How Castles Connected The Medieval World | Secrets Of The Castle (5/5) | Absolute History

castles dominated the medieval landscape and Britain has some of the finest in the world most today are decaying relics many of their secrets buried in time [Music] now historian Ruth Goodman the [ __ ] ologists stompin folk butt beat again are turning the clock back to relearn the secrets of a medieval castle builders this is the ultimate in medieval technology the origins of our castles are French introduced to Britain at the time of the Norman conquests of 1066 [Music] [Applause] [Music] here in the Burgundy region of France is get along castle the world's biggest archaeological experiment a 25 year project to build a castle from scratch using the same tools techniques and materials available in a 13th century it's a lot of hard work at coalface because this is industry for the next six months Ruth Peter and Tom will experience the daily rigors of medieval construction drop-down and everyday life how work is dressed 8 you can raise smell you'll feel and the art of combat this is the story of how to build a medieval castle [Music] it's September after six months of working on the castle the team are nearing the end of their stay they're up at dawn to start their day on the great tower always really amazed you know you think about how far medieval people travels you have this image in your head don't you there's people sticking in their this own village all their lives and then you start looking at the evidence and [Music] ordinary people like a switch I just find quite exciting when you think about if you've got the skill set and you've got the tools it's almost like a ticket to ride isn't it you can get out there because people need you talented builders and craftspeople or in constant demand for construction work a job that could see them travel the world I suppose once this project was finished workers like ourselves we would had to move don't move to the next castle not might be in the next town could be in the next country so there must have been 13th century ordinary working people who were better travelled and had a wider world view than many modern people [Music] one group of craftsmen that traveled widely from project to project were the Stonecutters elite members of the construction team usually freemen their experience of different sites made them experts in both military and religious architecture in the 13th century a Mason liked climbing gear or might even have been on crusade gathering influences from distant lands this is your wooden template yes you've got from the tration floor at the entrance of the chapel there's going to be an ornate arch of alternating black and white stone Peter and Clemen are working on the first piece but it's a complicated shape it's very special yeah it's wrong yeah yeah it's right anger I ate just this small part I need white on your ear the stone will form the base of the arch it must fit precisely into the existing walls but it will also determine the shape of the curve if it's even slightly wrong the whole arch will be miss shapen once the shape has been marked out Clem only uses a tool called the pitch to break off larger pieces of stone this is a bit of pith this is a bit of sandstone this is very very hard it's very very black and it's gonna interspersed with the limestone but because it's harder it has to be dressed in a slightly different way you remember when it's black it's very good coyote yeah it's the same with granite right every out stone the pouf is black and hard because of its high iron content and takes four times as long to dress as limestone it was used alongside white stones to make a strong visual statement when you are yeah you come oh okay a hard ended tool called a punch was used to finish the job this is different is this she say so much harder so it's just a different technique different tools in no sense done no Chisholm notions of not Chisholm right - Rob Mason's were paid according to how many stones they dressed so the final job is to add an identifying Mason's mark to the stone now you make your mark on the top perfect which old chisel okay I'm just on the line um oke Oke using these mugs archaeologists have been able to trace the movement of particular Mason's through the landscape so we have a tea for Tom a pea Peter and AH for the ruse by the 1200 s medieval Europe was a busy developing connected place as workers and traders moved across the continent a network of roads brought produce were across the world exotic luxuries like silks and spices the textile industry was at its peak in thirteenth century Europe but castles were major consumer of fabrics one of the most important elements of the industry was the trade in dyes this is words the stuff that produces a blue dye and it grows quite well in Britain but in France the climate means that it it has a much higher concentration of the active ingredients that produce the blue by the 13th century it become quite an important cash crop in northern France where large quantities were grown and processed and sold right across northern Europe Karen Grunow is an expert in traditional dyeing techniques because we need just the leaves we don't need the roots and it will grow up again so two or three times in a year we can cut it so you get several harvests out the same plants well that's useful isn't it it doesn't look very blue at the moment does it the world leaves don't last long in their fresh form so they were specially prepared before they could be sold I'm not seeing any blue it still looks just like green leaves first we have to ground these cut