ABSTRACT
Masonry construction, being a much slower business than timberwork, was less suited to the immediate needs of the Norman conquerors. Undoubtedly the great bulk of the earliest castles in this country were of earthwork and timber, and one very important result of this would be to delay still further the installation of stone defences. Until the passage of time had compacted the large masses of earth in the banks and mottes of these timber castles, the garillum could not be replaced in masonry; and it was in the largest strongholds, where the earthwork was massive, that the process of replacement would have begun. Mrs Armitage apparently believed that only three pieces of masonry in English castles could be dated to the eleventh century: William I’s great keeps at Colchester and the Tower of London, and the gate of Exeter, with its Saxon features; later she added the keep of Pevensey, and tentatively the tower of Bramber.
