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- [Narrator] Castles dominated
the mediaeval landscape

Official YIFY movies site:
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and Britain has some of
the finest in the world.

Today, most are decaying relics,

many of their secrets buried in
time.

Now, historian Ruth Goodman,

and archaeologists Tom
Pinfold and Peter Ginn

are turning the clock back

to relearn the secrets of the
mediaeval castle builders.

- This is the ultimate
mediaeval technology.

- [Narrator] The origin of our
castles is distinctly French,

introduced to Britain

at the time of the
Norman conquest of 1066.

[lady counting in foreign
language]

- [Narrator] Here in the
Burgundy region of France

is Guédelon Castle,

the world's biggest
archaeological experiment.

[background music]

A 25-year project to build
a castle from scratch

using the same tools, techniques

and materials available
in the 13th century.

- It's a lot of hard work at the
coalface

because this is industry.

- [Narrator] For the next six
months, Ruth, Peter and Tom

will experience the daily
rigours
of mediaeval construction.

- Dropdown.
- Yeah.

- [Narrator] And everyday life.

How workers dressed,

and ate.

- You can really smell your
food, Ruth.

- [Narrator] And the art of
combat.

This is the story of how to
build a mediaeval castle.

[piano music]

It's March.

Tom, Ruth and Peter have
travelled to Saint-Fargeau,

100 miles south of Paris

where Guédelon Castle is being
built.

They're now 17 years
into a 25-year project.

And over the next few months,
it's most defining features,

the towers, will take shape.

- It's just something else,
look at those things up there.

- Oh my goodness.

- Makes you dizzy.

- [Narrator] The team are
meeting

members of Guédelon workforce:
master mason, Florian Renucci

and site administrator, Sarah
Preston.

- This is amazing.

- Well, thank you so
much for coming so fast

to see our castle in the making.

I'd like to introduce you
first of all to Florian.

Florian is our master mason,

so he's gonna be guiding you
throughout your stay here.

- You oversee this entire
project.

That is amazing.

That really is.

- Well, it's really simple.

[all laughing]

I just have to know very well
the castle.

- But you're almost
like the puppet master;

you have the people working the
quarry,

the people working as
masons, the carpenters.

You've got to control everyone.

- Well, I prefer the image
of a musical conductor.

We have to be in the same time
working.

This is very important.

- So on the rhythm.

- Yeah, the rhythm.

So it's like music.

- Well, if you're the conductor,

and you've got the strings over
there,

and the percussion over there,
and the tympani over there,

I can play a triangle.

[all laughing]

[trumpet music]

- [Narrator] Building Guédelon
is an enormous undertaking.

It will require some
30,000 tonnes of stone

that must be quarried, shaped
and lifted into position

without modern machinery.

There are also teams of
woodcutters and carpenters

constructing scaffolding,
roofing and doors.

Blacksmiths making ironwork and
tools.

As well as tile makers

and carters.

In the 13th century, English
workers crossed the Channel

to hone their skills in France.

- France is where
architecture is happening.

Castles, churches,

we're looking at their built
environment and thinking,

wow, they're really good at
that.

And we're importing all
those ideas into Britain.

- As a military historian,

you're very used to
reading the theories behind

how castles are made,

but hopefully as an
experimental archaeologist,

I can actually test
some of those theories,

put them into practise.

- 13th century life,

there's a lot of questions
surrounding it,

there aren't that many records.

So by the actual act of
building this castle,

it's almost like creating
a window through which

we can observe what 13th
century life might've been like.

- [Narrator] Building a
mediaeval castle began

with a wooden model.

- So what is this model used
for?

- In mediaeval time, they
don't have a paper plan,

so they used to have wood model.

- Well, I guess this is
way of the lord saying,

this is what I want my
castle to look like.

- Yes.

And the lord, he can
change things with a model.

It very easy for him.

[all laughing]

- I suppose, a mediaeval
building
site, like you have here,

you can easily have over 100
masons,

they all can look at this

and know the angles they need to
be doing

and the wall they're working on.

- [Narrator] Guédelon's design

is typical of the 13th century.

Many British castles such as
Harlech, Conwy and Caernarfon

have a similar layout.

Castles were not only for
defence,

they were show of strength:

a lord putting his stamp on the
landscape.

Inside the walls there were
grand houses

with great halls,
kitchens and even chapels.

A thick wall surrounded by a dry
moat

protects an inner courtyard

which itself is protected by six
towers.

- Wow, this is the great tower.

- This is what Florian
wants us to work on.

- [Narrator] When completed,

the great tower will be
almost 30 metres high

providing a lookout for
approaching enemies.

And with walls four metres
thick,

it's the castle's ultimate
stronghold.

- So if we were the wall--

- I'll stand here, I'm inside.

- You're inside.

That's four.

- I mean, that's massive.

- It just brings home how many

tens of thousands of tonnes of
stone

will be in this castle when it's
finished.

- [Narrator] Back then,

the only way of
transporting stone over land

was using horse drawn carts.

