Editing Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire (section)

===The Great Tower===
[[File:Tapestry Room - geograph.org.uk - 525495.jpg|thumb|interior of Tattershall Castle]]
The tower is about {{convert|20|m|ft|order=flip}} across. There are separate entrances to the basement, to the ground floor (Parlour), and to the spiral staircase leading to the upper floors of the tower. This suggests that the basement and ground floor were intended to provide communal accommodation, while the three great upper rooms were an independent private suite or [[Solar (room)]].<ref>{{harvnb|Dixon|Lott|2016|p=69}}</ref> The design was extremely simple, with four floors, slightly increasing in size at each level by reductions in wall thickness.<ref name=Guide/>
The fireplaces indicate that the rooms were not intended to be subdivided, but were kept as one great room at each level. One of the four corner turrets contains the staircase, but the other three provided extra accommodation rooms at each level.<ref name=Guide/>

The basement was used to store spices and other kitchen items. It is believed that during the [[English Civil War|Civil War]] it was used as a prison.<ref name=Guide/>

The ground floor was the Parlour and it was here that local tenants would come to pay their rent.<ref name=NT/>

The first floor of the private suite was the Hall, which would have been used to entertain and wine and dine guests.<ref name=NT/>

The second floor was the Audience Chamber, and only the finest of guests would have been admitted here. A brick vaulted corridor led to a small waiting room, before the great hall of the Audience Chamber, which today houses Flemish [[tapestries]] bought by Lord Curzon.<ref name=NT/>

The third floor would have been the Private Chamber, where the Lord would have retired for the night.<ref name=Guide/>

Above these are the roof gallery and [[battlements]], which provide good views across the Lincolnshire landscape, as far as [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]] to the south, and [[Lincoln, Lincolnshire|Lincoln]] to the north.<ref name=Guide/> It is not possible today to access the turrets.<ref name=Guide/>

The brick foundations to the south of the great tower, projecting into the moat, mark the site of the 15th-century kitchens.<ref name=Guide/>

Today, the old guardhouse (about {{convert|100|m|ft|order=flip}} north-east of the tower) is the gift shop, and the grounds are home to a number of [[peafowl|peacocks]].