Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Uh, Tracy,
Speaker 1: I have in the that we haven't really covered an
Speaker 1: iconic place in a while. Yeah, we talked a little
Speaker 1: about Griffith Park, but that was more about Griffith J. Griffith. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I went through my list for one and I
Speaker 1: landed at Bodium Castle, which has been on there for
Speaker 1: a while. And I had to give the true confession
Speaker 1: up front. There are people listening who might already know this. Uh,
Speaker 1: this castle came to my attention for sort of a
Speaker 1: silly reason, and I'm gonna save that silly reason for
Speaker 1: the end because it is a very small, silly reason
Speaker 1: and it doesn't really have anything to do with the
Speaker 1: castle's history. Uh. This castle is pretty unique in its
Speaker 1: design and the extent to which the grounds surrounding it
Speaker 1: are all part of that design. And it is also
Speaker 1: closely tied to the very turbulent ariad in England's history
Speaker 1: that runs from the Hundred Years War through the War
Speaker 1: of the Roses, including the Peasants Revolt, which may have
Speaker 1: influenced the castle's construction and how it was designed. It
Speaker 1: is also tied to the lives of a lot of people,
Speaker 1: as you might suspect for something that is this old.
Speaker 1: But there is one man in particular, Sir Edward dallen Gridge,
Speaker 1: who is kind of synonymous with the castle, so it becomes,
Speaker 1: at least in part, a story about his life. And
Speaker 1: what I really love is that this is one of
Speaker 1: those cases where even in recent years, this medieval structure
Speaker 1: has continued to yield some surprises. I know what the
Speaker 1: surprises are, and I'm really excited. They're very cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The location of the land that Bodiam Castle sits on
Speaker 1: has a long history of being recognized as valuable. It
Speaker 1: sits on the River Rother. That river runs roughly horizontally
Speaker 1: connecting East Sussex to the English Channel, kind of the
Speaker 1: east to west situation, and it was valued because it
Speaker 1: was wide enough to be a trading river when the
Speaker 1: Romans invaded Britain in forty three. After the Romans, there
Speaker 1: were early English settlers in the region who probably named
Speaker 1: the place Bodha's Ham as an hamlet village, and then
Speaker 1: that name eventually morphed into Bodium. But the person whose
Speaker 1: name is most closely associated with the castle, as we said,
Speaker 1: is Sir Edward dalen Gridge. Dalen Gridge was not in
Speaker 1: a good place to inherit in the birth order. He
Speaker 1: was the youngest son in his family. The family estate
Speaker 1: was going to pass to his older brothers. He was born,
Speaker 1: most likely in thirty six, to father Roger dalen Gridge
Speaker 1: and mother Alice Rattingdon. This was a point when the
Speaker 1: family was actually rising in position. Edward's grandfather John had
Speaker 1: married up, so to speak, when he wed Joana Lynde,
Speaker 1: increasing the family's landholdings, and Roger had made a similar
Speaker 1: lucrative move when he married Alice. And his teen years
Speaker 1: Edward dalen Gridge was already engaged as a soldier. His father, Roger,
Speaker 1: was a knight under Queen Philippa, and in thirteen fifty
Speaker 1: nine Edward accompanied his father in service to the Earl
Speaker 1: of Arundel when their company went into France during a conflict.
Speaker 1: This was the start of a long career of military service,
Speaker 1: and Edward became a knight in the thirteen sixties. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're doing the math there, that puts him at
Speaker 1: thirteen when he is going on these military missions with
Speaker 1: his father, which was in fact the case, although he
Speaker 1: didn't become knighted obviously until he was a little more adult.
Speaker 1: Just as his father and grandfather had bolstered the family
Speaker 1: fortune through marriage, Edward in turn married a woman from
Speaker 1: a more prosperous family than his own, that was Elizabeth Wardeux.
Speaker 1: Edward's marriage had been arranged by his father Roger, and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's father, John Ward, died in thirteen seventy seven. At
Speaker 1: this point, Edward came into possession of a number of
Speaker 1: parcels of land, including a manner at bodium Um. You
Speaker 1: will see different calculations of the size of the acreage
Speaker 1: of the properties, because obviously those property lines don't really
Speaker 1: exist anymore. I have seen everything from seven hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty acres too far larger, So a lot of land.