Minimising the distance it
had to be moved was paramount.

So like many castles of the
time,

Guédelon is actually built in a
quarry.

- In the quarry, we have the
sandstone,

the primary building fabric.

We also have the sand and the
water

that can be used to make the
mortar.

We have ochre, which again can
be used for making pigments.

We're on a clay lens here
and the clay can be used

for firing tiles, roof tiles,
floor tiles.

And we're surrounded by a forest

which is a source of timber,
it's a source of fuel,

so it can keep the blacksmiths
going.

Almost everything we
need to build a castle

is just a stone's throw away.

[piano music]

- [Narrator] The boys are put to
work

extracting blocks of sandstone

under the watchful eye of a
stonemason

who's worked here for 16
years, Clement Guérard.

- The first job?
- Hmm.

[Clement speaking in French]

- Make the small stone.

- [Narrator] Clement is teaching
the boys

how to cut huge stones from the
quarry

into usable building blocks

using just a hammer, a chisel
and a wedge.

- I don't think I've got
the skills to do this.

I'll give it a go.

- The pressure's on, I'm
glad it's you and not me.

- So I'm making this hole
fit the wedge snugly.

But obviously, Clement

with his years and years of
experience

knows exactly how to orientate
this.

So the wedge goes into
this one hole, you hit it,

and that's gonna cause a
fracture

in the already pre-existing
sediment lines

and it'll split in half.

- Clement, looking good?

[Clement answers in French].

Bad music,

good music.

- Good music.

- And now a sledge hammer.

- Wow, you can just see the
fracture starting to appear.

This is not about brute
force, it's about listening,

it's about looking, precision
engineering.

- [Clement] Listen, good.

Perfect.

- I see this as a good omen,
Tomo.

- [Narrator] The hardness of the
sandstone

varies considerably depending
on its iron content.

The more iron, the harder the
stone.

So the mediaeval mason had
a system of grading it.

- We've got three
categories of stone here:

the pif, the paf and the pouffe.

We've got the pif,

this sort of black high
iron content sandstone

and that's used for the major

load bearing parts of the
castle.

The paf is more reddish
sandstone and the soft one,

the pouffe, sort of very
yellowy crumbly sandstone.

- And it's almost like we're
shopping

for stone really, isn't it?

We're coming out here,
we're looking at the colours

and we can actually get what we
want

for the particular task we're
about to do.

- [Narrator] These stones will
form the main building blocks

of the castle.

Just as important as the
stone, were the workers.

In the woods surrounding the
castle,

Ruth is setting up home.

- Building a castle involves
such a lot of people

and they've all got to live
somewhere.

So you get a sort of temporary
community

setting up at the edge
of the building site,

as all these different people
come

and go with their various
skills.

And naturally, over time

that begins to become
a bit more permanent,

a village in the making.

Indeed, many villages right
across Europe,

in Britain as well as in France,

can actually trace their origin

to being camps for workers
on a building site.

- [Narrator] This small hovel
is typical of a worker's home

on a mediaeval building site.

- The workers' cottages
somewhere like this,

were always gonna be thrown up
in a hurry

and fairly sort of basic,

but then so were those of
most 13th century people.

And this is our everything,
this is all there is:

here is our kitchen, our living
room, our sleeping quarters,

just this one single space.

Oh, look marvellous.

Off cut limestone, this will do
perfect.

- [Narrator] The centrepiece
of every mediaeval home

was the fireplace.

The fire was not just used for
cooking,

it also provided heat and light.

- In grand houses obviously,

they sort of like cobbled this
whole area.

But, we know from lots
of archaeological digs,

the ordinary houses, it's
just a patch on the ground.

And also I use a couple of
bigger stones

to balance pots on a bit.

- [Narrator] The cottage
needs somewhere to store

the staple foods of wheat and
barley.

- Hi, Simon.

- Oh, hello, Ruth, how are you
doing?

- Hello. I'm good. I'm good.

I was thinking about a grain
ark.

- [Narrator] So Ruth is
calling on English carpenter,

Simon Dunn, to make a grain ark.

- I'm guessing that making
furniture in the 13th century

was rather different

from what a modern cabinet maker
would do.

- Oh, certainly.

Certainly very different from
what anybody would do now,

or even in the last couple of
100 years.

You're limited by the materials
and the tools available.

- [Narrator] In the 13th
century, saws were expensive.

So carpenters used them only
when absolutely necessary.

Instead, wood was split
using wooden wedges.

- Whoa, wow, look at that split

all the way round down to there.

- Yeah, and then turn it over

and work a bit further down.

- Gosh, this is faster
than sawing, isn't it?

- Absolutely.

There we go.

So that's in two

- [Narrator] Simon splits the
wood again to produce planks.

- So that's, you know, I
mean that piece particularly

is a really good piece of plank.

- Yeah, It's pretty flat.

You can work with it.

- And that's a couple of
minutes.

I mean, I hate to think how long

that would take to have sawn.

