0:00:02 > 0:00:08Of all the great feats of engineering that have helped to shape Britain,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10there's nothing more dramatic
0:00:10 > 0:00:14than the medieval castles of north Wales,
0:00:14 > 0:00:22built over 700 years ago by Edward I to stamp his authority on his newly conquered province.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26They are some of the finest castles in the country -
0:00:26 > 0:00:33one of the greatest feats of royal engineering in British history.
0:00:33 > 0:00:39This week, I've come here to find out how a Frenchman and an English king
0:00:39 > 0:00:43completely changed the art of castle building for ever.
0:01:02 > 0:01:08In 1282, the Welsh prince, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, felt strong enough
0:01:08 > 0:01:12behind his walls at Dolbadarn and Dolwyddelan
0:01:12 > 0:01:17to defy English authority and assert his independence.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21It was a situation King Edward I refused to tolerate.
0:01:21 > 0:01:27And he was determined to obtain Llewelyn's submission by force of arms.
0:01:27 > 0:01:34Campaign Wales wasn't going to be as easy as Edward had imagined.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36The whole place was heavily wooded,
0:01:36 > 0:01:41and it took 2,000 men to clear a path through the woods for Edward's armies.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49Edward fought two very hard and violent wars in Wales.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53He finally won when Llewelyn got killed in a minor skirmish.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57He were determined never to have to fight the Welsh again.
0:01:57 > 0:02:03He decided on Europe's most ambitious medieval building programme.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09Like the Normans before him in England, he would subdue the Welsh with castles.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14Work started on three castles - Harlech, Caernarfon and Conwy.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17But it wasn't just castles that were built.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22At Conwy and Caernarfon, the castle was put into a walled town -
0:02:22 > 0:02:30an idea borrowed from Gascony in southern France, where Edward had been Duke.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33That isn't all Edward borrowed from France.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39All these castles in Wales were built by a Frenchman called James of St George.
0:02:39 > 0:02:47Master James of St George came from St George D'Esperanche in Savoy, which is where he got his name.
0:02:47 > 0:02:54He came up with a design for a whole new style of castle while working as the king's architect.
0:02:54 > 0:03:00To understand the great advances he made in castle building and design,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05we start with a castle the Normans had built in England 150 years earlier.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Even back then, the French built the best castles.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15This is Hedingham Castle in Essex.
0:03:15 > 0:03:21It was built for a Norman lord, Aubrey de Vere, in the 12th century.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Aubrey wanted to make his castle look posh,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32so he put an outer skin of dressed stone on it,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35to impress his friends and maybe his enemies too.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38You see it's quite thin, really.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42There's no headers in it, no nothing.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45In fact, it gives a false impression.
0:03:45 > 0:03:52It almost looks as though the Victorians did it, it's so neat and tidy.
0:03:52 > 0:03:59Really, you get a better idea of what holds the place up downstairs in the undercroft.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Here I am, down in the undercroft.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Here, really, you can see what's holding the whole thing up.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Not a lot, eh? It's really the mortar.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15There's more mortar than there is stone, actually.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20Really, it's a credit to the men who mixed it.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24It's still quite solid after all these hundreds of years.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28There must have been more mortar mixers than stone fixers.
0:04:28 > 0:04:35It looks as though they put the outer skin on the outside, which is beautiful dressed stone,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40and then they built 18 inches of pebbles and flints,
0:04:40 > 0:04:45then chucked the mortar in and, as they did it, threw the stones in.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50You can also see, down here, a great pillar that's 14 feet square.
0:04:50 > 0:04:57It goes all the way up to the arch above and takes the thrust of the whole weight of the building.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02In fact, the castle is built round a huge arch right up its centre.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06This is a cross-section of Hedingham Castle keep.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10As you can see, most of it's arches.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16For these arches to stand up, they've got to have something substantial to spring off.
0:05:16 > 0:05:23Unlike a normal bridge, you need plenty of meat on each side to take the thrust of the arches.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28Down in the undercroft, which is equivalent to the cellar,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33the walls are actually 14 feet thick, with all this weight of arches pressing on them.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Then you've got the weight of a floor,
0:05:36 > 0:05:44plus the knights and noblemen round a great table, eating venison... You don't want it falling in.