Speaker 1: While the other real estate had various uses and Dalin
Speaker 1: Gridge eventually became one of the most wealthy landowners of
Speaker 1: his time. He decided that Bodium was going to be
Speaker 1: his home. He sold off a lot of his other
Speaker 1: inherited properties, gaining additional wealth, some of which was used
Speaker 1: to finance the work that he planned for the Bodium estate.
Speaker 1: He also purchased additional properties in Sussex to expand his
Speaker 1: land holdings near Bodium by an estimated hundred acres. In
Speaker 1: three he was granted a royal charter to hold an
Speaker 1: annual fair there as well as the weekly market. Yeah
Speaker 1: he was just settling right in dalin Gridge is estimated
Speaker 1: to have been one of the wealthiest landowners in the area,
Speaker 1: and that wealth was augmented by annual payments made through
Speaker 1: various agreements and patronages that were arranged during his military career,
Speaker 1: various diplomatic efforts, including forty pounds annually from the Duke
Speaker 1: of Sussex In addition to knighthood, and a military career
Speaker 1: in which he participated in most of the major efforts
Speaker 1: against France, he had a variety of other jobs and titles,
Speaker 1: including serving as Master Forrester for the lands of Edward,
Speaker 1: Lord Despencer. He also represented Sussex in Parliament on nine
Speaker 1: occasions beginning in thirteen seventy nine, so in less than
Speaker 1: a century the family had ascended to be wealthy as
Speaker 1: well as important in affairs of state. Initially, Podium was
Speaker 1: to be the site of just a manner home dalen
Speaker 1: Gridge was still a night during this time. He wanted
Speaker 1: a place to live. He'd also amassed a significant fortune
Speaker 1: in his travels at war as well as through various
Speaker 1: appointments and associations. Plundering was kind of part of the
Speaker 1: income package for Knights, and dalen Gridge had made the
Speaker 1: most of this. It's believed that he profited from ransoming
Speaker 1: captured captives a lot of time. Yeah, which sounds horrible,
Speaker 1: but was kind of business as usual for the the
Speaker 1: setup um. Two years after his home was completed, England
Speaker 1: found itself in an escalation of the conflict with France
Speaker 1: that threatened to approach Bodium manner. More than one thousand
Speaker 1: French ships had amassed across the channel and it was
Speaker 1: believed that they would soon attack sort of. So, uh,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of debate here about how real
Speaker 1: the threat actually was to Bodium and what really inspired
Speaker 1: edwards next move, and we're going to get to that
Speaker 1: in a moment. But what this threat meant, because there
Speaker 1: were French ships amassing across the channel, Uh, this meant
Speaker 1: that the estate's home had to be fortified. But Edward
Speaker 1: Dallingridge opted to go a different route. He decided that
Speaker 1: he was going to build an entirely new structure, a castle,
Speaker 1: rather than just augment the existing house. So it may
Speaker 1: seem like there's kind of a head scratcher for some
Speaker 1: folks here, because the main threat was the French crossing
Speaker 1: the channel. But Bodium is not actually on the coast.
Speaker 1: If you look at it on a map, the distance
Speaker 1: between it and Hastings Beach, which is almost immediately to
Speaker 1: the south, is roughly thirteen miles almost twenty one kilometers.
Speaker 1: So presumably the thinking was that the French with land
Speaker 1: and then advanced into England. Also, there's that river there
Speaker 1: that connects directly to the channel. Yeah, so there were
Speaker 1: ways that France could have advanced fairly quickly to Bodium,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't really in the immediate line of attack.
Speaker 1: But Darling Gridge was also tasked by King Richard the Second,
Speaker 1: who of course was very young still at this time,
Speaker 1: to head the preparations for a possible invasion by the
Speaker 1: French in Sussex. So he didn't just decide to fortify
Speaker 1: strictly on his own, although it seems that the scope
Speaker 1: of the fortification was something that he had kind of
Speaker 1: decided on when Chelsea, which sits at the point where
Speaker 1: the River Rother and the English Channel meet, was rated.
Speaker 1: Once they crossed the channel, that was where they went.
Speaker 1: So this did seem to start to be very real.
