Creighton/Castles and Landscapes, 8. Castles in the Countryside

This chapter seeks to integrate two conflicting ways of understanding the contribution of castles to the making of the rural landscape. On the one hand, castles were part of the rural landscape and components within local settlement patterns, and on the other hand, some of their characteristics elevated them above the rural scene. The status of rural castles as manorial centres is shown in their association with other characteristic features of rural lordship. Moreover, it is argued that castles in England have rarely brought rural settlements into existence, and castle lords were more involved in the re-orientation of village plans. Most eleventh and twelfth-century castles form a manorial focus within village plans, many being located to bring communities under tighter control. Other castles existed as dispersed settlements and many later castles were intended as isolated lordship sites, deliberately removed from the tenantry. All these patters and processes, however, are seen as part of a wider context of regional economies and landscapes.