I thought the treadmill crane was fictional.

Camera: Simon Gillouin

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

The round of applause at the end didn't feel justified...!

[prysthaea]

"We use modern safety equipment, because we're not here to see how many people died making a midieval castle" is such a hilarious way to put it.

[blundy]

Imagine being described as a "low ranking, local, fairly modest nobleman."

[nicokelly]

This is one of the coolest reconstructive archaeology projects I've seen.

[Evan-rjxy]

I saw another documentary on this castle and they mentioned that, although they have a historical ropemaking workshop on site, they use modern ropes for hoisting all the stones. Historical plant fiber ropes would be cool, but modern ropes have a known breaking point and you really don't want any unknown risks with hundreds of pounds suspended in the air.
Such a cool project.

[rhettorical]

I knew it was real because Treadmill Crane is a tech you can research in Age of Empires II and the manual that came with the game had historical sources explaining everything.

[nessa-parmentier]

I actually quite literally added my stone to that building, by doing a "builder internship". Spent a week there helping in various places of the construction, and the last day I helped the masons who were, at the time, working on the gate towers. People couldn't go in the castle by the bridge, because the double treadmill crane was sat there, and a friend and I operated it for a day. Really cool experience (and ultimately working in such a place for a living would be my dream)

[ceepuck]

in response to Tom mentioning how he got dizzy looking straight ahead, being the "hamster" in the hamster wheel was something blind people were used for since it was something they could do and be productive at and as an added bonus you didn't have to worry about them being scared of heights

[doc]

I feel like Tom has fallen into a "weird stuff in France" and "historical reenactment" rabbit hole lately and I love every second of it (so does he, apparently)

[zappababe]

I wondered who was paying for building this magnificent castle, assuming that it would be the government. No - it is being financed by a private company, and the admission paid by the 300, 000 visitors the castle attracts is paying for all the marvellous reconstruction we see here. It is very gratifying to know that so many people are still so enthusiastic about history that their admission fees are enough to pay for building such an immense castle. Well done, citizens of France!

[hannahbrown]

Ive known about this project for a while but its annoyingly difficult to find anything more up to date than like 2013. I didnt know they had to add an extra ten years! And I love they reused the line 'Were not here to find out about the number of deaths from building a castle' I hear it nearly every time I watch something about Guédelon Castle

[havvik]

I love how toms coping mechanism is always “I’m gonna just talk a lot and I don’t care if I’m not saying logical things, narration will save me”

[joelavrunin]

Love the hardhats at 2:10 - looks like they colored them to not stick out so while not period authentic it maintains the medieval vibe while still being safe.

[panfrei]

in Breisach in Germany we still have an original, it stands in the wheel tower named after it and was intended to fetch water from the 41 m deepen
well. A funny story is that Napoleon's
soldiers, who occupied the city,
used to voluntarily run in the wheel
to impress the women fetching water.

[eaaeeeea]

As a tech enthusiast it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to know even the Romans had such an awesome technology as cranes at their disposal! I just added this castle to my places to visit, I can't believe there's such an awesome project like this that I wouldn't have ever heard of if it weren't for Tom Scott.

[nutsbutdum]

This castle is going to confuse archeologists a thousand years from now.

[the-white-eye]

imagine being an archeologist in like 3000 years and finding a mid 13th century castle only to test the rocks or smth and finding out it was actually from the 2000s

[brianhaygood]

That's really great that someone out there is building something in such an historic way.

[Gypples]

The fact that they're using historical methods like this is honestly incredible. Thank you for making a video about this project and it's methods, I wouldn't have known about either if you didn't.

[lewismassie]

Finding out that the closest cathedral to me still has a medieval crane in it is not what I expected to learn today