Speaker 1: Dling Bridge had led the fortification process of Win She'll
Speaker 1: see several years earlier in eight and also Rye beginning
Speaker 1: in two, so he was a natural choice to give
Speaker 1: responsibility to when it came to making fortifications inland, and
Speaker 1: that of course would have extended to his own property.
Speaker 1: The King gave his permission for the Bodium Castle project,
Speaker 1: and that license was for fortification and crenelation, meaning that
Speaker 1: it was intended to augment the existing home. The exact
Speaker 1: phrasing regarding this was that he wasn't able to quote
Speaker 1: strengthen with a wall of stone and lime and crenelate
Speaker 1: and construct and make into a castle his manor house
Speaker 1: at Bodium, which is Bodium near the sea in the
Speaker 1: county of Sussex, for defense of the adjacent county and
Speaker 1: resistance to our enemies. So in choosing to build an
Speaker 1: entirely new structure about a kilometer away from the first
Speaker 1: his manner home, it seems like this is maybe a
Speaker 1: broad interpretation of that document. When you hear historians talk
Speaker 1: about it or they write about it, crenelation is like
Speaker 1: the hot word, um, and this is something that continues
Speaker 1: to be debated. Right, So what exactly was the function
Speaker 1: and purpose of this castle and why did he make
Speaker 1: that choice? Rather than crenelation in its strict sense. But
Speaker 1: all researchers have in terms of surviving paperwork is that
Speaker 1: crenelation document, that permission document. The rest has been interpreted
Speaker 1: over the years based on the available evidence and what
Speaker 1: the castle actually turned out to be, and that means
Speaker 1: that different people have had different theories about how the
Speaker 1: castle was conceived and used, and that's based largely on
Speaker 1: his floor plan. We'll get to some of that interpretation
Speaker 1: after we come back from a quick sponsor break. Give
Speaker 1: me recall if you're a regular listener, that we talked
Speaker 1: about what Tyler and the uprising of one on the
Speaker 1: podcast in June of That event, sometimes called the peasant Revolt,
Speaker 1: was the result of economic troubles that had been brewing
Speaker 1: for decades leading up to the point where poll taxes
Speaker 1: are being levied against the people of the country to
Speaker 1: finance at least in part, the ongoing conflict with France.
Speaker 1: So for someone like Dalin Gridge, who was very wealthy
Speaker 1: and who in his official duties, had helped put down
Speaker 1: that rebellion, there was also a vested interest in protecting
Speaker 1: his home and family, and that probably further informed his
Speaker 1: decision to build a full fledged castle rather than just
Speaker 1: build onto his existing home. Also, there are some interpretations
Speaker 1: of the castle's design and structure that come to the
Speaker 1: conclusion that more than offering protection from French forces or
Speaker 1: any internal uprising, this construction may well have been built
Speaker 1: for show and status. You just look at a picture,
Speaker 1: you can kind of see how folks might come to
Speaker 1: that conclusion. Some of the fortifications don't seem all that robust,
Speaker 1: such as the walls being relatively thin. So we'll now
Speaker 1: talk about the actual work on the castle. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: read a cute I shouldn't say it's cute, it's scholarly work.
Speaker 1: But it was a fun discussion of how like look,
Speaker 1: he was kind of like neu Veau Reese and trying
Speaker 1: to show everybody he was fancy. Um, that is one theory.
Speaker 1: The construction of Bodium Castle was very different from most
Speaker 1: others because it was conceived in its entirety and then
Speaker 1: built all at once. Uh. This is different than most
Speaker 1: examples of castles that we have because most were built
Speaker 1: in stages, either as needed doing something like that crenelation
Speaker 1: that was discussed, or as funds were available. Also, you know,
Speaker 1: there are things that happened historically, like you know, ahead
Speaker 1: of family dying in their offspring, deciding how to proceed
Speaker 1: with the design and how that changes it. But it
Speaker 1: as a consequence, Bodium has this rare distinction of being
Speaker 1: really uniform in its appearance since it was also intended
Speaker 1: to replace the manor home as the primary residence of
Speaker 1: the estate. Bodium Castle is also unusual because the design
Speaker 1: is for comfort as well as protection. It's emerging of
Speaker 1: strategic defensive design and domicile arrangement. The exterior structure is
Speaker 1: almost a perfect square, with round towers at the corners
Speaker 1: of the square and smaller square towers along the walls
Speaker 1: connecting the corners. The interior of the castle has not
Speaker 1: been restored, but enough remains that the floor plan is
Speaker 1: possible to discern. There was a huge interior court within
Speaker 1: the castle, and there were apartment areas that were separated
Speaker 1: off for the family's use. On the east side of
Speaker 1: the building, with other areas that would have specifically been
Speaker 1: for staff. There was also a chapel and a grand hall.
