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Castles were primarily built to defend and protect, but over time comfortable homes evolved within the fortified walls.

The first castle of stone consisted of rectangular towers surrounded by high stone walls.

Bodiam castle (pictured below) is a moated, curtain-walled castle which was built in 1385. It has a round tower at each corner, and a square tower midway along each wall.

Ightham Mote (pictured below), one of the oldest and loveliest medieval manor houses to survive in England, dates from 1330. A moat surrounds the four wings of the house, the walls on all four sides dropping vertically into the water, and within them an open cobbled courtyard.

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