Wooden motte and bailey castles helped William to quickly control the English BUT they burned easily and they rotted. Later castles were built from stone. These stone castles were impressive and showed everyone the baron was in charge and it was also a safe place from which to rule the local area.

Motte and bailey castles were the cornerstone of William the Conqueror's strategy to subjugate England after 1066 because they were exceptionally fast and cheap to build. Unlike stone castles, which could take years to complete, a timber motte and bailey could be erected in just a few weeks by a forced labor crew. The "motte" (a massive man-made earth mound) provided a high vantage point for archers and a defensible position for a wooden keep, while the "bailey" (an enclosed courtyard) provided a safe garrison for soldiers and horses. These structures allowed William’s relatively small Norman force to establish a "network of control" across a hostile Anglo-Saxon landscape. By building roughly 1,000 of these castles, William ensured that his troops were never more than a day's ride from a secure base. This psychological and physical presence deterred local rebellions and allowed the Normans to manage the country’s administration and tax collection from a series of fortified hubs, effectively cementing their rule over a much larger, resistant population.