For the past three years I have been building an Anglo-Saxon castle in the garden of my house, using only traditional tools and materials.
Having laid the foundations and dug the moat, I would like to fill the moat so as to test its integrity (both of itself and against invaders) before progressing to erecting the walls.
I understand the traditional way of doing this is to tap a river or a stream, and supplement this with ox-drawn carts filled with barrels of fresh water. However, being in Brockley, I'm too far from the Thames to do this (a distance of about 2 miles as the crow flies). There are also no tube stations near enough for me to tunnel the water from there. While I think I could construct the necessary carts, I would not have the space in the remainder of my garden to rear the oxen to draw them. My neighbours have made some comments on the fact that I have begun rearing goats and some chickens to produce the considerable tonnage of dung for wattle daub I will need later on in the construction.
So I am considering using a Chinese technique from about the same historical era of using giant kites to lift Thames water into place above the moat and pour it in from there.
Does anyone have any experience with this particular technique (which, I understand, will require considerable resources and manpower to implement), or indeed defensive Angle-Saxon moat building in general?
Any advice much appreciated. And if you also have any tips for laying long-and-short quoins I would also be grateful as my initial attempts at this were not successful.
Jonathan