leaves and then we have to make balls this will open up a little bit believes and the first blue will come out so for the moment because there's no color coming out of them that's all how on earth people discovered this I don't know when the world is ground up enzymes are released which start to convert chemicals in the leaves into the blue dye and this first stage in which we're pressing it into balls that's also about transport it's probably transport it is easier to transport these balls mm-hmm then the leaves and then as this dries the first chemical processes are happening yes you will see when it is dry this will be a little bit blue the colour is changing already I mean that's it's got a blue tinge yeah it hasn't it I mean it's still obviously green but it's a slightly more bluey green well there's my first one today the forest Sigonella provide a plentiful source of wood for building the castle but this wasn't always the case from the 11th century huge forest clearances occurred across Europe as farms and towns expanded and new castles were built [Music] tom is helping to fetch some wood to make a new door one of the great things about spending time and get along is hatching in to work with the horses when you think about the amount of wood needed to build a castle there is no better way than to get out here with a horse tie it up and off we go the forested get it on spent 12 hectares but today as in the 13th century wood is a valuable commodity that must be treated with care right now taking this log out we're allowed to drag it because basically it's not been shaped yet it's not being worked to the ground it doesn't matter if it comes into contact with the farc medieval wood cutters would have been based out in the forest felling and processing the wood for the carpenters the new door is needed for the castle and the first stage is to split a tree trunk into planks jean-michele show me these are natural splits in the wood and this is what we need to work off we need to follow these to get our planks using wedges means it's possible to split timber of any size they're hammered into a small cut at the top of the trunk following the natural weaknesses in the work I can actually start to hear the crackling of the wood does it's done to split once split into planks the outer ring of sapwood must be removed they see here this SAP was up to the bark this is gonna be infested with insects and also maintain the moisture a bit more we want to work with this this is solid this is hard it won't rot this has to go the planks in the door will be held together using a mortise and loose tenon joint the mortise is the hole and is made using an auger so I've got to make sure I'm lined up in the middle of the mortise I'm gonna make sure I don't go forwards backwards to the sides mortise and tenon joints date back thousands of years and were used in the construction of Stonehenge [Music] he hasn't told me to stop yet so I must be doing something right a line of holes are drilled on each side of the plane and then the center is chiseled out to complete the mortise this tenant should slide reasonably easily in like that I'm now gonna bring this across the loose tenon is threaded through each plank in the door so I'll put the other two planks there the next stage would be to peg it making doors required advance planning the planks won't be pegged in place until the wood is seasoned for a year when planks are fixed too early they shrink and gaps open up between them in the door this may seem like a complicated design and a lot of work it's actually based on medieval examples and this door would have lasted hundreds of years blue was very fashionable in medieval France after being adopted as the heraldic color of royalty as Europe's largest exporter French world was of huge economic importance once dry the world is ground into a powder to complete its transformation into a dye a special ingredient is needed and now you have to put Ewing on and that'll be this pot of yelling so foul okay everything you ever need chemical wise in the past is supplied by urines rose I can work out the ammonia in the urine enables chemical reactions to complete the production of the dye lime is also added which helps it form a sediment now we have to brown it again for tonight at the end the real blue and now we know because it is so expensive because the end and the end your powder you have just one two kilos of quarters from a hectare of leaves the powder dies dissolved in an alkaline solution known as a VAT there was no oxygen in the back which alters the dye making it look yellow so now in goes the first skein of silk into the mat and I'm trying to introduce it gently so I've put not too much oxygen into that and it goes so how long will we have to wait this is a question the longer you it stays the depot or the Blue Beam oh look at that changing yeah so at the moment it's sort of looking the same color as the VAT and as it comes out screen when the silk is taken out the dye molecules react with the oxygen in the air to slowly produce the final blue color it is beginning to change color yep darkening yeah it'll be blue I'm sure [Music] blue that's bears gone by my finger [Music] using the world as well as other dyes Ruth will produce a huge range of colors [Music] medieval builders would have used ideas from castles and cathedrals across Europe Master Mason Florian renacchi has brought Peter to the town of Vezelay to the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene [Music] the basilica was an extremely important Church in the late 12th century the place where richard the lionheart set off