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The Keep at Colchester is
150 feet square.
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The cylindrical tower at
Rochester castle.
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Newcastle upon Tyne was a prototype for Dover. The White tower and Colchester castle were built around the same time while other examples mentioned were later and benefit from improvements. At Dover, galleries and chambers were constructed into the thickness of the walls and there was even an elaborate plumbing system.
The Keep in a seige
The rectangular keep was useful internally for the positioning of rooms but externally its corners were vulnerable to undermining from attackers as was proved from a siege at Rochester castle in 1215. The king had a corner tower undermined and the supports burnt away with the fat from 'forty of the fattest pigs of the sort least good for eating'. The corner tower collapsed and was replaced later by a cylindrical tower
that still stands as a memorial to this achievement in siege craft. A chronicler of the time wrote "Our age has not seen a siege so hard pressed nor so strongly resisted. After it he added, 'few cared to put their trust in castles'. A similar mine can be seen at Bungay castle in Suffolk under the corner of what used to be a keep.
Polygonal and round keeps
The polygonal and round keeps attempt to overcome this disadvantage and were built from around 1160 onwards. The round keep is more common than the polygonal keep but both are few in comparison to the rectangular keep. The castle keep at new Buckenham in Norfolk has a round keep with a wall across its centre, a feature unique in such designs and taken from the rectangular keeps.
