I think in the 6th century castles would just have been wooden forts surrounded by earthworks, I think they only began to build stone castles in Britain after the Norman conquest. The Saxons did not go in for building in stone much except for churches.
There were no British castles in the 6th century, the art of building stone fortifications being lost in western Europe with the fall of the Roman empire in the west in 476.It was not revived until the return of the Crusaders from the First Crusade, new fortification technology having been learned from the Byzantines.
The Saxons were incapable of building permanent fortifications at this time; the Sub Roman British used old Iron Age hill forts, and even in the late 8th century, the major Saxon fortification work, Offa’s Dyke, was nothing more than a big ditch with the excavated earth piled up on the other side into an earthen wall.
So, no castles in Britain in the 6th century. Surviving Roman stone fortifications, for example at Reculver and Richborough, were in such disrepair by 500 AD as to be unusable in a military role for defence.
August 11th, 2010 | 
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I think in the 6th century castles would just have been wooden forts surrounded by earthworks, I think they only began to build stone castles in Britain after the Norman conquest. The Saxons did not go in for building in stone much except for churches.
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There were no British castles in the 6th century, the art of building stone fortifications being lost in western Europe with the fall of the Roman empire in the west in 476.It was not revived until the return of the Crusaders from the First Crusade, new fortification technology having been learned from the Byzantines.
The Saxons were incapable of building permanent fortifications at this time; the Sub Roman British used old Iron Age hill forts, and even in the late 8th century, the major Saxon fortification work, Offa’s Dyke, was nothing more than a big ditch with the excavated earth piled up on the other side into an earthen wall.
So, no castles in Britain in the 6th century. Surviving Roman stone fortifications, for example at Reculver and Richborough, were in such disrepair by 500 AD as to be unusable in a military role for defence.
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Life in a Medieval Castle
http://www.medieval-castle.com/
http://www.castlewales.com/life.html
http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castle6.htm
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/Medieval.html#Castle
Pictures of Castles.
http://www.medieval-castles.net/castles.htm
http://great-castles.com/index.pl?gallery.html
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