Windows

This window, which is in the Red Tower on the walls of York, is made in a cross shape, to allow a good field of fire for archers.

But at the end of each arm of the cross is a round hole, big enough for the barrel of a hand held gun to poke through.

Windows like this were built at a time when the life of castles as fortresses was coming to an end. As guns got more powerful, they became able to smash down the high stone walls of a castle. But even if they were no longer used for fighting, castles were the homes of the great lords, who could now build themselves rooms which were more comfortable to live in. In many castles, you can find large windows, put in when they had become homes.

© Dial Solutions 2000