And 1000 years from now, archeology will be utterly confused as to why there was a resurgence in castle building, using centuries old technology, in the early 21st century.
RU-vid is sometimes like a time capsule. Documentaries like this, which might otherwise be lost, are being freely preserved for our enjoyment and education. Thank you for helping keep this series, it is well worth it.
"Secrets of the Castle" did not prepare me for how much information would actually be in this series. This is easily one of the best I have ever watched
you should check out victorian Farm, Ruth, Peter and other live on a Victorian farm for a year, there is also Edwardian farm, and WW2 and Edwardian pharmacy , all so very awesome!
Yes like how they say it’s all done as they did in the 13th century then they say they use nails not rope and machine the wood carve by hand for their own safety I partly get the nails not rope but using a machine is lazy if your going to copy the castle builders copy them don’t cheat your already taking a lot longer to build the castle than they did in the 13th century
In the mid 1960’s I studied at the Versailles Palace. At that time the sandstone blocks were showing surface deterioration. To correct that, each block was carefully removed one at a time. The joints were sawn out using long thin metal blades until all sides of the block were loose, except the back if course. The block was then shimmed and wiggled until it would eventually slide out leaving the empty pocket. The old stone, approximately, two feed deep, was set on a table next to a new matching piece of the same sandstone. Then young Portuguese stone cutters would hand chisel an EXACT duplicate using dividers, chisels and mauls. The only difference was that each stone was exactly a saw blade width larger than the original. The surface carving could be simple and flat or heavily carved. Whatever it was, they duplicated it. Then the new block was slid precisely back into position leaving no joint space whatsoever. It was a friction fit; no mortar was used. Then on to the next stone. The work was astonishing.
Hand to eye precision like that is a lost art. My grandpa was a blacksmith,harness maker and a brilliant at every thing else he did. My dad was same way,but I didn’t either pay enough attention, or I’m just not as talented as they were. I get things done,but in no way with the seemingly ease that they did.
Yes... the old Stone and furniture makers were so above the constructions of today... it is sort of sad that these skills don't continue to be taught. Geez... we can't even make a well mad box.
When I see old buildings and stone barns, I think of the Europeans that brought their skills to the new world, they were very fine builders with many generations of Builders behind them.
@@karlmiller7500 the American “Master Builders” of the late 1800’s through the 1930’s were incredible. 18 months to build the Empire State Building - still an impressive feat.
im a apprentice stone mason,24, I re watch every segment of this series to learn from the masons. im currently re bulding a old home that has not been lived in in 80 years! no power or pluming have ever touched it. i found news papers in the door frames from december 1880 so i think it was built in the summer of 1880. we just re built a 3' wall today just like they built castles! they used very big stones on the farm houses! they had there kids help them for sure.
Please post somewhere those newspapers. I’m sure they are an interesting read. Good luck to you on your journey! Important work. My grandfather was a stone mason and I still point out the houses he built every time I pass them.
My great grandfather was a stone mason who immigrated from Italy. Family lore has him working on the base of the Statue of Liberty and the Lion and Elephant Houses at the Bronx Zoo.
I've seen the recent pictures of the site. It looks amazing. Its scheduled to be finished in three more years. Every last person involved in this project should be proud.
so they started building this thing in 1997, i just looked at its wiki and it says its still ongoing, so they havent finished it yet, but there are pictures of it there, this documentary it says is from 2014
The time and care presented in this series will encourage me to, in the words of Peter, "When ever I see a ruined castle, I wont be looking at the building itself. I'll be looking at the hundred craftspeople who were involved with that project. The thousands of hours of labor that went in to make it." This was truly remarkable. I feel saddened that there isn't more yet heartened that I can watch it again. I think I will always gain new insights watching this.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5EuVCNwHlJ4.html Theres more on the Chronicle medieval history channel, this documentary has some of the same people too
Real castles, especially ruined ones are haunting to see up close. Thinking about everything that happened there, what they looked like in their prime, and the monumental effort it took to build them in the first place. So much is lost in the modern world of cheap trash where even expensive things are so poorly made, just so they have to be replaced more often. Once upon a time, they knew how to build things to last.
that feeling doesn't just apply to Castles either. Even just old houses with interesting architecture which is all we get here in the US no medieval castles) .
