ABSTRACT
T h e castle earthworks known as mottes are to be found in most o f those areas o f Europe which were dominated by the Normans. Man-made hills imposed upon the work o f nature, they have
something o f the inevitable, reposeful quality o f natural things; but
their bulk and symmetry thrust them upon the attention, make them focal points o f the landscape. In Britain they are abundant, particularly in the Welsh and Scottish marches where they lie thick on the ground. Yet, o f all earthworks, these have been the longest neglected; and the archaeologist’s hand has touched only a few. Nevertheless it seems that they have served to keep a part o f their tradition lingering in our minds. Even now our children still build mounds, which they call castles, on the shore. That so many o f these illustrate the forms o f the earliest medieval castles may be partly due to a direct tradition surviving from their day, but more likely is due to the fact that a common structural problem faces all builders o f mounds, large or small, o f earth or o f sand. For diggers with spades and buckets (or baskets), there is but one direct and speedy method o f mound construction. It is exemplified in
in the tall, simple mound with the flattened top (best described as a truncated cone), surrounded by the ditch from which its substance came; which is the motte in its purest form. Thus a common solution to a common problem links the grim Normans who came to Hastings
in 1066 with the children who play there now. Usually the real motte stands within, or partly within, an area
enclosed and defended by a bank sloping steeply into an outer ditch (Fig. 67); this area is the bailey, and while there are many mottes
without baileys-and even a few baileys without mottes-the motte-and-bailey is the characteristic castle form o f the Normans.