Speaker 1: It's kind of cool the way the bed chamber is designed.
Speaker 1: They would have been able to stand basically at window
Speaker 1: of their bed chamber and look into the chapels, so
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have had to leave their room to to
Speaker 1: have to be part of services. Uh. There was also
Speaker 1: a buttery which I want to put in my house,
Speaker 1: a pantry and a kitchen uh. And in the kitchen
Speaker 1: would have been to fireplaces. Those would have been kept
Speaker 1: going constantly year round to meet the various needs of
Speaker 1: the castle. Most of the castle is two stories. The
Speaker 1: towers are three in the northwest tower also included a prison.
Speaker 1: The entire castle is built of sandstone ashlar, which was
Speaker 1: quarried about eleven miles from the site at Wadhurst. The
Speaker 1: grounds were also landscaped while the castle was being constructed.
Speaker 1: The whole design was intended to be visually appealing as
Speaker 1: well as functional and at least in theory, able to
Speaker 1: withstand battle and defend the inhabitants. The river was diverted
Speaker 1: once again with a license from the King and a mill.
Speaker 1: Pond and mill were both created under Darrange's instructions. The
Speaker 1: land surrounding the castle was entirely transformed. Researchers writing about
Speaker 1: all the landscaping quote the castle and its moat thus
Speaker 1: form the center of an elaborate modification of the whole landscape,
Speaker 1: involving the creation of a number of ponds and sheets
Speaker 1: of water whose positioning has an ornamental impact. Yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: designed to be pretty as well as a strong, at
Speaker 1: least in theory. And in some cases these details that
Speaker 1: created really a very picturesque estate were used in ways
Speaker 1: that may seem odd or off putting today. For example,
Speaker 1: there is, as Tracy just mentioned, a moat and that
Speaker 1: surrounds the entire castle structure. The moat is roughly a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen by a hundred and fifty five and
Speaker 1: it is quite pretty, and when viewed from above, it
Speaker 1: frames the castle fairly perfectly. The castle itself sits just
Speaker 1: slightly south of the center of the frame that's created
Speaker 1: by the moat. In the moat, which isn't exactly square,
Speaker 1: it's more of a wedge shape, would naturally make it
Speaker 1: difficult to approach the castle on horseback. Were on foot
Speaker 1: with any kind of strength, so to enter you would
Speaker 1: have to pass over a bridge and hit a small island,
Speaker 1: and then pass over another to get to a barbicane,
Speaker 1: and once through that you could continue to the north gate.
Speaker 1: There was also a small back entrance on the south
Speaker 1: wall of the gate, which also had to be approached
Speaker 1: by bridge. But this protective moat was actually sort of gross,
Speaker 1: as moats often were, because it was used for sewage.
Speaker 1: All the raw waste from the castle was dumped into it,
Speaker 1: and this undoubtedly made its smell horrifyingly bad, which justice
Speaker 1: speculation here might have also had a deterrent effect for
Speaker 1: any unwanted visitors, even for visitors who were expected and desired.
Speaker 1: The moat and landscape and bridges that were used to
Speaker 1: actually get to the castle, had anyone approaching, turning and
Speaker 1: rounding the castle in ways that some researchers have theorized
Speaker 1: might have been attended to show off the grandness of
Speaker 1: the building in the grounds. I like the idea you
Speaker 1: have the sort of exterior tour by the convoluted way
Speaker 1: of getting in there turned right at the island. Supporting
Speaker 1: this whole idea is evidence of a garden structure built
Speaker 1: on a high ridge north of the castle, which would
Speaker 1: have offered a spectacular view of the grounds. Also included
Speaker 1: in the castle design were keyhole gun ports, which were
Speaker 1: not common in private residence castles and weren't really all
Speaker 1: that practical, but certainly would have let visitors know that
Speaker 1: Dalen Gridge was aware of the latest trends and battlement design.
