page_title: Slighting
section_title: Methods of destruction
hierarchical_section_title: Slighting / Methods of destruction
caption_attribution_description: English: Newark CastleThis is a photo of listed building number 1196278.
context_page_description: Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is a phenomenon with complex motivations and was often used as a tool of control. Slighting spanned cultures and periods, with particularly well-known examples from the English Civil War in the 17th century.
context_section_description: A range of methods were used to demolish castles, each affecting the buildings in different ways. Fire might be used, especially against timber structures; digging underneath stone structures (known as mining) could cause them to collapse; dismantling a structure by hand was sometimes done, but was time- and labour-intensive, as was filling ditches and digging away earthworks; and in later periods gunpowder was sometimes used. Manually dismantling a castle ("picking") can be split into two categories: primary damage where the intention was to slight the castle; and secondary damage which was incidental through activity such as retrieving reusable materials.
  Mining involved digging underneath a wall or removing stones at its base. When successful, the tunnel or cavity would collapse, making it difficult to identify archaeologically. Archaeological investigations have identified 61 castles that were slighted in the Middle Ages, and only five were undermined. While surviving mines are rare, one was discovered in the 1930s during excavations at Bungay Castle. It probably dates from around 1174 when the owner rebelled against Henry II.
caption: Each method of destruction leaves a distinctive trace. At Newark Castle the use of gunpowder left a crater damage pattern.[13]
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