jury is still definitely out on this one, but we do know that small doorways were common throughout medieval architecture (whether you are talking castles or mere tenant lodgings).

A final possibility is that they were built so small and narrow for defensive purposes. If the castle was breached it would be much easier to defend the higher ground if your enemy had to ascend a short and narrow passageway through a small door. You could essentially bottleneck them as they made their way to the upper floors.

In all, I think all three possibilities are valid. I hope this helps!

Staindrop is a rather curious name isn't it? Seems kind of funny: I am Lord Such and Such of Staindrop. I bet that got quite a f

[ssotknapsack]

Thanks for the info, Sir Bobby! I knew you'd know the answer. :)

When the guide said that medieval people were the same height as we are today, I was a bit skeptical - not only was it the first time I'd heard this, but I'd seen the armour and clothing you mentioned and they did (generally) seem smaller. Anyway! It's a great debate and I guess we'll never know the answer for sure. Even the medieval people probably had a few Yao Mings among them (well, not a Chinese guy. I don't think that happened so much in medieval England).

[greenknight33]

Ha! Yeah, I don't that there were many Chinese nationals in medieval England. However, the thought of it is pretty funny! You are correct in saying that medieval Europe had its fair share of tall people though. It is a known fact that William the Conqueror was a pretty tall dude, and from all accounts, Robert the Bruce was fairly imposing as well, even by today's standards. It is a fascinating debate. As I come across information on this subject in my studies, I will be glad to send it along to you if you would like.

On another note, this is seriously awesome. You know how Dawn and I are contemplating completing our upper-lever (masters/PhD work) in the UK? We did some quick down and dirty research and found that the University of Stirling had programs in medieval/renaissance literature for Dawn, and a PhD program in, get this, Scottish medieval history for me! We are going to get real serious fairly soon about the feasibility of doing this so who knows, in a few years we could all be a short train trip away from each other!

[ssotknapsack]

I know it will be a struggle having to live in a country surrounded by castles and medieval things, but I'm sure you will soldier through. ;) It'd be cool if that happened; was that what Dawn was talking about Re: putting the Goldens on a boat?

[greenknight33]

Yeah, we would just have to make the sacrifice of living around castles, battlefields, and all other sorts of medieval thijngs. It would be difficult, but I think that we could pull through ;)

That is exactly why Dawn was talking about putting the Goldens on a boat. If we are able to do it, we certainly want to bring the boys along! Just think, they could have playtime with their cousin Maggie!

[heartofoshun]

On size/height - a scientist friend of mine in Mexico did some research a while back on nutrition and height and found that the difference in height between father and son can vary enormously depending upon diet, not just whether they are well fed or not but what they eat (eating habits changed significantly when people moved from tiny rural villages to the big city). I saw another study that children and grandchildren of Japanese immigrants in California were dramatically taller and the major change in diet seemed to be addition of milk as a beverage in early childhood. Another old-wives-tale or unproven true fact that I heard from my grandmother was that one could always tell which children had been born during years of extended miners' strikes in her youth. She swore that they were notably smaller and stupider. All of this is very unscientific hearsay, based upon scraps of faulty memory, but it does tell me that there could be a lot of factors involved here.

Curious English names - they can be (often are) really silly. I remember the Monty Python skits where they read letters-to-the-editor the funniest part of which were the ridiculous, but perfectly plausible, surnames of the writers. One of my favorite geekish pastimes of my childhood was combing through our small-town telephone directory with my sisters for silly English names. Even from a very narrow sampling we found a lot of highly ludicrous ones.

[greenknight33]

You are right Oshun, I think there are many factors at play here. The link between diet (nutrition) and height seems to be linked pretty strongly. In light of the research on this, it seems logical that people in the medieval period would be just as tall as we are today. We know for a fact that their diets were not much different than ours today. They ate a largely meat-based diet that was supplemented with read, potatoes, and vegetables.

The revolution in agricultural methods that occurred in the early medieval period (around 1200 or so), vastly improved individual diets as grains, fruits, and vegetables became more prevalent. This certainly contributes to the theory that medieval people were not significantly shorter than modern people.

However, the flip side to this argument is that there is quite a bit of evidence to suggest that scurvy was fairly prevalent during the Middle Ages. Since scurvy is caused by a lack of fruits/veg in one's diet, this sort of negates the notion that medieval diets were well-balanced and nutritious.

The question is wide open because the information is SO conflicting. On the one hand it seems that food, including fruits and veggies, was readily available. On the other hand, the apparent susceptibility of individuals to scurvy suggests that they didn't always eat a nutritious diet.

You just have to love the puzzle that is historical research! When you think you answer one question, ten more pop up in its place.