- [Narrator] The rough planks
must now be smoothed off.

- This is a side axe.

It's just ground on one edge
so it's flat on the other.

So you can just

trim up the surface a bit.

You can more or less
use an axe like a plane.

- [Narrator] Once all the planks
are made,

the ark is assembled
without nails or glue.

- Pegs, your basic thing for
joining furniture together.

- So instead of nails.

- It's pegs instead of nails,
yes.

So there are some things
you do need a saw for.

[Ruth laughing]

So we'll just cut the pegs off
to size.

- Right.

- There's no glue or anything in
here.

So it's just the wood
holding the wood together.

It's not going anywhere.

[guitar music]

So are you happy with that then?

- I'm happy with that--

- Is that gonna do the job?
- It will do the job.

Home isn't home without a grain
ark.

- Absolutely not.

- [Narrator] Water was
another vital resource

for the building of a castle.

And hundreds of gallons would
have been used every day

to make mortar alone.

So castles were always built
near a plentiful supply.

Tom and Peter have been sent
to repair the castle's well.

To hoist the bucket, it
needs a new rope and pulley.

- How deep do you reckon that
is,

if we're gonna make rope?

- I reckon it's 10 metres
down, give or take a metre.

But I suspect they sunk
this to a depth where

they're never gonna run out of
water.

- Exactly, it's crucial for
defence,

it's crucial for life inside the
castle

once the castle is operational.

You need to have that constant
supply,

and obviously, we need
it now for our building.

You're on rope, I'm on pulley.

- [Narrator] Peter's
commissioning a pulley

from wood turner, Gary Baker.

- Well, the first stage
is to select a log.

And the pulley is gonna be
in this direction, okay?

- So you couldn't just cut
a nice section through a log

and just do that as a pulley?

- That would never work.
- Really?

The problem with the end grain,

it shrinks at different levels

and it's just gonna split apart.

So we're gonna follow the grain
this way.

We're just gonna rough chop it.

- What's the wood that you're
using there?

- This is ash.

Ash is a very dry wood.

And therefore when it dries, it
doesn't,

it doesn't move that much.

It's not gonna warp and crack.

- [Narrator] The mandrill
is hammered into the centre

of the roughly shaped wood

so it can be turned on a pole
lathe.

Pole lathes like this have
been both in England and France

since before the 10th century.

- So it's just a pedal,

a pulling string around the
mandrill--

- Yeah, on a flexible pole.

The pole basically all it does
is lift the pedal back up.

- [Narrator] The roughly shaped
ash

is turned to make a cylinder.

[piano music]

- I have to say, watching you,

that is really, really hypnotic.

You know it looks knackering.

- It is. It is.

It's like the gymnasium,

mediaeval gymnasium, but you do
get fit.

- [Narrator] As well as a
pulley,

they'll need a rope for the
well.

Rope is essential on a
mediaeval building site

to lift loads and bind
scaffolding.

Tom's commissioning a rope for
the well

from the castle's rope
maker, Yvan Herouart.

First, he lays hemp
yarns along the rope walk

to form four strands, each with
14 yarns.

- I can definitely see why
this is called a rope walk,

all we see him do is walk up and
down.

For this 50 metre rope, he's
actually walked half a mile.

It's extraordinary.

- [Narrator] The four
strands are now complete.

Next, they must be twisted
together.

- First stage of the twisting

will actually reduce the
length of these strands

by about 10%.

That's about 1.5 metres.

So I'm estimating that's about
there.

When the traveller hits this
mark,

Yvan knows the rope has been
twisted

the optimum number of times.

- Very slowly, the traveler's
moving in,

but with each turn that Yvan
does,

we get something that I see as
being rope.

- [Narrator] Gary's turning
the cylinder into a pulley

by cutting a groove in it's rim.

- We should take it off.

There we go.

- So smooth and so fast.

- Stop.

- [Narrator] The yarns have
been twisted to form strands.

Then the strands are twisted
in the opposite direction

to form the finished rope.

- To make the strands, you twist
the yarns in one direction,

to make the rope, you twist
the strands against each other.

That way you create that
tension and that torsion

and it stops them unravelling.

[Tom and Yvan speaking in
French]

- Shall I thread this through
before you haul it up.

- [Narrator] Now Ruth and Peter
can fit the pulley and rope

to the well in the castle's
courtyard.

- You know, traditionally,

this is where people gossip,
don't you?

Standing round the well.

- Well, it still is, standing
round the water cooler.

Drop it down.
- Yeah.

[bright music]

- One way down.

- [Narrator] On a mediaeval
construction site,

the majority of the water
is used to make mortar

to fix the quarried sandstone
into place.

The production of the daily
batch

is supervised by Fabrice
Maingot.

- Right Tom, we need 25
baskets of this sand.

- 25.

- And 50 of this one.

- [Narrator] Motor makers
had a vital role to play

in the building of a castle.

As the strength of the entire
construction

rested on their mixture.