0:05:44 > 0:05:50The arch over the banqueting hall is the biggest Norman arch in England,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52something like 28 or 30 feet across.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59This worthy, great arch emerges out of the wall.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04You don't really appreciate the arch until you look at the great expanse
0:06:04 > 0:06:07of the floor above.
0:06:07 > 0:06:14If they hadn't built it, they'd have had to search around for a tree 50' long and 2'6" square.
0:06:14 > 0:06:20I rather think it were easier to do the arch than find such a tree.
0:06:20 > 0:06:27A keep like this is very sound. The solidity of its structural work can't be faulted.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31You can see how thick the walls are all the way to the top.
0:06:31 > 0:06:39So when Master James came along with his new ideas, it wasn't the building techniques he set out to improve.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44It was the overall shape of the castle and its outer defences.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Until this time, the keep had formed the heart of the castle.
0:06:48 > 0:06:54It housed the lord of the manor and was built on a mound of earth called a motte.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00Next to this was the outer stockade, where everybody else lived, called the bailey.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04The bailey had a wall round it with a gate in it.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07So the gate was the weakest bit.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12If you knock the gate down, the enemy were in and the defenders had to hide in the keep.
0:07:12 > 0:07:19What Master James did was to move the keep to the gate, and rechristen it the barbican.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23What he did next was to do away with the motte altogether
0:07:23 > 0:07:29and build a series of towers round the outer wall, to make the castle more defendable.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34If you did breach the walls or gain entry through the barbican,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39you could be fired at internally by the defenders on top of the walls
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and in each of the towers.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47You could see this at the first of his castles, which was Harlech.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52It's the most defensive of Master James' works - hardly surprising,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57as they started it when Edward was still at war with the Welsh.
0:07:57 > 0:08:04This side of the castle, without a doubt, is the best side to show the various stages of construction.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10It's very obvious, if you look at the main wall, you can see at the bottom
0:08:10 > 0:08:17that it's quite rough stonework, done by the soldiers while still under attack.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22When they had more time, and a bit of protection from the bottom wall,
0:08:22 > 0:08:29they completed the top 25 or 30 feet in a much better fashion. Better stonemasonry and everything.
0:08:29 > 0:08:35Last but not least, the bastion and the curtain wall, or outer wall,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39will be built at a later date as an extra form of defence.
0:08:39 > 0:08:46If the enemy did approach, they could run and leave their trowels for next time.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51The key to the success of the castle is this staircase,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54which rises 200 feet from the sea.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00Well, it did do, before the sea receded over there.
0:09:00 > 0:09:06It didn't really matter if the Welsh held siege on the front, or the land side of the castle.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Supplies could be brought in by boat,
0:09:09 > 0:09:15so they could keep the Welsh at bay for ever.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21This staircase must have had an army of men carrying bags and all sorts of things.
0:09:21 > 0:09:27And I rather think, by the time they got to the top,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29they'd be a bit knackered.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35Without a doubt. I think that's why this plank's here for sitting on.
0:09:39 > 0:09:46From this angle, you can see how the rock had to be dug away to set the castle foundations
0:09:46 > 0:09:49directly on to the solid rock.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53It's as if the castle was hewn out of the rock itself.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58Having built the castle on top of a large cliff overlooking the sea,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03this left the inland side of it rather vulnerable to attack.
0:10:03 > 0:10:09To remedy this serious problem, they dug this huge gorge behind it in solid rock.
0:10:09 > 0:10:16Using the natural cleavage of the rock, and iron wedges and big hammers,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19they shifted immense amounts of material.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Without a shadow of a doubt,
0:10:21 > 0:10:26it's a wonderful feat of engineering and rock removal.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37CLANK! And this is how they did it.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42They got a hammer and some form of a drill
0:10:42 > 0:10:47and then they proceeded to drill a hole in the rock.
0:10:54 > 0:11:01When the hole's sufficiently deep, you then insert a pair of slips. Some people call them feathers.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Two lumps of iron down the hole.
0:11:04 > 0:11:11And then a big iron wedge, which you insert between the two metal plates.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16And this, of course, has a nice sliding action when you beat it with the hammer.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21It opens up a great crack and off will come a great slab of rock.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Hopefully, we'll get a big lump.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42As you can see, it's not as easy as it sounds.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00I've not brought a big enough hammer!