Speaker 1: My castle's fancy. Uh well, we don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of information about is the construction process itself, or exactly
Speaker 1: how long it took for this castle to be completed.
Speaker 1: Based on records, it was done by the early or
Speaker 1: mid nineties, so estimates put the construction time at less
Speaker 1: than ten years, sometimes far less. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: For all of that work, the French never attacked Bodium.
Speaker 1: In June d nine, while the castle was likely still
Speaker 1: under construction. The Truce of Lullingham ended the second phase
Speaker 1: of the Hundred Years War. In thirteen Dallen Gridge was
Speaker 1: made a member of the King's Council. That was a
Speaker 1: role in which he served until thirteen ninety three, and
Speaker 1: as part of his duties, he went to France again,
Speaker 1: this time to survey defenses in Calais and overlapping duty
Speaker 1: was also given him when he was made Keeper of
Speaker 1: London in June of two uh That duty was taken
Speaker 1: from him the following months because he was determined to
Speaker 1: be too lenient. This is when there was a lot
Speaker 1: of unrest going on in London and Dally Gridge died
Speaker 1: somewhere between this point where that job was rescinded and
Speaker 1: the spring of thirteen ninety four when he is listed
Speaker 1: in records as deceased. That would put him somewhere around
Speaker 1: forty seven years old, so he barely had time to
Speaker 1: enjoy his grand castle and grounds. Bodium Castle remained in
Speaker 1: the ownership of Sir Edward dalling Gridge's descendants, but eventually
Speaker 1: there were no dallen Grids left and the castle was
Speaker 1: gained by the Lukener family in marriage. That was in
Speaker 1: the mid fourteen hundreds. The Wars of the Roses would
Speaker 1: be the next pivotal historical events in the story of
Speaker 1: the castle, because Sir Thomas Luchner was on the Lancastrian
Speaker 1: side of the war, the opposite side of Richard the Third.
Speaker 1: The King ordered an attack on Bodian and the castle
Speaker 1: was surrendered. There is actually a pretty decent likelihood that
Speaker 1: no real attack took place here, that the Lukeners surrendered
Speaker 1: before there was any violence at all. When Richard the
Speaker 1: third was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry
Speaker 1: the seventh took the throne, the castle was returned to
Speaker 1: the Lukener family, and it remained a Lukener property until
Speaker 1: the mid sixteen hundreds. At the end of that line,
Speaker 1: the estate was divvied up and it passed through a
Speaker 1: number of hands. During the period from the mid fifteen
Speaker 1: hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, lots of different people owned Bodium,
Speaker 1: but nobody actually lived there. The castle was unfortunately uncared for,
Speaker 1: and it fell into ruin. None of its owners seemed
Speaker 1: to really pay much of any attention to the structure
Speaker 1: in any meaningful way, and so it was purchased by
Speaker 1: politician John Fuller in eight although it had attracted tourists
Speaker 1: before then. We're going to talk about Fuller's plans for
Speaker 1: the once grand structure in just a moment, but before
Speaker 1: we do, we'll take a break and hear from the
Speaker 1: sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.
Speaker 1: So we talked right before the break about John Fuller
Speaker 1: acquiring Bodium Castle, and Fuller and the next two owners
Speaker 1: all shared a vision of restoration for Bodium. Under Fuller's ownership,
Speaker 1: tower repair began as well as the restoration of the
Speaker 1: main gate, but he only had it for twenty years
Speaker 1: before he died, so they didn't get super far. In
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, the castle and property were purchased by
Speaker 1: George Cubitt, who wished to continue the restoration that Fuller
Speaker 1: had begun, and Cuba actually had the site surveyed before
Speaker 1: picking the work back up because he wanted to approach
Speaker 1: things a bit more methodically. In nineteen seventeen, the Bodium
Speaker 1: Castle was purchased by Lord Curzon, who was a British
Speaker 1: statesman and served as Viceroy of India from eight to
Speaker 1: nineteen o five. He had a general interest in the
Speaker 1: restoration of historic buildings and he managed to get Bodiam Castle,
Speaker 1: which he had tried to purchase from George Cuba after
Speaker 1: Cuba passed and his son sold it. Yeah, Lord Curzon
Speaker 1: could be his own episode and maybe one day will
Speaker 1: It will be in parts interesting and terrifying and frustrating.
