Great Castles of England Tuesday, April 17th 10:30am-12 noon in the Winn Room A virtual travelogue of castles from the 9th to 15th centuries Presented by Scott Farrell, founder and director of Chivalry Today. With over 30 years of experience in the fields of arms, armor, and medieval military history, he has been involved with independent study programs at the Royal Armories at Leeds, and with Cadw (the department of the Welsh government in charge of preserving castles and other historical monuments). 640 Orange Avenue Coronado, CA 92118 619-522-7390 Made possible by A Knight’s Tour Come and take a virtual trip through some of the greatest medieval castles of England (and some marvelous lesser-known ones too) as author and history expert Scott Farrell gives you his “knight’s eye” view of the function, tactics, and architecture behind these fascinating monuments. You’ll also get an up-close look at various items of replica arms and armor as you learn how to design, defend, and maintain a castle (and the surrounding manor) just as a medieval lord or lady would. Castle Trivia One of the longest siege of a castle was that of Donnington Castle located in Berkshire England. It lasted from July 1644 to April 1646. The keep at Bridgnorth Castle, leans at 17 degrees, three times further than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The first castle in Britain to be designed specifically for defense by guns was Ravenscraig Castle located in Scotland. Built in 1460. New Buckenham Castle keep is the largest in diameter to be found in England. The largest castle in England is Windsor Castle. Being 80ft tall and 80ft in diameter at the top, Haughley Castle is one of the largest mottes in Britain. Rochester Castle keep rises to 115ft, making it the tallest Norman keep in Britain. One of the earliest surviving stone castle gatehouses in England is at Exeter Castle. It was built in 1068. Chepstow Castle, begun in 1068, is one of the very first stone castles in Britain. All the inhabitants of Cainhoe Castle, in Bedfordshire England, died due to the "Black Death". Anstey Castle motte, in Hertfordshire England, survived a crash of an American bomber in 1944. One of the largest castle ruins in England is Kenilworth Castle, located in Warwickshire. During a siege of Kenilworth Castle in 1266 the defenders were forced to surrender, after six months, due to dysentery. The spiral stairs in castle towers are designed to ascend clockwise as to make the attackers expose more of their body in order to use the sword in their right hand. For a Christmas feast in 1206 at Winchester Castle, King John's orders to the sheriff included 1,500 chickens, 5,000 eggs, 20 oxen, 100 pigs, and 100 sheep. Expenses at Caernarfon Castles included 7d for a watchmen to blow his horn to signal the beginning and end of the worker's shift. At Exeter Castle, in 1136, the garrison used wine to extinguish fires from a siege. In 1150 there were an estimated 1,115 unlicensed castles in Britain. .