0:12:10 > 0:12:16I don't know about building a wall, but there's a few slates for me roof!
0:12:16 > 0:12:23That were partially successful, but I think they'd have had bigger and better tools than what I've got.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28I still wouldn't like to do that all day long - would you?
0:12:28 > 0:12:34Very detailed records were kept about the construction of these castles.
0:12:34 > 0:12:40At the Public Records Office, David Carpenter tells me all about them.
0:12:40 > 0:12:46This is the account of the comptroller, the person in charge of the money at Harlech,
0:12:46 > 0:12:47for 1286.
0:12:47 > 0:12:54It tells you the numbers of people working, the different rates of pay.
0:12:54 > 0:13:00In the margin, it tells you who the craftsmen are, with these lines.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05"Cement" - masons. "QRR", quarriers. People digging the great ditches.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09My namesakes, the carpenters. Then the smiths.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15This is where I would be. Not you, Fred. The minuti operari - the labourers.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18- How much money did they get? - It tells us that.
0:13:18 > 0:13:25It's very, very, variable rates. Someone skilled, like you, Fred, might get three shillings a week.
0:13:25 > 0:13:32- Shall I pay you?- Yeah! - I'm the comptroller. Let's scatter some 13th-century money around.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36- How much do you think you're worth? - I'm a top-rank mason!
0:13:36 > 0:13:41- Sure you're not one of the labourers?- I made six stones today.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46If you were a labourer, you'd get one of those. Possibly a half.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50- But you're better than that? - Oh, yeah.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55- Fivepence a day.- Thank you. - Don't spend it in the Harlech pubs.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59- Would there be an ale allowance as well?- I fear not.
0:13:59 > 0:14:07Actually, that's the fascinating thing. This is very valuable. That's the only currency.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11You couldn't actually go into a pub and buy yourself a drink,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14because the money's worth too much.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17You'd probably have to do that by barter.
0:14:17 > 0:14:25- I suppose from this document, you can tell how many men at any period in time worked on the...- You can.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30This is very seasonal building work. I suppose then as now.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35If we go to when this roll was begun, in a very cold January,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37there's only one mason working.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41He seems to be doing a sort of special job.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45And then suddenly - Sunday 21st April -
0:14:45 > 0:14:50to Philip Rum and Thomas del Meded, with 29 masons,
0:14:50 > 0:14:57and then their pay - suddenly a gang of masons has arrived under Philip Rum.
0:14:57 > 0:15:03- That's only the start of it. If we go to July...- Spring and summer.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08You've got 225 masons working, so it's gone up by about 200.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13Another thing to think about is the constant threat of the enemy.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20- Absolutely.- Once they'd got it up so it could be defended, they could go off
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and do one somewhere else.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29In this very tense period, you get workmen being moved under armed guard.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Very dangerous. If I was a workman, I'd be pleased to get out of it
0:15:34 > 0:15:41and take my little pouch of money home and get back to where I'd come from.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48The most impressive of King Edward's castles was Caernarfon,
0:15:48 > 0:15:53because here, what he built was more than just a castle.
0:15:55 > 0:16:02Edward decided Caernarfon was going to be the centre of his administration in Wales,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06so the castle would be his royal palace -
0:16:06 > 0:16:10a symbol of English dominance over the Welsh he had defeated.
0:16:10 > 0:16:17Caernarfon is built on a spot close to the old Roman fort of Segontium,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22which had connections with the famous Roman emperor, Constantine,
0:16:22 > 0:16:29who were a bit of a rebel, because he captured the Roman empire with a British army,
0:16:29 > 0:16:34and was responsible for building the city of Constantinople.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38When Edward decided to build Caernarfon,
0:16:38 > 0:16:45he got Master James, his chief architect, to mimic the stripes on the walls of Constantinople.
0:16:45 > 0:16:53The castle would be HQ of his English empire, right in the place where the Romans had theirs.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Work began here in 1283, when Edward was still at war with the Welsh.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Here once stood a row of houses
0:17:01 > 0:17:07and it took 20 men a week to get rid of the timbers and the debris.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09But they still made a mistake.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14They only brought the walls up at this point to about 20-odd feet.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19Edward relied on the strength of the town walls to keep the enemy at bay,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21but in 1296, the Welsh broke through.