Speaker 1: But Curzon invested in having the moat partially drained and
Speaker 1: that revealed some of the old bridge structures of the castle.
Speaker 1: He also had much of the overgrowth cleared it had
Speaker 1: kind of been swallowed by plant life in many regards
Speaker 1: um and he rebuilt and restored some of the crumbled ruins,
Speaker 1: along with Scottish architect William Weir overseeing the project. Curzon
Speaker 1: also had a cottage built on the ground separate from
Speaker 1: the castle, for a caretaker to live in and for
Speaker 1: a small museum to be installed. Lord Curzon donated the
Speaker 1: castle to the National Trust in when he died, and
Speaker 1: it has remained under that entities ownership in the almost
Speaker 1: hundred years since. The restored castle eventually became a Grade
Speaker 1: one listed building. That designation means that it's considered to
Speaker 1: have historical significance and be of exceptional interest. During World
Speaker 1: War Two, a pill box bunker was built on the
Speaker 1: grounds at Bodium Castle as defense to guard against possible
Speaker 1: German invasion, which of course, thankfully did not happen. Throughout
Speaker 1: its time and under the care of the National Trust,
Speaker 1: there have been various restoration projects for the castle and
Speaker 1: the grounds. The entire moat was drained in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: when excavations were undertaken, and these excavations were necessitated in
Speaker 1: part by some really treacherous conditions that were threatening to
Speaker 1: take out some of the some of the walls surrounding
Speaker 1: the moat, unsurprising given that this was the hundreds of
Speaker 1: year old castle that had not been really maintained in
Speaker 1: this way. The conditions were caused also by tree growth.
Speaker 1: Careful excavation revealed that the wall was actually in better
Speaker 1: shape than expected, and researchers were able to see and
Speaker 1: record Mason's marks in the stones. We'll talk more about
Speaker 1: the Mason's marks in just a second. In continuing examinations
Speaker 1: of the land and its waterways through the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: researchers looked at the water features of the landscape to
Speaker 1: try to determine when various versions of them had been changed,
Speaker 1: as well as which of them were actually naturally occurring,
Speaker 1: and also together just any other additional details that they could.
Speaker 1: One pond, known as the tilt Yard might be a
Speaker 1: remodeled version of the original mill pond that Dalin Gridge
Speaker 1: had installed. Other ponds on the land are believed to
Speaker 1: have been used to dispose of waste that had accumulated
Speaker 1: in the moat and was dredged out. Uh So, when
Speaker 1: you think about the romantic ideas we have about castle
Speaker 1: to over time, various marks and inscriptions have been observed
Speaker 1: and cataloged around the castle, and some of these are
Speaker 1: obviously pretty modern ish, believed to have been left there
Speaker 1: between the eighteenth and early nineteen centuries. These are mostly
Speaker 1: cases of people carving their names. You will find the
Speaker 1: names Hoggins, James Brian, and Lady Tompkin at various places
Speaker 1: in the castle, but other marks are much much older.
Speaker 1: Some of them are simply part of the castle's construction.
Speaker 1: There are symbols that are sometimes called bankers marks. The
Speaker 1: mason's working on the castle would leave these in the
Speaker 1: stones that they laid, because they were paid by the stone.
