"Building Spiral Staircases" Topic

I have struggled with this in the past but I think that I have got it down now. link

Looks like a good start.

Jim

Yes, very good start!

Looks practical (can it fit a 1" base?), but I wonder about weight-bearing…

They should be twice as wide with each new block sitting half way on the previous one.

Anton,

After further ruminations, I believe that you have them rotating the wrong way. Google "medieval spiral stairs" images to see what I mean. Normally you want the fighter advancing up the stairs to have his right (dominant) sword arm against the center spindle and the shield arm away from the center spindle while the defender has his shield arm against the spindle and his sword arm away from it giving him a better striking ability.

An example is below, where blue is the attacker and red the defender:

Jim

Col Campbell,
You are right, more than right as I have made this mistake before! link

Oh, the shame, the shame! :(

I finished the job and installed them in my tower model link

As penance I build several more stairways that turned the right direction, perhaps I will remember next time!

These are up for grabs to the first person that asks

Editor Bill, I can make them any size up to about 5" in diameter and I have had metal figures on every step in this tower without any problems,

blue board is incredibly strong

Lovely…and..whichever way around the stairs wind..correct. Thereīs loads of Medieval period spiral staircases that go anti ClockWise so no mistake in making it so.
The link to the study Shows 85 existing ACW medieval stairwells in the Uk..and Iīve seen them in Castles Iīve visited here and in Castles in France/spain
PDF link

Which asks the Question. If the CW Version, by itīs design, makes total sense in having the enemy disadvantaged, why ever build stairways that give the attacker the Advantage of having the Right arm free? Cost? Mirror Imaging in gatehouses with two Towers? They didnīt think of the Advantage or consider it worthwhile? Or there was, due to Fighting techniques, never an Advantage in Building either CW or ACW?

Super work, again!

I understand that the defender might have an advantage in a tightly wound clockwise stair, like that shown in Col Campbell's picture, where fighting room is very constrained, both to left and fight, and probably above, too. In the photo of Anton's round tower, with it's counter clockwise twist, where there is no center post, it looks like the defender would have more room to swing his weapon, giving him an advantage.

Of course, if the guy who had the castle built was a southpaw, he might have made the stairs go the opposite way, just to suit him.

That said, it seems that most castle fights I've read about ended with a surrender when food ran low, the relief force was driven off, or a breach was made in the wall. Fighting on staircases sounds rather like a fight to the last man. Happy to concede that fighting up and down the stairs looks great in Errol Flynn movies, but did this actually happen?

Grelber

Siege of Rochester Castle in 1215.

The square keep was breached by the attackers who captured half of the building. The defenders held out for a time in the other half!

Fighting seems to have occurred inside the keep, presumably including the stairs!

As far as which way a staircase spirals….ColCampbell's picture is correct. Most of the medieval castles I've visited have them spiralling that way. The ones that go the other way are often later builds when pure defence is not so high on the agenda.

Pauls Bods, great link by the way!

The ones that include ACW spiral straircases are also amongst the earliest Castles. One in France (1220- 1232) has 5 ACW and 1 CW.
The link conclusion
"Whilst clockwise stairs predominate in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there are sufficient examples of anticlockwise stairs in Britain and France in this period to indicate that the choice must have depended both on physical convenience and architectural practicalities,2 and there was no military ideology that demanded clockwise staircases in the cause of fighting efficiency or Advantage"

"2 And possibly the left or right ‘handedness' of the builder or Patron"