I love this series! Man, that oven was insane, lmao. Considering some of the other areas they seem more advanced, the oven relatively seemed more primitive? But perhaps the way they actually used it at the time wasn't as crazy as the way they did in the video. And the blackened bread was hilarious. I like how they laugh when they fail instead of getting emotional and frustrated...
I've used a traditional bread oven just like this, but we baked thinner bread so each cake is only in there for a minute or so, and we keep the fire smoldering along the sides, only keeping the center clear. It makes for some amazing bread.
Ovens of that type were still in use in the 1940's in some rural parts of the USA, my grandmother had one in southern MN. People build them and use them now, pizza's are awesome in them, as are artisan breads. But yes a bit to much wood was in there, but yes you rake out the burning material onto the ground, a quick whip with a bunch of wetted rag strips on a stick inside on the oven floor does wonders.
I was in Spain and Italy late fifties, early sixties, as a boy, and that was the standard cooking arrangement. I was back in the eighties and nineties in the Marines, and it was still the same. Wood fired stone ovens.
People who write stories based in a Middle Ages time period should watch this show. This has been an invaluable resource for me, personally. In most fantasy and historical fiction they portray commoners as having much easier lives than in reality, and having luxuries only the wealthy possessed (like peasants burning candles and fighting with swords).
@@jasonbrown372soap was extremely common in the medieval period as there were entire guilds dedicated to its manufacture. Bath houses were also one of, if not the most common establishment found all over europe during these times.
You can't get any better with documentaries than this, down to earth charismatic bunch talking about everyday life. This is what I always expected from history, not just politics!
No idea if anyone still reads comments, but, I have a greater appreciation of the progress in making steel. Using modern, relatively, only around a hundred years old, axes and adzes which cut so much cleaner and deeper than what is shown here. The blacksmith truly was magical.
they had the ability to make steel, and did so, long before they fully understood what they did to make it; the ancient Romans believed that if a red-headed boy slave urinated on iron ore it would become steel; there have been burial sites found where nobility were buried with steel jewelry, since because they didn't know exactly how to make it it was rare and therefore valuable
I love this series on Medieval Castles. They answer all the questions I have always had about how people built and lived in them. Awesome stuff. Thank you all.
I love the vibrational feed mechanism on the mill; so similar to modern industrial machines, and using the roughness of the millstone to generate vibrations is genius!
As a PM of a Masonic Lodge, I appreciate the clear distinctions of modern Free Masons and the architect of the crafts origin. A lot of false facts about Masonic Lodges get tossed around these days. Also really enjoyed the video. I am a builder too, so it is always fun to see different ways, or how modern ways evolved since 1000+ years ago. Good luck in your adventures!
The thumbnail did not adequately prepare me for how cool this episode was and how much information I gained from it. I had never clicked on it and it auto played and I’m so glad it did, because now I’m obsessed with the whole series and am watching them all. 🥰
These two, Ruth and Peter, and as well Alex, have lived through so many life times! What a 21st century way to live and experience. I've enjoyed these time travelling series so much, esp the War Time farm as my grandad lived through that back in the 40s! Amazing documentaries, the best of anything Historic England :)
Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Son, the strongest castle in all of England.
I spent some time working in a foundry, I was in HR but walked through it all the time. It is still fascinating, seeing these guys do it with no safety equipment is scary!
Absolutely fascinating to watch. I thought I might get bored but instead found I couldn't stop watching. Much better produced and edited than other similar series I've seen that left out to many steps or just glanced over them.
My husband is a blacksmith and he absolutely loved this documentary(something he normally doesn't watch). Maybe I'm biased but to me blacksmithing is something magical and beautiful to behold.