Speaker 1: As each man left his mark, that let the master
Speaker 1: mason easily count how many stones had been laid and
Speaker 1: by whom, and pay everyone accordingly. But among the more
Speaker 1: than eight hundred carving that have been cataloged in the
Speaker 1: time the National Trust has managed the estate, some remained
Speaker 1: a little bit more elusive in their meanings. In the
Speaker 1: Trust hired a medieval graffiti expert. I love that that's
Speaker 1: a job to make a thorough examination and analysis of
Speaker 1: the inscriptions. That was Matt Champion who was brought onto
Speaker 1: the project, which was part of a larger survey of
Speaker 1: additional locations around the area. So that was done in
Speaker 1: cooperation with the wind Chelsea Archaeological Society, the University of
Speaker 1: Southampton and the Museum of London Archaeology Department, and there
Speaker 1: were some surprising discoveries. First, Champion was able to identify
Speaker 1: each of the mason's marks and make a pretty good
Speaker 1: estimate of the size of the team that was employed
Speaker 1: on the project. It appears that there were six bankers
Speaker 1: masons langstone work for the things like the external walls,
Speaker 1: and three fine mason's. Those are experts who did the
Speaker 1: detail work that sometimes included things like carving. There's the
Speaker 1: folks that were down the castle, which then makes it
Speaker 1: even more amazing how quickly it went up. But the
Speaker 1: real surprise we're the witch marks. Almost every single window
Speaker 1: and entrance to the castle has some sort of mark
Speaker 1: like this, and they generally look like a compass inside
Speaker 1: a circle or sometimes a pentagram, and these are believed
Speaker 1: to have been placed near entrances in order to keep
Speaker 1: evil from entering the castle. Adding a level of complexity
Speaker 1: here is the fact that some of these were made
Speaker 1: during construction, but others clearly came later, although dating them
Speaker 1: exactly is a little bit difficult. But since the French
Speaker 1: army didn't invade, and it seems that Bodium has probably
Speaker 1: avoided any violent attack, maybe they worked. Really though, while
Speaker 1: the name witch marks sounds kind of thrilling, really these
Speaker 1: are essentially prayers carved into the masonry, and they offer
Speaker 1: historians a peak at the values of the people in
Speaker 1: the fourteenth century and beyond and the words of Champion quote.
Speaker 1: The collection of ritual protection marks that Bodium Castle is
Speaker 1: not only significant for the site, but for the wider
Speaker 1: field of study. Some were undoubtedly created during the construction process,
Speaker 1: whilst others could only have been created subsequently, showing the
Speaker 1: importance religion continued to play throughout the Middle Ages. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about some of these
Speaker 1: marks is that they are these like intricate carve designs
Speaker 1: and the idea that the spirit would get stuck in there. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit. It hearkens back to the Ruguru right,
Speaker 1: like make something just complex enough that the dangerous thing
Speaker 1: will get wadded up in the details of one way
Speaker 1: or another, okay, form a movie Buffs in the Crowd.
Speaker 1: Here is the very silly reason that I knew about
Speaker 1: this castle. It's exterior was used in the film Monty
Speaker 1: Python and the Holy Grail. So that shot that you
Speaker 1: see of the exterior of Swamp Castle. The fourth castle,
Speaker 1: the one that survived, that is Bodium Castle. That one
Speaker 1: stayed up. It did. It did, even though UH the
Speaker 1: Air did not want to inherit it, but only wanted
Speaker 1: to sing. Bodium Castle is open to visitors, although as
Speaker 1: of this recording there are some limits in place because
Speaker 1: of COVID restrictions. Outdoor spaces are currently available, but not
Speaker 1: the indoor areas. There's a cafe on site that's offering
Speaker 1: takeout snacks, and so if you're considering a visit, you
Speaker 1: do need to book in advance, so check the availability
Speaker 1: and the restrictions ahead of time. Do you have some
Speaker 1: listener mail? I do? I do. This is another email
Speaker 1: that we have gotten about color vision deficiency. We've gotten
Speaker 1: some good ones we have. It's it's a little bit
Speaker 1: interesting because it's one of those cases I feel like
Speaker 1: UH in instances where we have an episode and it
Speaker 1: generates a lot of listener feedback. It's usually one of
Speaker 1: a few things, like one, it's a contentious issue with
Speaker 1: a lot of people, how having different opinions, or maybe
Speaker 1: they didn't like how we treated something, or they're just like,
Speaker 1: thank goodness someone's talking about this, or often I feel
Speaker 1: like we'll talk about something and there's a whole group
Speaker 1: of people that's like I feel seen um and I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like this is the scoop with the
Speaker 1: color vision deficiency um our. Listener Dana wrote in she
Speaker 1: self identifies this color blind in her subject line and writes, high,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, I love the podcast and I've been
Speaker 1: listening for years. Your recent episode on John Dalton's color
Speaker 1: vision was extremely fascinating to me as I am a
Speaker 1: female with green due to an opia color blindness, and
Speaker 1: often find it hard to describe to people what I see,
Speaker 1: like John Dalton. I also didn't find this out until
Speaker 1: later in life, as I was in my senior year
Speaker 1: of high school. Despite needing glasses since I was ten
Speaker 1: and multiple vision exams, the standard color vision testing at
Speaker 1: the eye doctor is a very distinct red and green
Speaker 1: e which I can easily see as you described from
Speaker 1: your research, it is often, though not always, a decreased
Speaker 1: ability to see the color in question, and not a
Speaker 1: complete absence of the color. How I found out was
Speaker 1: in calculus class. The textbook had an Ashara dot test,
Speaker 1: and my peers were all talking about what they saw.
