Most medieval stairways are extremely precipitous and confined. The third problem with this claim about medieval staircase design is that, quite frankly, it would have been extremely impractical for anyone-attacking or defending-to try to fight in most newel staircases of medieval castles. In other words, newel staircases in medieval English and Welsh castles are far from consistently clockwise and, in fact, counter-clockwise staircases are actually fairly common.ĪBOVE: Drawing from 1906 of a counter-clockwise newel staircase dating to the late fifteenth century from the Château BloisĬould someone even realistically fight in a medieval stairway anyway? Counter-clockwise staircases become significantly more common in Edwardian English and Welsh castles from around the 1240s or thereabouts onward and remain common throughout the later periods of medieval history. For instance, Norwich Castle, built by William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman conquest, and Newark Castle, built around sixty-four to seventy-four years after the conquest, both contain counter-clockwise newel staircases. The study concludes that, while counter-clockwise newel staircases are indeed relatively rare in castles built in England and Wales during the Norman Period (lasted c. In fact, here is a study published by the Castle Studies Group that found over eighty-five examples of counter-clockwise newel staircases from castles in England and Wales dating from the 1070s to the 1500s. The second major problem with this little factoid about medieval staircases is the fact that, contrary to what tour guides and factoid-sharers on the internet keep saying, medieval staircases don’t always go clockwise. Nonetheless, when a claim is based solely on speculation and significant counterevidence against it exists (and, in this case, I will argue that it does), it should generally be discarded. This lack of documentation is not, of course, especially surprising on its own, since there are very few surviving medieval primary sources that discuss castle design in any kind of detail, and, on its own, it certainly does not automatically prove that medieval staircases were not designed to spiral clockwise as a defense mechanism. The claim is based on nothing but modern speculation. The first problem with the claim that spiral staircases in medieval castles were deliberately designed to give right-handed defenders an advantage is that there are no extant medieval primary sources that expressly say this. A far more parsimonious explanation is that the majority of staircases were designed clockwise simply so that a right-handed person could keep their right hand on the wall for balance while descending the staircase under everyday circumstances. Unfortunately, for reasons I am about to explain, it is also almost certainly wrong there is no compelling evidence to suggest that medieval staircases were intentionally designed this way for this reason and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest the opposite. It is also one of those “fun facts” that are often repeated on the internet. This is something that tour guides often tell people visiting castles. Chances are, if you have ever visited a medieval European castle or read about such castles online, you have probably heard that newel staircases in these castles were intentionally always designed in the form of a clockwise spiral to give the most space to the right-handed defenders at the top of the stairs to draw and swing their swords while simultaneously restricting the space available to the right-handed attackers attempting to ascend the staircase.
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