0:17:21 > 0:17:28Of course, this business of 24 foot here were really no opposition to 'em at all.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31They soon gained entry.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Once the revolt was put down,
0:17:34 > 0:17:42they increased the height of these walls and the King's Gate was built to guard this entrance.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49Over here, on my left, is all that remains of the once Great Hall.
0:17:49 > 0:17:55If you look closely, you can see the holes where the roof timbers were,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57and then, round this corner,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01a lovely plinth or skirting board at the outer edge,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06which would have followed the bases of the buttresses round the corners.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11I suppose there'd be a lovely window frame in the middle.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16Really, once, this particular bit must have been a beautiful building.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21It's now gone. It's rather sad, in a way.
0:18:21 > 0:18:29The layout of the castle was not the only defensive feature that Master James designed.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35As you can see, in between these two towers is quite a short length of castle wall.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41This wouldn't have been able to be defended by single arrow loops.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Master James came up with an ingenious solution.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49These are like three entrances all into one.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52So if you imagine three crossbow men,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56one here firing that way - twang! Another one up here - twang!
0:18:56 > 0:18:59And another one here - twang!
0:18:59 > 0:19:03It'd be like all that crossfire down below.
0:19:03 > 0:19:10The enemy looking up at the walls would think that between the two slots, he'd be safe.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15But he'd get caught in deadly crossfire like a medieval machine gun.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24But to really understand the castle's defences,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27you need to go up the Eagle Tower.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30From up here, on top of this tower,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35you can really see how Master James' defences worked.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37On that side, we've got the sea,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41and over here, we've got the river, deep and wide,
0:19:41 > 0:19:46which would have kept the enemy at bay for some time.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Then we've got the castle itself, which has two lines of defence.
0:19:50 > 0:19:58It once had a great wall across the middle, which has been knocked down, so it was two castles, in a way.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04Then, round here, there's the town wall, which follows the shoreline,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08and then turns right, inland,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12and once upon a time, connected with the castle over there.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15It'd be a heck of a place to take.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Caernarfon took nearly 20 years to build and, at nearly £20,000,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24was the most expensive of Edward's Welsh castles.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27The total cost of them all was over £78,000,
0:20:27 > 0:20:33but his wars there had cost £103,000, so they seemed a good investment.
0:20:33 > 0:20:40Even so, the cost of them, coupled with Edward's wars in Scotland,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44was making a bit of a dent in his finances.
0:20:44 > 0:20:50There's nowhere better to see this than just across the Menai Straits on Anglesey.
0:20:50 > 0:20:57This is Beaumaris, and its design is the most technically perfect in the whole of Britain.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01It would have been Master James' greatest masterpiece,
0:21:01 > 0:21:06but the king ran out of money and couldn't afford to finish it.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Like Caernarfon, it has layers of walls within walls,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14but unlike Caernarfon, it's perfectly symmetrical
0:21:14 > 0:21:21and the whole site is surrounded by a moat, filled with a controlled supply of tidal water.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26This was the state of the art of the 13th century.
0:21:26 > 0:21:33There are no less than four successive lines of defence built into this castle.
0:21:33 > 0:21:40Even if you did battle your way over the drawbridge and then under three sets of death holes,
0:21:40 > 0:21:46people pouring boiling hot tar down into your chain mail, and you arrived here,
0:21:46 > 0:21:52this were just another death hole but bigger - arrow slots everywhere.
0:21:52 > 0:22:00You've got to fight your way through and they'd be raining down on you like red-hot bloody knitting needles.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Finally, you went round this corner here,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06and you've got the same thing again!
0:22:08 > 0:22:15If you survived the drawbridge and the first set of murder holes, various doors,
0:22:15 > 0:22:21and you got here and didn't look like a pincushion,
0:22:21 > 0:22:27there was yet one more great door with six-inch-square bolts of oak behind it.
0:22:27 > 0:22:35Just four foot further in, there was a portcullis, possibly made of iron with great rivets through,
0:22:35 > 0:22:41and then - God forbid - another four sets of murder holes,
0:22:41 > 0:22:46and then another door, another portcullis and another door.