on the Third Crusade Florian has drawn inspiration for the chapel arch from a particular architectural feature at resume all this architecture looks from example coming from Byzantine Roman art for instance hey do you the true kind of stone you've got a Romanesque arch with black stone white stone black stained white stone this is Romanesque it is an ting so it's coming from was sort of from the east the technique of using colored stone alternating with white stone originated in Byzantium [Music] it spread to both the Islamic world and to Western Europe where it inspired Masons were rediscovering ancient techniques from the five century yeah then 11th century all the country they don't use stone so they forget right so I just just using wood yes so they have to to look to a antic tradition and so they see Rome Greek architecture Armenian architecture so they think about it and they do our we can do something with term Lices well why not we try to do it Byzantine style black and white arches like these it basically can be seen in medieval buildings throughout Europe and now the Masons are ready to install there's at get a lot we've got a former built out force unique for this doorway and we're gonna build up continuing the black white black white the limestone and the pith from the quarry here to create a beautiful archway both sides of the arch are built in parallel to make sure the stones are absolutely level then the key stones will fit the stone Clement Peter dressed in a large is at the base of the arch so it's vital that it's positioned perfectly all makes sense this time that we've seen Claremont work on we can see that goes into the curtain wall that leads towards the Great Hall the curve here that is gonna become the curve of the doorway that the Gothic arch the stones have been measured precisely to allow room for the lime mortar but only the parts exposed to the air will set properly certainly there are Roman buildings that have been taken apart and inside they've found that that mortar that lime mortar in 2,000 years it's not gone off in 2,000 years it's not set it is still as wet as this is today the last stones to go into the key stones the stones are marked with arrows to show their orientation but it's not always foolproof of course we're just spinning this key stone around and there we have it our final watch last minute adjustments are made to the stones using wooden wedges which will hold them in position while they say as much as this is as precise as cabinets it's almost down to millimeter perfection when you're here when you're at the coalface you've just got to tickle it a little bit to get it to work it's like when you buy a flat pack furniture soars a few bits left over isn't that what do they do once the stones are in place the wooden former can be removed to reveal the arch [Music] while the door Tom made is seasoning he's come to work on another door that was prepared a year ago it must now be trimmed to size to fit inside the kitchen door with orientated the sole blade the right angle to the saw so by turning the saw handed up-and-down technique to work across and cut cleanly that's the secret to strap hinges will form an integral part of the door spanning the planks and helping to reinforce them blacksmith smart and claw down is making them from strips of iron first they need to be hammered flood a task requiring a real team effort hammer Hammer hammer get it in bellows bellows bellows right temperature out scale hammer Hammer hammer you read you need a team of people work but it's often you do walk together so you got to be friends otherwise but working together isn't always easy and we need to strike unless stronger but more precise the end of the strap needs to be trimmed and curved round to form the part of the hinge that will hang on the wall and this curve must be firmly secured in place so now we already from the forge well Forge welding involves joining two pieces of metal together using intense heat where the iron is nearly motive Martin is using sand as a flux which keeps the surface is clean helping the metal to bond Wallace at that crucial temperature now between 1300 and 1400 degrees heat coming off here it's much more intense for the house beam this is when Martin's got a hammer those two bits of metals together to seal off that hinge he's gonna have to work really quickly [Music] [Music] at the opposite end of the scale of metalwork was the production of gold thread a highly skilled craft dominated mostly by women Ruth and her daughter Eve who works with historic textiles are attempting to make some using gold foil is it's not as thin as than usual gold leaf gold foil would have been made by hammering gold coins between leather until around half a millimeter thick so we're gonna want little ribbons cut that are sort of you know no more than a millimeter just as seems to be about getting the amount right amount of pressure doesn't it kind of straight oh won't I forego it soon if you can wrap it Ruth and Eve are experimenting with their technique they're holding the silk core in place between two pins while they attempt to wind the ribbons around the core [Music] this is so madness isn't it people talk about lost crafts all the time this is something that you could say really really easy this doesn't appear to be working terribly well maybe we could turn it by rolling it with our fingers oh oh I think I've got it ah look it looks like gold thread yeah it's got that sort of stiff fancy flexibility that's completely different from the silk gold thread was typically found in a special type of embroidery known as opus anglich Arnhem