The most feared English weapon of the Middle Ages was the longbow. With a range of well over 200 metres, this 'medieval machine gun', could shoot at least six arrows a minute. Since bows date from prehistoric times, it wasn't exactly a new invention. But really powerful longbows apparently developed on the Welsh borders from the late 12th century. Their greatest triumph was the Battle of Agincourt (1415), when English archers were chiefly responsible for French casualties of 10,000, compared to a few hundred English.

The longbow's success depended on strength and training. Few people today could even draw a medieval 'war bow', something medieval archers regularly practiced from early boyhood.

The gunpowder-powered cannon which developed in the later medieval period were more ingeniously-made, but could be more dangerous to users, since they regularly exploded. They were also very difficult to move about. Although used in some sieges (as of Dunstanburgh Castle), early cannons were more effective inside castles, shooting through 'gunports' as in Carisbrooke Castle's gatehouse. Towards the end of the middle ages Berry Pomeroy Castle had gunports angled to mow down attackers in wide swathes, while nearby Dartmouth Castle pioneered heavy 'ship-sinking' guns. Steadily growing safer for users and deadlier to enemies, cannons were the weapons of the future.

Knights - armoured men on horseback - were the most iconic invention of the Middle Ages. The arrival of Norman knights in 1066 signalled the start of the medieval period, and over the next 450 years their armour and weapons were ingeniously updated to make them more powerful and less vulnerable fighting machines.

Used to fighting on foot, Harold Godwinson's English army at the Battle of Hastings had never encountered mounted knights before, and despite valiant resistance couldn't withstand them. During the following 200 years the open-faced helmets, kite-shaped shields and mail shirts of Norman knights developed into stronger and more elaborate armour. You can see effigies of 13th-century knights at Furness Abbey. They wear helmets completely covering their heads, and their faces couldn't be recognised. So another medieval invention, heraldry, assigned each knight his own unique heraldic 'arms', devices painted on his shield, banner and surcoat to instantly identify him in battle.

Weighty chain mail was gradually replaced by lighter yet stronger steel plate armour: the knight in Farleigh Hungerford Castle chapel wears a mixture of the types. Fear of the deadly longbow made later medieval knights abandon their vulnerable horses in battle; they fought on foot in complete plate armour, encased from head to toe in shining steel.

Going to the toilet and washing are basic human needs. Living before the invention of flushing toilets, efficient sewerage systems and instant hot water, medieval people devised some ingenious ways of coping without them.

In most castles and manor houses, the usual toilet was the 'garderobe'. This was a tiny room with a seat pierced by a hole through which the waste dropped into a moat or straight onto the ground. An unfortunate servant nicknamed 'the gong [dung] farmer' had the smelly job of clearing it away. You can inspect (but not try out!) garderobes at many of our sites, including Aydon Castle and Peveril Castle.

Many monasteries, however, developed a more efficient means of sewage disposal, building their communal toilets above streams or specially created watercourses which (hopefully) carried away the 'product'. You can see communal monastic toilets at Muchelney Abbey and Castle Acre Priory, and drainage channels at many sites including Rievaulx Abbey - which also has a sink where the monks did their laundry.

Water for washing would normally be brought from wells by servants. But a few castles, mansions and monasteries boasted cold water piped either from streams or rainwater tanks on the roof; at Conisbrough Castle, rainwater fed sinks in the lord's and lady's chambers in the keep.