Medieval life (Secrets of the Castle, BBC documentary)

My kids and I LOVE the BBC historical farm,etc documentaries. I think my son has been watching them with me since he was 3 or so! There's actually a few threads about the BBC farm documentaries here on permies:

Victorian Farm Series

Edwardian Farm Series

Wartime Farm Series

ALL the BBC Historical Farm Series

But I noticed that one gets easily overlooked: The Secrets of the Castle! This 5 episode series doesn't just cover castle building, fortifying, etc. It also covers natural building techniques, man/water/wind powered technologies, the lives of the workers, and a lot more! It is by far the earliest series, taking place in the 1200's (13th century), smack dab in the Mideavil era! (The other earliest BBC series are the Tudor Monestary Farm, taking place in the late 1400s, and the Tales of the Green Valley, which takes place in the 1600s).

Without further ado, here's the Secrets of the Castle episodes!


Building A Medieval Castle Using Authentic Tools | Secrets Of The Castle Episode 1




The Art Of Medieval Combat: Defending The Castle | Secrets Of The Castle Episode 2




What Was Life Like Inside Medieval Castles? | Secrets Of The Castle Episode 3




The Sophisticated Stonemasonry Of The Medieval Castle | Secrets Of The Castle Episode 4




The Hidden Architectural Genius Of The Medieval Castle | Secrets Of The Castle Epidode 5  

My son loved this series. He’s only 3 but kept asking for “the castle show” was sad it was so short. But it ended up inspiring quite a lot of play time building his own castle out of everything: blocks, sand, rocks, etc.

That looks like a lot of fun! My kids and I are all about historical YouTube videos. Their current favorite is" Tasting History" . We will have to check this series out.

It is a great series! We have watched it a couple of times with the family over the years. I love the building techniques, but the whole thing is excellent.

It has periodically disappeared from the internet and reappeared though, so hopefully these youtube links persist.

Thanks for this, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.