laid almost exclusively in London renowned for its complicated stitching it appeared on the finest fabrics from the vestments of bishops and Pope's to elaborate wall hangings in great castles Ruth is attempting to make a small piece to mount on a cushion Yves is making silk braid on a boxing to use as a trim so this is something that is supposed to have a seven year apprenticeship about five minutes brilliant yeah so I don't know it's going to get using the silk she died Ruth starts with split stitching a technique where each stitch is punctured by the next it means that you've got a very dense line but it also means that you can be very accurate in where the line twists and turns to the second technique an underside coached stitch was used to attach the gold thread so I'm gonna how it gets on this gold so if I lay a little piece of our gold thread across there now the sewing is done with this thread this fine linen thread so what has to happen is it comes up around it now the point is that I have to get this thread back through exactly the same hole that it came up in but that's not where you stop then you grab hold of the linen thread from behind and you have to pull and what I'm trying to do is to pull it so hard that it pops a bit as the gold thread through the fabric I'm hauling the thread through during its heyday in the mid 13th century opus angler karna was traded for huge sums only affordable to nobles kings and the richest clergy are nowadays people think of this as you know sort of a lady's occupation as a bit of frippery on the side but there was a real industry in the 13th century run by women indeed the best English embroidery seems to have been done in professional secular workshops in London you can have your own shop you can you can be in charge of yourself and of apprentices and star and it's the only profession that you can really do that and get the full recognition as being a master of your trade at the Chuckle tower the next phase at the entrance hall has begun with the addition of the doorways this chapel is really taking shape I mean this is the internal doorway pintles here only the Lord is going to come into this space you then have this kind of lobby area with the external ornate doorway this black and white this Byzantine influenced structure up a spiral staircase and then you've got the arch there and this external daughter Chapel needs to be connected to that the internal doorway at the chakki bibarel vaulting to enclose all this space the barrel vault will form a curved ceiling linking the two chapel entrances and creating a corridor it will be built on top of a wooden former arches mark out the shape of the vault and the lathes provide a surface on which to place the stones layer Mason constant and lamelle is in charge if you are to to have the demonstration just cover that and you have the name Russia like that you can see mr. it just look like double yeah you have the name there wasn't very creative for the name the lathes are laid loosely in place and not nailed so they can be easily removed once the vault is built to fit tightly in place the stones need to have regular edges so the first job is to straighten them off that's the problem I have actually hit that one too many times you can just see there's a crack forming there my lovely square edge is is compromised you can see us all the way there probably right that all for my hands which I can [Music] the stones are tested on the former to ensure that there are no gaps which might cause weakness the thing I realize this capsule gets built twice firstly every stone is put in place to see if it fits there and it's taken out Morse was added it goes back in by the end of it enough energy would have expended we've got two fossils once their positions are finalized their mortared into place but the weather isn't on their side the rain will wash away the mortar so there's a drive to get it finished and covered up like a row of rotten teeth it's like a it's like a porcupine that's been run over it's not nice but when we remove those formers she'd be beautiful Stein finally the last stone is in place we can check that it's already good yeah if it wasn't the former couldn't resist their eyes trust with the advent of Gothic architecture increasingly ambitious structures could be built in castles on the tracing floor Clemmie is planning what will be one of the most complicated projects at getting on so far this all looks so much more intricate than the other things I've seen so much more delicate what are you drawing up it's a grandeur gone finito well that would have to be grand yes the chapel window is a gothic arch made up of 34 individually carved pieces and incorporating two smaller arches a popular design of the time there's very very gothic shape isn't it we're not sort of whenever you're thinking of Gothic arches that's pretty much what you have in mind it's good to add for this donation yes curtain Satori it's perfect Church Cathy water cuz gothic architecture had been around for quite a while by 1250 but it had been developed and was concentrated in ecclesiastical buildings churches cathedrals monasteries Castle this is quietly fashionable and new to have a gothic appointed window you do really have to think in sort of three dimensions don't you I mean how it's gonna look from every angle the front the back the sides but I dreams of pathos a part of the window I work all the day and under under castor I dream about this at night yeah now this windows you have just to storm is ready good [Laughter] the mortar is still setting on the chapel tower vault so peter has come to help Tom