I’ve been making additions to some of my blog posts – adding new facts, trying to elaborate more on my points and checking grammar. Here is the article of editing today:
I’ve added some about the cost of building a castle:
King Henry I spent a considerable cut of his royal revenue fortifying and furnishing the impressive Dover Castle.
And this about blacksmiths:
There was almost certainly a very high demand for skilled blacksmiths, as tools used by the workers needed relentless sharpening. Moreover, when arming the garrison of the fort, crossbow bolts, swords and arrowheads would be needed in large quantities.
I’ve added some context to the topic of precisely marking out the lengths and features of some structures:
Wooden templates were cut into boards, and this marked the basis for sculpting the right piece of stone.
Some on making tiles:
Perfectly baked tiles were made inside a furiously hot furnace. This melting pot was covered by mounds of dirt and rubble so that the heat was concentrated in the centre. Cooking a tile to the right colour and brittleness was an incredibly difficult task.
Something about the environment around the castle:
The construction site must have been a very busy centre. Small villages were often established around the fledgling castle and contained mills, carpenters’ houses and the furnaces for baking the tiles.
I felt like we needed to talk about rope:
Due to the use of these machines, large quantities of strong, flexible rope was needed. Rope was twisted from materials such as hemp and sinew by connecting it to an axel on a wooden stake. By spinning the cords they would be intertwined into a stronger, combined length.
How did they get those pieces for the arches just right?
A huge wooden wheel would be equally divided up into segments. Stone would then be cut with the bottom of the blocks measuring to the circumference of the segments, but stretching out wider the taller it got. Therefore the stone slabs outer circumference was longer than the inner one, and an arch piece would be made.
And a little more:
Wood-cutters were hired form nearby villages to help fell trees for timber and carve out wood into planks that could be used for measuring, scaffolding and framing.
Enjoy the additions 🙂 If you like reading my posts and have a blog of your own which is thirsty for content, contact me to discuss a guest post or click here to get my article writing service for as cheap as $5 per 500 words!
The Augustus 