This commentary examines the development of castle studies in Britain since 1945, based on an examination of published works. The first chapter outlines the development of castle studies before 1945. The remaining chapters chronicle briefly the important aspects of castle studies since then, detailed under various themes, which have been documented in my bibliographies and my general surveys from the late 1970s onwards, with a closing chapter on my role in the subject. My involvement in the study of castles and later fortifications began in the closing days of 1969 when I began work in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of London. It was not long before I discovered not only the wealth of material that had been written on castles, but that castle studies was treated as an academic subject, and a subject that had been growing in importance from the 1960s. I was guided in my introduction to the subject by two men in particular: Dr Arnold Taylor, one of the Antiquaries' officers who had appointed me, and Dr Derek Renn. Renn, a government actuary by profession, spent much time in the Antiquaries' library every week, and became my unofficial mentor in castle studies. Taylor, whose heavy involvement with the Society of Antiquaries, combined with his role as Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, meant that his time was limited, looked kindly upon this enthusiastic amateur, especially in later years. Having qualified as a professional librarian whilst at the Society of Antiquaries, I realized that I needed a degree, whether I remained as a librarian or branched out into archaeology. I therefore spent three years at the University of Southampton (1974–77), reading history and archaeology, and it was during that time that my first publication appeared, an article in the new journal Fort, linked to my work on a BA dissertation. Work on the documentary aspects of early post-medieval fortification began while I was at the History Faculty Library in the University of Oxford (1977–79) and when I started at the National Museum of Wales (1979 onwards)—see Appendix—but it was not long before castle studies became the main thrust of my studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:584857 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Kenyon, John R. |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54351/ |
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