Castle Life: What it was life living in a castle?
HALL
Floor was often made with beaten earth, stone or plaster; and were often aisled like a church, with rows of wooden pasts or stone pillars supporting a timber roof. The windows in the 13 th century were equipped with wooden shutters secured by an iron bar, and then were rarely glazed in the 11th and 12th centuries.
The Entrance Hall was usually placed in the side wall near the lower end, and when the hall was on an upper story the entrance was commonly then reached by an otuside staircase next to the wall of the keep. The castle family would've sat on raised dais of stone or wood at the upper end of the hall away from the entrance. The lord occupied a massive chair, which was sometimes a canopy, and then everyone else sat on benches.
Most of the dining tables were set on trestles that were dismantled between meals; a permanent table was another sign of prestige, limited to the greatest lords. However, all tables were covered with white cloths, and extremely clean. The lighting back then was by candles, of wax from animal fat. Oil lamps in bowl form were sometimes found on a stand, or suspended in a ring, and were sometimes hung from iron rings in the wall.
KITCHEN
During the 13th century the kitchen was generally timber, with several fireplaces where meat could be spitted or stewed in a cauldron. The Utensils were washed in a scullery outside. The Poultry and animals for slaughter were trussed somehwere nearby. In the bailey near the kitchen castle garden was usually planted with fruit trees and vines at one end and then flowers on the other.
SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
The family slept at the extreme upper end of the hall, beyond the dais, and separated from other sleeping areas by only a curtain or screen. Back in the day, the lord and the lady slept in the Great Chamber in a separate wing of the hall over a storeroom, and then directly at the other end there was a chamber for the eldest son an his family, for guests, or for the castle steward. The second floor chambers were sometimes equipped with "squints," which were peepholes hidden by wall decorations so that the owner or steward could keep an eye on what went on below.
The lord and the lady's chamber was on the upper floor and went by the name of solar. It had a great bed with a heavy woden grame and springs that were made of interlaced ropes or strips of leather, overlaid with a feather mattress, sheets, quilts, fur coverlets, and pillows. These beds could be dismantled and taken along on the many trips a great lord made to his castles and other manors. The bed was often curtained, with linen hanging that pulled back in the daytime and closed at night to give privacy as well protection from wind current. Personal servants often sleep in the lord's chamber on a pallet or trundle bed, or on a bench. Chest for garments, a few "perches" or wooden pegs for clothes, and a stool or two made up the remainder of the furnishings. Sometimes there would be an anteroom called the wardrobe adjoined the chamber and this room was a storeroom where cloth, jewels, spices and plates were stored in chests, and where dressing was often done.