I have been reading Ken Follett's new book "The Evening and the Morning", the prequel to his three historical novels about life in the late middle ages. This description of the stonemasonry and life in general is the perfect accompaniment to Follett's books.
The magic of the blacksmith's mysteries was part of the folklore of the time - fire, iron, the horseshoe, all part of ancient myth. In Dr. Jacob Bronowski's wonderful TV series "The Ascent of Man" there was a fascinating representation of the lore of steel, fire, colour, and time that went to make the Samurai sword. A lot of parallels taken to the nth degree of the ironmaster's craft.
OK. The gentleman discussing masons and free masonry with such eloquence and obvious reverence, ending his monolog with the phrase "chilling out" REALLY does it for me. Cheers.
Lord Dickweed the Rich let's you get it about 95% complete before he builds a case on you and storms it just before the defenses are ready and catches you off guard ... then he decides to give it to his bratty 4th-born son to keep him entertained ... 😂
Excellent presentation to all involved in this project, what a great insight into how things were then, would loved to have worked on a project like this having been a carpenter in my younger days, a great portrayal of building history, and very educational. thanks thoroughly enjoyed it,
Well done Thommo, I once worked at hotel where the owner built a waterwheel INSIDE the building . His maintenance man had to constantly rebalance it with lead strips
I've made lots of sourdough. With rye flour, it takes 3 days to get it bubbly with yeast; it takes 7 days with white flour because wheat has less natural sugar though more gluten. Once your yeast is ready, you can make your sponge which rises 24 hours, then your dough which rises 24 hours. Or you can make a sour in 2 8 hour stages and the last, which is stiff, rises over night. The next day you make your dough, let that rise a couple of times, and then bake. So you have five stages going at the same time so you can have your bread every day. And at that, it won't rise as high as modern bread with standard-rise domesticated yeast. But once you know you have a good starter, you only use part of it and keep the rest going as starter for future loaves.
im a beanch carpenter, and its so amazing seeing the same joints i use daily. the only difference is the roughness of the wood/finish but i honestly think that lends its self to the overall beauty of the end product in this case. the codes was also amazing, im just glad we dont have to do that any more.
The mill reminds me of a working water mill in Hanover Mills, NY. Starting as a lumber and grain mill, at one time the mill water actually also drove a generator which provided DC power for brief lighting to the houses nearby who subscribed to the "utility" service. But the mechanics would be fully understood by anyone who used this mill.
them: blacksmiths judged by the colour of the metal me: I have a vague memory of something similar and then I realized it was because I'd played sims medieval which shows a scale when you're making stuff and the scale is based on colour XD
Grain mills were at the forefront of creating labor surplus through specialization that could then be used for other uses, such as castle building. It also allowed for the more accurate taxation of wealth by requiring the farmers to give up a percentage of their crop for milling at the mill, which was more accurate than requiring a percentage of crops grown, since it was easier to hide production when out of view of the lords agents that could be more easily stationed at a mill instead of roaming the countryside. The way the tree was chopped down is incredibly dangerous, and would not have been done like that by wood fellers at the time, as they knew how to create a proper hinge joint to stabilize the tree and accurately direct its fall.
I have a better understanding why apprentices to these several crafts began at young ages. By the time a man was a master craftsman or overall master of the work they had definitely put a lot of work. Outstanding presentation of medieval crafts and how each craft worked together building simple home to castles.
Having a history in metal work, woodwork, and a little bit of masonry, I can appreciate the labors that they put in and the fish looked excellent! In some ways I long to be back at that time, but knowing how short a lifetime was, you had to live each day to the fullest.
European blacksmiths apprenticed to foreign Masters so much and the workspace during production was so audibly dense that there is a vein of motive signals and anvil taps (briefly mentioned in this video) that communicate production objectives without speaking that still exist to this day, and are just as useful because everyone wears earplugs or headphones now.