Formulas were closely guarded
secrets

and passed down from master to
apprentice.

- Due to the huge amounts of
sand required

to build this castle,

they try and source as much as
possible from the local area.

And luckily, having
the quarry right there,

it means you've got a huge
amount of sand on tap.

- [Narrator] Lime is the key
ingredient

that adheres the stones to one
another.

It's made by heating
limestone to 900 degrees

and then mixing it with
water to create slaked lime.

- That looks very nice, Peter.

Right now, I think the
experience

is showing for the French guys,

they're really putting me to
shame.

It's enjoyable work, though.

I actually do feel like I'm now

a bit more connected to the
castle.

- You like everything clean,
don't you?

- Well, to be honest Peter,
some of us just get on and work

Unlike you, who seems to roll
around

in every bit of building
material you can.

It suits you though.

- That's just a natural
magnetism.

- You're pretending all that
grey hair

is actually lime water.

- Oh, dear.

It's actually the stress
from working with you.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Today's batch
of motor and sandstone

are destined for the great
tower.

So far, it's reached
a height of 18 metres,

but when complete, it
will be 30 metres high.

The materials are hoisted to the
top

using a treadmill winch.

The forerunner of the modern
crane,

it takes two people to power it

and can lift over half a tonne.

- I mean, these things are an
absolute,

well, godsend, aren't they?

- They are the machines of
the mediaeval building site,

bringing up all the stone for
the walls.

- Well, you think you've
got 500 kg of weight

we're pulling up,

yet we manoeuvre it so
easily the two of us.

My strength, your ballast.

- Look, there it is.

This is the ultimate in
mediaeval technology.

- [Narrator] To lower
the cargo onto the tower,

the boys simply walk
in the other direction.

- Okay, start, walk.

Slowly, slowly.

[dramatic music]

- So this is our stone, the
sandstone from the quarry,

and it'll be graded into three
lots:

the pif, the paf and the pouffe.

That's the pif, isn't
it, that's quite hard.

- Yeah, that's the hard.

- That's paf.

- That's the medium.

- And there will be
pouffe in there somewhere.

- That looks like pouffe.

- Get some of these.

The pif, they're very, very hard
sandstone

that is used for facing,
for the structure,

for the external walls.

Whereas the paf and the pouffe

are actually used to infill the
walls

to tie it all together.

- [Narrator] Philippe Delage
began his career as a builder

over 40 years ago.

For the last 10 years,
he's worked at Guédelon

where he's perfected his
skills as a stonemason.

- You are going to lay the
mortar,

but don't crush the edge, just
like this.

- But if you're
bricklaying, do you do that

'cause it's got a flat surface,
but the stone has to go in

and the mortar has go up into
the stone.

So don't flatten it out, okay.

- [Narrator] One of the biggest
challenges

is ensuring the walls
are absolutely straight.

The integrity of the
entire tower depends on it.

The solution is simplicity
itself,

a lead weight on the end of a
string known as a plum line.

- On the scaffolding here,

you'll notice there's about a
two inch gap

so you can get your plumb line
down there

and make sure the wall
is absolutely straight

'cause if it's not, tower
starts going like that,

it'll start going like that.

- [Narrator] Most of these
mediaeval tools and techniques

have been around for millennia

and are still used on
building sites today.

- Just doing the rubble
infill to the wall.

So we've got the facing stone,
the pif, the hard stone,

and that is laid horizontally,

so the grain runs as it is in
the ground,

Actually, if you imagine a book,

if you lay a book horizontally,

you stand on it, it will
support your weight.

Whereas if you lay a book
vertically and you stand on it,

it will collapse.

However, the infill, that
actually gets laid vertically.

So the grain is going in
the opposite direction

and that's because they're
all stacked against each other

and they push against each
other around the tower

making this absolutely solid.

All the tricks of the trade.

- Where is that motor, Peter?

- Already in the wall, Tom,
already.

[instrumental music]

- Now these, I'm hoping I'll
have a secret ingredient

to transform what is frankly a
muddy hole

into somewhere comfy to live.

- [Narrator] Mediaeval sources
tell us

cottage floors were strewn with
rushes,

but just how they were
laid is a bit of a mystery.

- What I think might be the
answer

is to keep it in bundles and lay
them

in a sort of herringbone
fashion across the whole floor.

Look at that.

And the temperature difference

between putting your hand there

and putting your hand
there is quite astonishing.

That is cold, and wet and nasty,

that is warm, and dry and comfy.

- [Narrator] Every few weeks,

Ruth will lay down new bundles
of rushes.

- I think that when I
get the fresh ones on top

what will happen is that
the damp earth underneath

will as these crush down,
will gradually compost

leaving you on top of new fresh
reeds

well away from that, all
dry and clean and warm

That's the theory.

Nobody really knows quite how
this works.

We'll see.

- [Narrator] Back at the castle,

slowly and surely the
great tower is taking shape

but before they can build
up the walls any further,

a doorway into its third
floor room must be installed.