install the kitchen door to smooth this door blacksmith Van Sant granola and carpenters Stefan Budi are both needed for what is a tricky job do not find this moment I get along where the crafts come together you got the blacksmith and you've got the carpenter and you got the Joker's the door needs to be edged carefully into place and held in position before the hinges can be nailed on I think mrs. Hardcastle has been killed some small wooden wedges when the main promised we've got is this is a hundred kilos worth of door at least they've got to get it right right now on the North Shore whether to do shave offs on that render actually cut some of that wood to fit it in this strap hinges are starting to fit into these chiseled grooves the hinges must be attached precisely a few centimeters out of place on the door won't open Wow we have a door and I made them for inside the nails need to be bent over to pinker them in place so hold the stage shower again step ahead of the nail door and tie against the wall and your bending that over to create staple you are on the wrong nail I'm holding this one this process of hammering nail over tucking it in it's really acted as staple and pull these together I didn't realize you'd have a little claw digging back into the wood this isn't getting shifted for anything with valuable produce stored in the kitchen heavy doors would have helped keep the area secure perhaps the most expensive commodities in a castle kitchen with the spices imported from the east the returning Crusaders of the 13th century had acquired a taste for spice and it became popular with wealthy Lords Ruth is making gingerbread because of its long journey to Europe ginger was only available in dried form and must be ground into a powder this is the first and the most important spice that I'm gonna be using and making some gingerbread every single grain of spice that was used had to come the overland route the old Silk Road so you mustn't think of a Chinese merchant making his way all the way to medieval France instead you must think of that Chinese merchant selling his wares to another merchant who takes them to the next market and sells them to another merchant by the time it gets here it may well have passed through 3040 different hands with a small profit accrued at every stage of the journey spices were desired as much for their culinary properties as they were as a status symbol gingerbread also included nutmeg red peppercorns cloves and cinnamon the extreme expense of something like this and I do mean extreme expense meant that the only people who could afford it with a nobility and royalty you were after all eating something that was worth more than pure gold buy quite a long way the ground spices are made into a paste with honey next bread is combined with some red wine this is best done by the hand the spice and honey paste is added and the mixture is set on a ball I'm just gonna take the pulp and spread it out thin doesn't look very appetizing at this stage of it so I'm going to tie it it up because once it is dry I want to cut it into perfect little lozenges it gets dished out rather parsimonious through a little orange now and again only for your very best guests the barrel vault has been setting overnight and now the formers need to be removed if the Masons have got it wrong the whole vault could collapse there's no reason why they should fall in but you never know it is the ultimate appraisal of their work and that's the reason why the hard hat on because this is medieval technology but we are in the modern world the first stage is to lower the scaffolding uprights that are supporting the formers out as they hit that Buddhist they hit those wedges I can feel the vibrations in this arch it's good potentially it's good no I'm very glad because I don't tell you but here we go the vault can push yeah and no I think yes but nothing as being pushed so good we're going to see now with the scaffolding lowered the wooden lathes can come out followed by the formers as the formers and left come out the fresh water is dropping down from the bowels but it emphasizes the fact that the mortar isn't integral to the structure it's the stones themselves a crate the arch that creates the strength in the vault you're now indoors laurieann you've got a roof over your head hmm you are happy are you yes that's a wonderful word now all that's left to do is a bit of clearing up its up if he's up do you think I can see a hole always a critic we've made a nice like Battenberg cake always thinking of your tummy don't listen to money it's lovely [Music] it's late summer and life at the castle is in full flow livestock would have been kept in the grounds from poultry to sheep and at get alone they're enjoying the sunshine these are our castle sheep they're from the Isle of West song off the coast of Brittany they're essentially the closest thing you gotta find to medieval sheep they're much smaller than modern breeds and when they were on the castle in medieval time it would've been essentially wild Ruth has finished their embroidery cushion well for me I can see why I'd need another six years eleven months and three weeks apprenticeship mind to be any good really first attempt [Music] and Peter is dealing with the effects of working on a medieval building site the problem is my mortar is it just the lime is a caustic it's so corrosive and it just dries out the skin so I've taken to just applying a bit of pig fat for me just keeps my hands soft and supple one of the major problems it does smell and there's more dogs than people on this site and I am currently the dog's best friend