Editing Stokesay Castle (section)

===Interpretation===
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| image1    =Stokesay_castle,_tower.jpg
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| alt1      = Stokesay castle
| caption1  = South tower at Stokesay (l), probably intended to emulate&nbsp;...
| image2    = Caernarfon Castle 1994.jpg
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| alt2      = Caernarfon Castle
| caption2  = ... the North Wales gatehouses of [[Caernarfon Castle|Caernarfon]]&nbsp;...
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| alt3      = Denbigh Castle
| caption3  = ... and [[Denbigh Castle]]
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Stokesay Castle was never intended to be a serious military fortification.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=3}}</ref> As long ago as 1787, the antiquarian [[Francis Grose]] observed that it was "a castellated mansion rather than a castle of strength", and more recently the historian Nigel Pounds has described the castle as forming "a lightly fortified home", providing security but not intended to resist a military attack.<ref>{{harvnb|Chitty|1999|p=87}}; {{harvnb|Pounds|1994|p=105}}</ref> The historian Henry Summerson describes its military features as "superficial", and Oliver Creighton characterises Stokesay as being more of a "picturesque residence" than a fortification.<ref>{{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=1}}; {{harvnb|Creighton|2002|p=83}}</ref>

Among its weaknesses were the positioning of its gatehouse, on the wrong side of the castle, facing away from the road, and the huge windows in the hall, reaching down to the ground and making access relatively easy to any intruder.<ref>{{harvnb|Pounds|1994|p=188}}; {{harvnb|Summerson|2012|p=3}}</ref> Indeed, this vulnerability may have been intentional. Its builder Laurence was a newly moneyed member of the upper class, and he may not have wanted to erect a fortification that would have threatened the established [[Marcher Lord]]s in the region.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stokesay-castle/history-and-research/history/ | title=History of Stokesay Castle | mode = cs2|access-date=28 December 2013 |publisher=English Heritage}}</ref>

Nonetheless, Stokesay Castle was intended to have a dramatic, military appearance, echoing the castles then being built by Edward I in North Wales.<ref name=Liddiard2005PP44>{{harvnb|Liddiard|2005|pp=44–46}}</ref> Visitors would have approached the castle across a causeway, with an excellent view of the south tower, potentially framed by and reflected in the water-filled moat.<ref name=Liddiard2005PP44/> The south tower was probably intended to resemble the gatehouses of contemporary castles such as [[Caernarfon Castle|Caernarfon]] and [[Denbigh Castle|Denbigh]], and would probably have originally shared the former's "banded" stonework.<ref name=Liddiard2005P46>{{harvnb|Liddiard|2005|p=46}}</ref> Cordingley describes the south tower as "adding prestige rather than security".<ref>{{harvnb|Cordingley|1963|p=91}}</ref> Visitors would then have passed by the impressive outside of the main hall block, before entering the castle itself, which Robert Liddiard notes might have been an "anticlimax from the point of view of the medieval visitor".<ref name=Liddiard2005P46/>