Historic Building Mythbusting

Go to any mediaeval building in the land and there will be interesting, exciting and romantic stories presented to the visitor. These stories include those of spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, grooves left in church porches by archers sharpening their arrows and secret passages leading from the manor houses to nunneries. Ship timbers are often cited as being used in terrestrial buildings. Burn marks on those timbers are said to be the result of unattended candles. Blocked doors in churches are thought to keep the Devil out. Delightful as these tales are, they can be a little misleading in some cases and absolute myths in others.