- Got some limestone that's
been shaped by the masons,

it's gonna go to the great
tower for the doorway

into that top room.

We're just using this crane
as directed by Phillipe.

- [Narrator] Using this
simple lever system,

one man can lift four
times his own weight.

- Yeah, it's okay.

- [Narrator] It's then raised up
the tower

using the tread wheel crane.

- I can see it coming up.

Here it comes.

I'm as dizzy as you like.

- Is your heart rate up?

A bit of a sweat going.

- Mind you this was the
thing that built castles.

And this was the thing that
made man feel quite seasick

whilst on dry land, like myself.

- [Narrator] Before the stones
are fitted,

a pintle is set into the stone

from which the door will be
hung.

It's held firmly in
place using molten lead.

- So what they've done is

they've built this reservoir out
to clay,

and that way you can pull the
lead in,

it's not gonna drain off

and you don't waste a valuable
resource.

- [Narrator] The masons
have just one chance

to get this right as the
lead sets almost instantly

once it hits the cold stone.

Getting it wrong,

might mean the whole stone
having to be replaced.

- Well, that looks brand new.

It looks fantastic.

It's amazing to think in
a building of this size,

how little metal is actually
used, but where it is used,

it is essential.

- [Narrator] Now the
stones can be set in place

on a layer of mortar.

It's essential that
they're perfectly aligned.

So the forerunner of the spirit
level,

the mason's level is used.

Roman Britain, mediaeval France,

or even a modern day building
site,

these are tools and techniques

that every builder would
have been familiar with.

These have been honed
over centuries of use.

It is timeless, it really is.

- It's subdued now.

- Our mediaeval square
here says it's all good.

- It's ready to, for the next
stone.

- [Narrator] Now the stone
lintel

that will top the doorway can be
fitted.

- This is very, very delicate
work.

This is an extremely heavy
stone,

possibly the heaviest
stone we've moved so far.

And that is a serious bit of kit

and it struggles to lift
this, it's so heavy.

I think we're right on the
weight limit.

- [Narrator] Manoeuvring this
heavy stone

with a simple crane is tricky.

One slip and serious damage
could be done to both the lintel

and the surrounding stonework.

- You got that, Tom.

- Yes, well done.

- Oh, I felt quite vulnerable
then, I've gotta be honest.

- It's almost perfect.

- [Narrator] Stone masonry,
like so many mediaeval jobs,

was heavy work so a well
fed workforce was essential.

To prepare food in the cottage,
Ruth needs cooking vessels.

Today, pots and pans are metal

but in the middle ages,
they were often clay.

Ruth is calling on the
services of English Potter,

Jim Newbolt.

- What would people think
about cooking with pottery,

I mean, I think people are
scared of it, the idea of it
now.

But it used to be the way of
cooking.

I mean, it's the oldest form
of cooking utensil of any sort.

- That's it, even your iron
ones are called cooking pots,

there's the clue.

- [Narrator] First, Jim
makes the basic cooking pot

on the wheel.

He then fits handles

so it can be lifted on and off
the fire.

- And what I'm doing
is extruding the clay.

- Stretching it out.

- So it means that as you pull
the handle,

it creates the grain.

- So it's gonna be stronger

than if it was just--

- Squashed together.
- Squashed together.

- [Narrator] Clay is heavy
and difficult to transport,

so potters sourced it from
as near to home as possible.

- And where do you get
your clay from then?

- From as close as the side of
the road as you possibly can,

that's a pothole.

One where you could lose
a waggon and team into it.

- That's fabulous.

It's a hole where you've dug
clay for pots, it's a pothole.

- You pull over to let another
waggon pass and glance past--

- Wow, where did he go?
- Where's he gone?

- [Narrator] Next, Jim
reshapes the base of the pot.

- So what shape is best then for
fire?

- For cook pots on the
fire, big round bottoms.

- Right, you wanna, no sharp
corners.

- No. no.

It means that the heat moves
around the outside of the pot.

And then with a sharp bladed
knife,

you start taking off the edge
there.

As long as the pot's made
evenly, it'll work better.

- Right, so if there's
this thick lump somewhere,

then you're gonna have
problems around that.

I'm flaring it out.

- [Narrator] The round bottom
means

it won't sit on a flat surface.

So the mediaeval pot often had
legs.

- There's the cook pot.

[instrumental music]

- [Narrator] The hovel
is now fully equipped

and ready to sustain the
workers.

- This is perhaps the most
important thing, innit?

This is our larder, our fridge,
our pantry our food supply,

the grain ark.

Lovely, innit?

There it is.

This is the mainstay of our
diet, this is our main food,

it's certainly the starch, the
bulk

and it's also the source

of any beer or ale we might
drink.

And the lid is not attached
because

it goes that way up and
it becomes my dough trough

when I need to make bread.

It's really clever, isn't that?

And then with all sorts of
food supplies hanging about,

and hanging is the operative
word

because I don't want anything on
the floor

where mice and rats can get it.