Speaker 1: When I looked, I saw something completely different, which then
Speaker 1: shocked all of us, and we had to stop class
Speaker 1: for everyone to hold up every color they could find
Speaker 1: to see if I saw the same as them. Had
Speaker 1: it not been for Calculus, I don't know when I
Speaker 1: would have ever found out. Since then, I now have
Speaker 1: a son who also has the same color deficiency as
Speaker 1: I do. We've even had his color vision tested with
Speaker 1: that same dot test. Most people do not know that
Speaker 1: I have this. My husband does, and it's often a
Speaker 1: joke at our house and some of our close friends.
Speaker 1: But I do not enjoy being in the spotlight of it,
Speaker 1: and I don't like spending thirty plus minutes every time
Speaker 1: I do share it explaining to people that yes, I
Speaker 1: can see stoplights. So I don't tell people often, and
Speaker 1: now when I do tell them, I'll just send them
Speaker 1: to your podcast instead of explaining it all, and hopefully
Speaker 1: they'll stop holding up every color of the six or
Speaker 1: seven if you ask Dalton colored rainbow for me to
Speaker 1: check for them. Ha ha ha. Thank you for all your
Speaker 1: hard work and the research eating for the podcast. I
Speaker 1: love this. It is interesting, right you. That's one of
Speaker 1: those cases where I feel like there's a lesson here
Speaker 1: of like, I love when people are curious, and I
Speaker 1: have done this before, so I'm not. Um, I'm not
Speaker 1: calling anybody out or trying to be critical of anyone.
Speaker 1: When you find out someone is different from you and
Speaker 1: you're super interested and you want to ask a cajillion questions,
Speaker 1: but it's worth considering if that person has answered those
Speaker 1: cajillion questions in their lives. Yeah. So, um, it's a lesson.
Speaker 1: I always need to be reminded of that. It's sometimes
Speaker 1: easier instead of going how do you see this? Or
Speaker 1: how do you understand this? Or how does your culture
Speaker 1: do this? You could go, hey, is there a good
Speaker 1: resource you could point me to where I could learn
Speaker 1: more about this? Unless someone really wants to share it all,
Speaker 1: in which case it's cool. But always please be respectful
Speaker 1: of people's time when trying to understand what is different
Speaker 1: about their life from yours. Sure, yeah, yeah, my mom
Speaker 1: used to have a thing program into her speech generating
Speaker 1: device that would she could just hit one button and
Speaker 1: it would explain the whole thing. That is smart because
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's been a kigelion of those. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and usually I mean again, I don't want to make
Speaker 1: anybody feel bad. That usually comes from a very good
Speaker 1: place of wanting to like understand and connect, but it
Speaker 1: can be a bit labor intensive for the person who
Speaker 1: has to do the work of explaining it to everyone
Speaker 1: who doesn't understand. Um. So thank you, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for Danta for writing us, because it offered that
Speaker 1: that moment both to remind myself and anyone else who
Speaker 1: cares to to think about it in those terms that
Speaker 1: it's always good to give people the option to point
Speaker 1: you towards a resource or just tell you to go
Speaker 1: to the library. Um, when libraries are a thing, go
Speaker 1: to your online library, search it. See if your library
Speaker 1: has a really handy no contact pickup, which mind does
Speaker 1: and it's great. Yeah. Um, So thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. If you would like to write to us,
Speaker 1: you can do that at History Podcast at iHeart radio
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on social media
Speaker 1: as missed in History and if you want to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast and you haven't gotten around to that yet,
Speaker 1: also no criticism there, but it's super easy if you'd
Speaker 1: like to, you can do that on the I heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is you listen.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.