Stone keeps, moats, and castle walls were construction projects, involving thousands of workers and taking years – even decades – to complete. Workers quarried stone and hauled it to the building site in boats or horse-drawn wagons. Freemasons shaped the stones into square blocks that roughmasons laid to build the walls. Blacksmiths fixed the tools. Carpenters created scaffolding. Diggers dug the moat and well. Lime-burners created the mortar that held the stone together. A medieval castle-building site looked like a modern construction zone. Workers wielded familiar tools: hammers, chisels, mortar trowels, and saws. They used winches and hoists to lift heavy loads. The difference, of course, is that all these tools and lifting machines were people-powered. All of these workers had to be paid, making castle building an expensive business. Thousands of local peasants, meanwhile, might be forced to handle heavy labor for no pay. It’s no surprise that many peasants hated castles.
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