Whilst this is a text fundamentally about moated sites it still has much of value for the student of castle studies. Some moated sites are those of fortified manor houses but also some moated sites are built close to earlier timber castles. Indeed Jean le Patourel makes the point that there may have been a tendency in England for knights, in the 13th century, to remove their dwellings from the vicinity of the church to the outskirts of the village where they could readily surround them with moats (As Duby noted among the Maconnais-G. Duby, 1968, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (Paris) p. 82). It can be well imagined that this fashion was easy to follow when faced with the repair of a timber castle.

The other area of importance in this text is the descriptions of timber buildings, a part of castles relatively little touched upon, and the development of stylobates and sill walls. (The real enemy of the timber castle must have been rot rather than fire.)

Includes a gazetteer of Yorkshires moated sites.