0:22:46 > 0:22:53I don't think anybody could ever get through. You'd have a job doing it with a tank!
0:22:58 > 0:23:03But it's not until you enter the heart of Beaumaris
0:23:03 > 0:23:07that you get an idea of the sheer scale of its defences.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11If you got this far, which I very much doubt you would,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15you still wouldn't be able to get at the king,
0:23:15 > 0:23:21because the rest of the soldiers would be round the walls, and more arrows raining down.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24So you'd still not won.
0:23:24 > 0:23:30You had to cross the centre and take the building with the king in it.
0:23:30 > 0:23:37In fact, the castle was surrendered twice in its history, but never taken by any form of assault.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40The scale of Beaumaris is incredible.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Through the gates of its protected armour,
0:23:44 > 0:23:49over 2,000 men shifted more than 32,000 tons of stone,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53they mixed more than 2,000 tons of lime mortar,
0:23:53 > 0:23:59and nailed over 100,000 nails into more than 3,000 boards.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01All that was done in just one year.
0:24:01 > 0:24:09When James of St George and the king built these castles, spirit levels hadn't been invented.
0:24:09 > 0:24:16If you look at the moat and the joints of the masonry, it's perfectly level with the water.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20There wouldn't be water there when they built it.
0:24:20 > 0:24:27All they had a was a stick with a piece of string, with a lead weight on the end,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31and a hole that received the lead weight,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34and a line drawn up the middle.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39Put it on the wall like that, and if the wall is plumb,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44the lead weight will hang perfectly central in the hole.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49If it leans, of course, the ball's in the wrong shop.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53That's how they got everything vertical.
0:24:53 > 0:24:59Compare it with a modern spirit level, and, of course, it's perfect.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03We've not improved that much, really, have we?
0:25:10 > 0:25:18This, behind me, is all that remains of the once-grand gatehouse, you know, the inner gatehouse.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21Charles II issued orders to demolish it.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23He didn't get so far.
0:25:23 > 0:25:31He got the top bit off OK, but I think they must have give up. They had no dynamite in them days.
0:25:31 > 0:25:38In a way, he did us a favour, because he's shown us how the wall was really built.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43There's beautiful dressed stones on the outside with nice narrow joints,
0:25:43 > 0:25:50and in the middle, it's just big lumps of all sorts thrown in with a great deal of mortar,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53but there's no real voids in it.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57Over the back here, there's two lines of inclined holes,
0:25:57 > 0:26:03which would have contained the put logs with an inclined plane.
0:26:03 > 0:26:11As the wall grew upwards, they left a stone missing, stuck a piece of wood on to the top of the wall,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15tied a tree trunk to the other end and put boards across,
0:26:15 > 0:26:22to enable them to raise materials to the top of the wall as it advanced upwards.
0:26:22 > 0:26:30They had cranes, but they were slow and wouldn't have delivered the necessary amounts of materials.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35So they devised the inclined plane, where maybe two or three men
0:26:35 > 0:26:38could drag a boxful of mortar up.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43I still use basically the same methods today.
0:26:43 > 0:26:50Much easier to drag a heavy weight than it is to lift it up and carry it.
0:26:50 > 0:26:56You'd have to get a crane or a helicopter, nowadays, to get something high up.
0:26:56 > 0:27:03If it's a reasonable weight and can be dragged on some sort of sledge, it's a lot cheaper.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08Might be a bit slower, but it still works.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Beaumaris was never finished.
0:27:25 > 0:27:31It was so incredibly expensive, the king simply couldn't afford it.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36When you look around and see the amount of chambers and staircases,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38compared with the other castles,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41you can see the reason why.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45It never really got any further than this level here,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and that were 20 years after the king had died.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56The king died in 1307, closely followed by James.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Beaumaris is a monument to the great dreams they had.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05They both had the ideas of grandeur, but not the money or the time.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10That's the reason, really, that the thing's unfinished.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15Time and tide waits for no man - not even the king.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20But together, they built something that changed the face of Britain.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22And in the castles of Edward I,
0:28:22 > 0:28:30Master James of St George has left us with some of the most impressive structures in the world.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39Subtitles by Veronica Wells BBC Scotland - 2002