castle building was seasonal work lasting from the spring to the autumn at the end of a season unfinished walls would be sealed with a layer of mortar to protect them from rain and frost but for the decorative chapel window this won't be possible so the team are working hard to finish the project before the winter weather arrives well it's more than two stones now we one two three four five six plus those two that we're here before well we've got 34 in total to do so the Masons Lodge you can hear it ringing with people working and when you look at them now I mean the intricacy the complicated nature of this stone carving it's no wonder it's taking so long in fact so much work is there to do they've opened a second Lodge over the far side of the castle and anyone who can work stone at all its beings ragunan - no intricate stonework was in high demand and Masons were employed based on their work in other buildings window design was particularly important and something the Lord of a castle would have direct influence over Ruth has come for a lesson in fine masonry with mature economy for stonemasons apprenticeship lasted seven years so for Ruth this is a very valuable stone to start too hard to soft some really strange mix between something that's very delicate and on the other hand really heavy the most detailed stones addressed by the experienced Masons but simpler stones are supplied by the second launch so this is just getting the stone ready for the skills work over there you are not normally a Mason are you absolutely everybody is being pressed into service to do a little bit extra pretty good to me can I have like music so always it's an angle so that I'm not going into the stone I'm going across the stone this is an awful lot more premature than I was doing in the other Lord it's actually a heck of a lot easier you might think trying to chip big bits off is harder than chicken teeny weeny weeny weeny bit so but it's not these are so much lighter first hot [Music] the stones for the windowsill are ready to be put in place [Music] think of everything we've done here at get along I find this the most stressful because the amount of work that's gone into this you get it wrong and you crack that stone that's it you know well not Bassets but that be forever in the the record of gate lon your mistake the carving on the limestone blocks is incredibly delicate flat braided ropes known as torch are used to protect the stones during transit and even the wooden roll is especially shaped and smoothed so they don't cause damage I mean I've been into probably hundreds churches of this must be thousands of windows so I have never appreciated just how much work goes into making them there's a real mixture of pre-planning execution there just making adjustments as they go and they're talking all the time communicating it's a real team effort we've learned a lot from this [Music] before their time at the castle comes to an end Ruth has gone to experience something which would have been commonplace yet extraordinary in the 13th century going on pilgrimage for many people who lived in the same community their whole lives this was a chance to see the world and temporarily escape the monotony of daily life pilgrimage is a really big thing at this point in history isn't it everyone is going on pilgrimage who can hundreds and hundreds of people are surging up these paths meeting together exchanging ideas feeling part of a bigger world Ruth is on her way to the turn of Vezelay to visit the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene one of the most important pilgrimage churches of the 13th century Kris Kelly who runs the visitor center will be her guide it sort of looks like a castle doesn't it or or a fortified city I suppose absolutely there's a fortified cities you can see the width of this gate which is more than four meters which is enormous but you can understand it's not for defensive purposes it's for processions in fact it's the pilgrim entrance so wide because there were so many people and this goes direct up to the Basilica from the early 11th century the relics of Mary Magdalene were displayed at Beverly news of miracles spread and the church soon became a center for pilgrims one of the four starting points on the road to Santiago de Compostela vezelay was a religious destination of huge importance [Music] today the pilgrimage of LaPenta for me is taking place this ritual of walking across the landscape to come for spiritual reflection is the same now as it would have been in the Middle Ages say when the pilgrim arrived here he would when he walked in through those doors naturally his eyes had drawn up to this semicircle of sculpted stone and the first person he's gonna see is Christ there so we've got Christ in the center and it seems to have ridiculously big hands as far as I can see so the hand represents welcome he's welcoming everybody who comes into this place on the far right there are two people with very big ears some people say they look like wings in fact they're seen as a reference to st. Benedict's rule open the ears of your heart and listen to the master inside that is to say be who you are to the fullness of who you are I think most of us when we think about medieval people and their and their experience of religion we tend to think that people were largely ignorant but this this is a very sophisticated way of thinking of course the monks their roles is to explain to each person when they arrive you could think of it like a visit to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and experts have to tell you what to think almost about it yes it's