So hanging it either from the
walls,

like the vegetables in nets

or from the underside
of the roof keeps them

safe away from all the crawling
vermin

and the smoke as it
percolates its way out,

keeps away flies.

You can think of this space,
not just as a living space,

but as a storage space.

- [Narrator] After a day's
work, the boys have returned

to put Ruth's experimental
rush floor to the test.

- You've spent all day working
on the castle, you're tired,

just come back, I mean, this
is insulating, is cushioning.

- It's quite comfy.

- It's not as bad as you think,
is it?

I mean, when they say they
haven't got a bed and that's it,

you just get a blanket and
this is what you sleep on.

It sounds a bit horrendous,
but it's not, it's all right.

It is a tiny space though,
to live a complete life,

just one little space like this,
isn't it?

- Yeah but--
- As a whole family.

- Well, you say it's a tiny
space living your entire life.

I mean, I'd rather be in
a small place like this

and get the heat, it's
the easiest place to heat.

- And also how much time are
you gonna spend in here really?

I mean these days you think, I
need a sitting room with a TV

and a big sofa 'cause
you're gonna relax in there.

You're gonna be working most of
the time

and you've got all your
jobs and tasks to do.

So that's sort of like,

rest and relaxation isn't as
important.

- There's less time for it.

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

- Salute.

- They don't clink, do they?

That's about the only thing
I've got against drinking bowls,

they don't clink.

- [Narrator] It's morning

and the team are getting ready
for work.

Knowing what ordinary mediaeval
people wore is a challenge.

But fortunately, a few items
of clothing have survived.

- The most useful garments were
survived

because they were actively kept

because they were the clothes of
saints.

They have been preserved in
churches right across Europe.

So this yellow dress that I'm
wearing,

this is something that
has been derived from two

early to mid 13th century
saints:

Saint Elizabeth from Germany

and Saint Claire from Assisi in
Italy.

So it's loose, but can you see?

Look, there is quite a
lot of shaping to it.

You can see all these seams.

It's made very particularly
to make the cloth hang nicely

no matter what position your
body is in.

I'd have a belt.

However, it's not to give you a
waist

but it's all about creating
an attractive drape of cloth.

I tell you, it's the most
comfy thing I've ever worn.

- It is faintly ridiculous, I
think that

mediaeval underwear is as big as
this.

I think, obviously for Tom,

that's probably an appropriate
size

but both myself and Ruth
could fit into these.

I feel a bit like a pair
of 1950s football shorts,

although in the light vaguely
see-through.

And then we just got the
hose, single legged hose.

But at this stage, it's just
very similar to kind of,

I suppose, stockings and
suspenders.

However, if they were
sewn onto the plants,

pretty soon you'd have a pair of
trousers.

You kinda see where the
evolution of clothes come from.

- [Narrator] Ruth's headwear

is inspired by the mediaeval
queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

- And as she got older, she
decided

that her chin was sagging a bit

and she wasn't looking
quite as lovely as she did.

So she invented a barbette,
which goes under the chin

and onto the top of the
head and pins there.

And then with a barbette,
you always wear a fillet.

And this is fillet,

it's just another band sewn into
a circle.

And you wear that almost
crown like on top.

It's a very 13th century
look so that's it.

My French look.

[Ruth laughs]

- [Narrator] Today, Tom and
Peter

have been summoned to the
mason's lodge

for the next stage of
their apprenticeship,

carving limestone.

So far, they've been working
with roughly hewn sandstone

to build the castle walls.

But for more intricate features

like arches, windows and
stairs, limestone is preferred

as its fine grain meant it was
quicker and easier to curve.

- We need for chapel tower,
a lot of stone having 10--

- Inches.
- Inches.

- [Narrator] First, the boys
use their splitting skills

to create rough limestone blocks

under the supervision of
stonemason, Abdelilah Abid.

- The wedge is in.

Now you can try with the big
one.

- Perfect.
- Oh, good.

Very good, very good.

- [Narrator] The rough block
is moved into the mason's lodge

onto a platform known as a
banker.

Ready for the skilled job of
shaping it.

- How many?

- 10.

- Yeah, very good.

You remember.

- [Narrator] Facing a
stone was a basic skill

that every stone mason would
have had.

First the edges are cut using a
pitch.

- And a hammer.

Angle about there?

- Yes.

Actually, you have to do it in
one time.

- One--
- Time, yeah.

And you have just follow it now.

- Like follow it through.

- Very good.

- [Narrator] A stonemason
would have learned

under the watchful eye of a
master mason.

- I don't want to hear this.

This is a bird.

As a stonemason, it's
rhythmical.

Or quick.

But it is always the same.

You can do very rhythmical.

You only think of the
rhythmical music, rhythmical.

And few minutes after,
you're finished, okay?

- [Narrator] Stonemasons
were paid per stone carved.

So the quicker they worked,
the more money they would earn.

These limestone blocks
are for the chapel tower.