Watched the entire original series and enjoyed it immensely. Revisiting this piece of it was a genuine pleasure. Ruth is a force of nature throughout the series along with Peter. There are any number of things in the series I would have loved to try my hand at. My brother is a carpenter turned cabinet maker. I'm more into finer hand work and graphics and analysis. I was a journeyman printer for about 12 years. Not a press operator, but a negative stripper, one that laid out the designs that customers presented to the company for printing, providing precision plates to the pressmen to run on their presses. One plate per colour. Perhaps in the past....
This series randomly started playing while I was watching secrets of nature and I guess it found its way to the autoplays "next" video It started on EP5 but I was interested enough to find a playlist of the full series, I was one of the people that thought the insides of castles were like the ruins they talked about, dark, damp, and putrid smelling cesspits. Not only did they demonstrate a castle's engineering and construction but even went the extra step to go into detail on what the daily lives, even the mundane tasks, of the people building and living in and around the castle was, or may have been like. Really opened my eyes that it wasn't always just a serious non parody version of Monty Python's "OoOHh, there's some lovely filth down here!"
If I remember right I think Guédelon is due to finish sometime around 2025 (although the covid-19 pandemic might push it back a year), but no doubt similar skilled masons will assist the repair of Notre Dame, luckily apart from a few vaults which collapsed most of the stonework is relatively undamaged, it's mostly only the wood beam roof and the central spire which will need rebuilding.
I'm sure some of the stonemasons and capenters here would have been called over to work on Notre Dame. Would be interesting to see the actual list of laborers to find crossovers though
I have always loved geometry, and I'm pretty terrible at math. Decision to use bloom steel vs crucible steel had more to do with time and iron ore resources than lack of knowledge. Any blacksmith worth their salt knows that the goal is to get the metal heated to as hot as possible. However, it takes a long time to do this and you have to experiment, which costs time and money. When building a castle, sometimes the quality of iron doesn't need to be that high if it's just being used for tools and small bits of machinery rather than weapons or load bearing steel beams. And if the furnace is owned by the castle lord, you might not be able to get that time to experiment. Wood was the main building material then. It's a small wonder that Europe has any forests left today.
Actually, metal gears do "break in" the same way...but metal is harder, so the wear is not so pronounced. Wood gears "breaking in" is very similar to them just breaking...which happens frequently.
WELL YOUR GRANDDAD WOOD KNOW A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN THE PEOPLE READING BOOKS AND DIGGING IN THE GROUND FOR THEIR KNOWLEDGE. I BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE HAVE MUCH MORE INFO THAN MANY OF US, BUT THERE IS NOTHING LIKE HAVING THE REAL EXPERIENCES, AS WELL AS THOSE WHO HAD THEIR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS. GOD BLESS YOU
Renucchi made a lot more sense , and in fact my house here was constructed in much the same method , with wooden pegs . But can you imagine having a steel sword instead of an iron sword ? From there comes the legend of Excalibur
Absolutely fascinating documentary!! I'm so glad there are places and people in the world available to perform such research as this that takes years to accomplish.
@@paulahowell2724 Her enthusiasm is greatly appreciated in any lost-in-the-woods type of situation (specially if she figures out a way of both calming you down and finding a way out of there)
Amazing to see all this happening. I think visiting a site like this if possible would be such a treat. I'd even volunteer to run those cranes on top the tower for a spell. What a piece of medieval engineering.
Apparently my grandfather could "read" stones. He would run his hands over a stone for a while and then hit it a few times and end up with the shapes he wanted. For building walls. He was a mechanic and farmer
The English and the French helping eachother. . . If only they would have learned to do that 700 years ago, just imagine how much progress could have been made.
This video should be fundamental for every high school student, male or female, to understand the issues of daily life and basic ways to feed, manufacture and exist in former times. It will help to relate the demands for every way life, today and yesterday. Thank you for a great and educational video.
Why should "people in the states be ok with it"? As long as the land is your property and you procure that no workers are injured of die in the construction, you're fine. You'll need some more personnel than your friends, though.