got an element of that tourism and yes you might call it spiritual tourism a once humble Church the Basilica was expanded to make room for all the pilgrims Kings Nobles and Abbot's came along with thousands of ordinary folk to venerate the relics and confess their sin pilgrimage can be understood as a physical journey that helps you to have a spiritual journey by leaving behind everyday life you are putting yourself into the right frame of mind to help yourself grow inside [Music] it's been an endeavor of epic proportions but the intricate carved stones for the chapel window are now ready to be installed over 2,700 hours work have gone into shaping and refining the delicate pieces crafted out of 15 tons of stone how long do these take to make them 15 days when you please the results yes perfect time it's not important yes as long as you get it right with stone work this delicate it's important to get it securely installed quickly so the surrounding walls can be built up to protect it this is a massive push to get this finished because the chapels got to be covered up before those that bad weather sets in otherwise all that work can be can be undone and this really is medieval crunch time one of the most critical pieces is the mullion the central pillar which will support both that the internal arches in the window but there's a problem it's too tall okay this must be corrected before the stone can go in or the rest of the window won't fit together properly that malian for the window is a centimeter too long so Jamie is gonna have to shave a perfect centimeter off the bottom of that mullion prior to it going in prior to them finishing the window I mean there's already a time pressure and things like this is just gonna you can't plan for that's all can you this is good long isn't it this is the whole purpose learning if you do [Music] Clements last-minute adjustment will be put to the test as the rest of the stones can now be painstakingly eased into position [Music] of anything it's hard to tell and the former's are removed everyone who worked on the window has come to see it finally revealed Wow I have to look everywhere it's beautiful everywhere all the dirty forms I'll make by the light so here it's white and here it's dark it's like a painting that the key question are you happy I think [Laughter] with the window finished the team's time at ghetto law is coming to an end the seasonal nature of castle building meant many of the workers were itinerant moving from place to place and seeking other employment in the winter months all that's left to do is to tidy the site and clear the hovel but with 13th century accommodations of sparsely furnished there's not much to pack up Ruth just needs to clean the floor these Russia's been down for a couple of months now they are beginning to get quite trodden down and quite broken up underneath the surface which still looks reasonably clean I really was expecting to see insects moving around I was expecting to see mouse droppings and it's just not here so this is obviously the moment to clear it all out [Music] probably most important thing I think I've learned on site is how to put technique before anything else you don't go in pure strength or force that you learn the techniques allow you to work for long periods of time and work accurately you get your technique right then everything else will follow [Music] I really liked seeing the way the geometry has come into play we all study this as schools it seems so distant and pointless and yet here we can see exactly what it's all for and now when I look at all of the built world I can see the geometry I can see why those lessons actually we're really important headlock is the largest experimental archaeology project in the world but the cast itself is merely a byproduct the experiment is creating the Shanthi a medieval the medieval building site having seen just how much work goes into laying a single stone whenever I see the ruined castle I won't be looking at the building itself are we looking at the hundreds to cross people who were involved in that project the thousands of hours of labor the whens make it a community that surrounded it how do you build a castle well I know now ha ha ha look we have so why not some gingerbread over treat yeah doesn't that look amazing desserts incredible I mean this morning it was just pieces of stone in the Masons Lodge and it just looked like a ruin and I brought them up here put them together and it just is beautiful I really have got a new respect for the builders of the past it's changed my view entirely such a fitting place to end our journey because we started down there on the chapel floor we've marked out the center and in a season we've come up with where 1215 feet higher up at least with our food of Kings Kings I'm gonna try this drink of men of flavor well I think don't you so when doing to get along the window and get on window and good [Music] what we do get long most the time

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 586,351

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, castles, geometry, Medieval Documentary, Tom Pinfold, stories, stonemasons, Channel 4 documentary, Documentaries, medieval castle, Britain, France, Documentary, 13th century, history documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, build, archaeologists, BBC documentary, medieval, Full Documentary, hand-carved, Peter Ginn, real, Secrets, Staircases, Historian, documentary history, History, TV Shows - Topic, Ruth Goodman, construct

Id: 0_suZzTobaE

Length: 58min 28sec (3508 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020