This year, the team are
hoping to build the walls up

by six metres to complete
the chapel room itself.

In the 13th century, religion
was central to daily life.

And nearly all castles had a
chapel.

- Here we are.

Well, we are in this room.

And we have to draw the niche
in the east part of the room

just in front of us.

- Yeah.

So this drawing you have

is very much a kind of a
stylized view.

But now as a stonemason, you
must precisely mark it out.

- Yeah, exactly.

We have now to try and
form imagination dream

in useful drawing.

- [Narrator] The niche is
where the altar will be.

Before any building is done,

the walls must be marked
out with absolute precision.

- This is continuing
the curve of this wall.

- [Narrator] The altar niche

must be in the east of the
tower.

So Florian is marking
out the east-west axis

using an ingenious mediaeval
tool.

- I absolutely love this.

It's a horn, we cut off the
ends,

that's been tied to a piece of
string,

which is wound around an axle

and it is encased in ochre
powder.

I mean, the same ochre
that we find in the quarry.

When you pull the string up
and snap it, it hits the ground

thus shedding the ochre

and leaving an absolutely
true straight line.

And these, they've been
around for millennia.

- Flip it over.

- [Narrator] Using just a rope,
dividers and the ochre line,

the chapels walls are marked
out.

To reach this first floor
chapel,

a limestone spiral
staircase is being built.

To design it, Florian and Tom
have come to the tracing floor

next to the stonemason's lodge.

The tracing flow was the nerve
centre

of the mediaeval building site

where the master mason
drew full-scale plans.

Using a compass,

the circumference of the
spiral staircase is drawn,

actual size.

- This is apprentice job.

- Always the apprentice, never
the master.

Florian and Clement are
working out the central part

of our staircase and
that will form the column

that runs up connecting all
stairs.

- And now we're getting to draw
12 steps.

- [Narrator] For the mediaeval
mason,

geometry was the jewel in
the crown of their art.

Using just a compass,

angles and shapes could
be accurately drawn

to within a degree with perfect
symmetry.

Here, Florian divides the
circle into six equal segments

which are then subdivided
to create 12 steps.

- Now we have the steps.

We can try the step in the
drawing first.

- I mean, this is a fantastic
way to actually make sure

before you start cutting stone,
wasting materials and time,

that they work and you can see
there,

they're bigger than my foot
then so that's workable.

- Now we need to finish one
step.

- [Narrator] Because all
the steps are the same,

Florian needs to make just one
template.

- This is a precision job now.

You mess this up,

you're gonna mess up
your stone in the castle.

So the last thing to do is
basically just cut the template.

- It's ready.

A present for you.

- Thank you very much.

We've got our template now

placed on top of our large piece
of stone.

We're marking it out with a bit
of slate.

Magic, there it is.

Now it's ready.

- Just cutting.

- Just cutting.

Five, 10 minutes?

- Two or three days.

- Two or three days.

You can hear how good
quality this stone is

by the ringing sound when
Clement hits it.

And I think that's why, to
be honest, I'm standing here

and not actually being
allowed to do anything.

I lie.

- A right line

- An apprenticeship for a
stonemason would have been

about seven years.

But to be honest, as Clement
says, it's actually a lifetime.

You're always learning.

And Peter and I haven't been
here long

and there's just so much to take
in.

- [Narrator] Carving stone
takes its toll on the tools

and everyday they must be
sharpened

by blacksmith Martin Claudel.

- Is it true, at Guédelon,

if there's no blacksmiths
here for two days, work stops?

- Yes, work stop,

because we have to fix a
lot of stone masonry tools

and if we don't do that, they
can't work.

- [Narrator] First, the
worn down chisel is heated

to 1,000 degrees to soften its
tip.

To reach this temperature,

bellows blow air through the
fire.

- I love these bellows.

One goes up, the other one goes
down.

So it's constant airflow, isn't
it?

- [Narrator] Martin draws the
chisel

to a point on the anvil.

Then sharpens it using a file.

But the chisel tip will
be blunt again in no time,

unless it's hardened.

Hardening is one of the great
discoveries

of the ancient world,
achieved by heating the metal

then quickly quenching it in
water.

As it gets hot, the metal
changes colour

and this tells the blacksmith

how hard it will be once
quenched.

Too soft and it won't cut,
too hard and it will shutter.

To carve stone, it must get
yellow hot.

- He watches for the colours

appearing on surface of
the metal: blue, the red,

and most importantly, the
straw yellow at the very end.

Now it's ready for the masons.

- [Narrator] There are a few
clues

as to how ordinary people lived

day-to-day in a mediaeval
village.

But Ruth's pieced together
fragments of knowledge

to work out how people
did the most mundane

of everyday tasks like washing
up.

- Haven't got a scarring pad.

But I've got sand.

For the pad, well, this time of
the year,

there's plenty of fresh grass.

I could use straw just
as something to rub with.

Now, if I've got to deal with
grease,

that's a different matter
altogether.

Sand will take the worst bit
off, but, you know, I mean,

no amount of scrubbing
with just some warm water

is going to shift the
grease out of something,

you need a little bit of
chemical help.

And for that, I turned to wood
ash,

just straight out of the fire.

- [Narrator] The wood
ash combines with water

to make caustic soda.

When it comes into contact
with fat on the dishes,

it makes soap, leaving the
dishes spotlessly clean.

- Handful of ash,

wipe it around with a
bit of grass or straw,

rinse it out with hot water
and you get a clean pan.

Easy peasy, huh?

- [Narrator] Knowing what
peasants ate in the 13th century

is also a challenge,

but we do know what
ingredients they had to hand.

Ruth has come to the castle's
garden

to see what there is to harvest.

- Could really do with some
TLC this patch of garden.

But nonetheless, a fair few
things

are starting to sprout
through which is a relief.

So I've got parsley coming
through here

and a number of other things

that you might think of as
weeds,

and indeed, they are weeds but
are edible.

There's a lot of land cress

with this little light flower
on.

So that's quite bitter in
flavour,

but, you know, anything
to give a bit of bite.

- [Narrator] Plants that
we now consider weeds

would also have been used.

- There's quite a lot of
dandelions and nettles too

which will help bulk it out.

- [Narrator] Wheat and barley

were also essential ingredients.

Flour was expensive so
workers ground their own

using a device that has been
around for 10,000 years,

the quern.

- This is the sound of the past.

A rotary quern like this is
estimated to require about

an hour to an hour and
a half's work every day.

This is the daily grind.

You pop a handful of grain in
the centre,

barley in this case, and off you
go.

The posher you were, the
more refined your food was.

And ordinary people often made
do

with food that was really quite
coarse.

And you can see that in people's
teeth

when we're dug up
archaeologically.

- [Narrator] With the tools
sharpened,

Clement has put the finishing
touches to the step.

Now comes the delicate task

of transporting it to the
chapel.

- Looks like your step's
arriving.

Well, I say, your step

- [Narrator] The step is
winched up the castle wall

using only manpower.

- Ready.

- Brake off.

[background music]

- [Narrator] Once on top of the
wall,

it's moved up the tower
using an inclined plane.

One slip, and the step could
fall, wasting three days work.

- These guys have been
doing this for 15 years

'cause they know how to get
things like this up here

but it's amazing what they can
move

without the use of what we call
machines.

Essentially, the use of rollers,
leavers,

inclined planes, pulleys
all made out of wood.

Wood and stone working
together, perfect harmony.

A bit like me and Tomo.

- [Narrator] Each step
must be absolutely level

or else the staircase
will veer to one side.

A Mason's level and plumb line
are used

to ensure it's perfectly
positioned.

- I suppose this staircase

has still got quite a long
way out to go, isn't it?

And if this isn't absolutely
perfect,

the first little bit of
skew and that just gets

magnified as you go up.

But carrying anything
up here or, God forbid,

fighting your way up here

would have been really
difficult, wouldn't it?

- Yeah.

Tomo's not stuck down there, is
he?

- Wedged.
- Wedged.

[Ruth laughing]

- [Narrator] Using the
greens from the garden

and the ground barley,

Ruth is cooking a mediaeval
pottage in the clay pot.

- So a little bit of water in
there,

I'm gonna start with my leeks.

This time of the year nettles
are still quite tender.

I wouldn't say that you add
nettles for flavour
particularly,

but they are quite good bulk.

They're one of the few things
that grows in profusion

this time of year.

That's softened down a bit now.

- [Narrator] Grain is added to
create a porridge like dish.

- Hello, Ruth.

- Oh, you're back.

How was it today?

- It's going very, very well.

It's amazing how the whole thing
is,

it's all in two dimensional
layers

but then you see the third
dimension appear such as the,

the doorway that we've been
working on,

put the lintel on there,
suddenly wow.

- Gives me a real feel
too, just how much impact

such places must've had on
people.

You know, if everybody's
living in this sort of

little tiny one room, half
in the centre, low building

and then there's that funking
great thing out there,

it's quite a shock to the
system really, isn't it?

I mean, it makes a huge impact.

- Well, this is a period

when these great like military
buildings,

religious buildings
are starting to rise up

and really make an
impact on the landscape.

- [Narrator] The team
are also getting used

to the simple mediaeval food.

- This is a triumph.

This is an absolute triumph

- For barley and vegetables,
it's not bad.

You're a hungry man.

You've been pounding all day at
the stone,

walking on the tread wheel.

Anything is good to eat.

- It's not exactly easy,
either, grinding the darn stuff.

I bet it's just as hard work
as pounding away all day

in the quarry.

- There's no easy jobs
in the mediaeval age.

- No, there aren't, are there?

- [Narrator] Next time,
defending the castle

with crossbows--

- Nice.

- [Narrator] And architecture

against the most powerful
weapon of the age--

[lady counting in a foreign
language]

The trebuchet.

[background music]