BOWES CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.
THE stronghold known as Bowes Castle consists at this time of a single rectangular tower, unconnected with any other buildings, and bearing no trace whatever of ever having been so connected. This is very remarkable, inasmuch as the tower is in every respect both of plan and detail, a Norman keep, and Norman keeps usually, it may be said invariably, are, as the name imports, connected with or surrounded by other buildings, of which the tower is the strength or citadel.
Brough, Brougham and Appleby, Carlisle and Newcastle, Helmsley, Scarborough, and Richmond, all Norman rectangular keeps of the Northern Counties, are parts only, though the chief part, each of its castle, and it is only to fortresses so composed of parts that it is usual to apply the name of castle, a single structure being usually termed a tower or peel. Bowes, however, is always styled a castle in the records, and it is, of course, possible that it may, in respect of composition, have resembled other castles, and that the stronger and better-built part of the work may have proved most durable. It is, however, clear that no other work in masonry abutted upon, or, at least, was bonded into this tower, nor is there any indication of building or of foundations in the greensward, to which the tower on two of its sides lies open. On another side the churchyard runs up to within but a few feet of the tower, and on the remaining side the cottages show nothing of either old walls, or of the material of which such were likely to have been constructed.
Bowes Keep, if then Keep it may be called, is a rectangular tower rather above 82 feet east and west by 60 feet north and south. It does not, however, stand with the main points of the compass, the actual north being the north-west angle of the description. It is about 50 feet high. Each angle is capped by a broad flat pilaster, 14 feet broad and projecting a foot, and the angle of meeting of each pair is solid. Midway, in the centre of each face, is also a pilaster 8 feet 10 inches broad, and of the same projection with those flanking it. There is no base or plinth or set-off, save where a plain string-course marks the level of the upper floor, and is continued along the whole building, walls and pilasters. The top of the wall is much broken down, no battlement remaining. There do not appear to have been turrets at the angles, save perhaps one at the south-east, containing the stair head.
There is a basement, a main, and an upper floor. The basement, as usual, is at the ground-level. Its walls are 11 feet to 12 feet thick and solid, enclosing an area 36 feet by 58 feet. This again is subdivided by two cross-walls, 4 feet 4 inches thick. One of these, lying north and south, seems to have ascended through each floor, the other at right angles to it was probably confined to the basement. Both walls are broken away, only enough being left to show that such there were. Of the three chambers thus formed, that occupying the west end of the floor was 37 feet long by 16 feet broad (a). Of the two others the southern was 37 feet 10 inches long by 17 feet broad (c), and the northern the same length by 15 feet broad (b).
BOWES CASTLE.
The western chamber was certainly vaulted, the corbels whence sprung the ribs or vaults remaining at the four angles. The other two chambers were probably also vaulted, some trace of the angle corbels remaining. A special rib seems to have shut off the south-east angle, probably to give head-room for the staircase doorway. A doorway led from the south to the western chamber, of which the south jamb remains. Probably these chambers were vaulted in two bays, but of this no indication is left. All are lighted by loops, each loop is about 2 inches broad, and 6 feet above the ground, and is placed in a round-headed stepped recess, splayed from an internal breadth of about 4 feet 6 inches. Of these loops there are six. One in the north wall, opening from the north chamber; three in the south wall, of which two open from the south chamber, and the third from the west chamber, which has also two others in the west wall.
The south-east angle is occupied by a well-staircase 11 feet 8 inches diameter, which rises to the roof, communicating by a short lobby with each floor. The only access to the basement was by this staircase from the first floor.
The first or main floor was divided by the cross-wall into a larger east (e) and a smaller west chamber (d), and a shelf or set-off reduces some of the walls by a foot, and enlarges the inner area accordingly. At this level also the walls contained several mural chambers. The main, and indeed the only entrance to the tower was on this floor in the east wall, about 10 feet from the ground. The doorway, a plain rounded arch of 5 feet 4 inches opening (f), led into a passage of 6 feet breadth, opening direct into the eastern chamber. There was no portcullis, and the only defence was a stout door, barred. In the south wall of the passage a small doorway led into a chamber in the east wall, 6 feet wide by 14 feet long, and which has a loop in its outer wall, and no doubt opened by a doorway, now broken down, into the east chamber. On the north side of the doorway, but not communicating with the passage, the north-east angle of the building is occupied by a second mural chamber 14 feet long by 9 feet broad, also vaulted (g). In the north wall of this chamber is a fire-place with a concave back, and at the east end is a loop. It was entered from the east chamber by a doorway, now broken down, in its south wall, and this door led into a small lobby, cut off by a cross-wall from the chamber with the fire-place.
A third mural chamber is entered from the larger room by a small door in the south wall. This opens into a passage 2 feet 6 inches broad, and 33 feet long, lighted by a couple of loops in its south wall, and terminating in a small chamber about 8 feet by 4 feet, which occupies the south-west angle, and was lighted by a loop in the west wall.
A fourth chamber was contained within the west wall. It was entered by a doorway now broken down, opening into a passage 2 feet 8 inches broad by 19 feet long, lighted by two loops in the outer wall, one of which was in a garderobe, and in the broken wall is seen a shaft descending from an upper garderobe, possibly in the second floor or on the battlements. The mural chambers are all vaulted. At the south-east angle a doorway and lobby lead into the winding staircase. This main floor was lighted by three windows, one in the north and one in the south wall of the larger apartment, and one in the west wall of the smaller room. These windows are all alike. Their recesses are flat sided and round headed, and are open to the floor-level. They are 8 feet wide. Their framework or tracery is gone, so that it is impossible to say precisely how they were closed in. Their flat sides give to these three window recesses very much the appearance of doorways. This floor was not vaulted, but ceiled with timber in the ordinary way.
The upper or second floor is a mere ruin and inaccessible, only fragments of its walls remaining. The least injured part is about the head of the staircase at the south-east angle. Here the sides of the doorway and one wall of the lobby remain.
The material of the building is a rough strong sandstone, weathered to a dark colour. The walls, inside and out, were faced with coarse ashlar, well executed, and on three of the exterior sides remaining unhurt. The west face has been stripped, no doubt for use for later buildings. The interior also has been almost wholly stripped, just enough remaining to show what has been. The basement is encumbered with the fragments of the vaulting, so that the floor is nowhere to be seen. There may therefore have been a well. The stairs have been designedly broken away, so that the staircase remains an empty cylinder. The entrance to it, at the base, is much broken. The three southern loops are tolerably perfect; one quite so.
On the first floor the larger or eastern chamber was probably the Hall. The main entrance had no forebuilding or exterior covering, nor is there any trace of a stone staircase or of a drawbridge. It seems to have been reached by steps of wood. The chamber in the north-east angle, containing a fireplace, full large for its size, may have been the kitchen. This is the only fireplace now seen in the building, though there may have been others in the cross-wall. The two chambers about the south-west angle seem to have been garderobes, one opening from each of the main rooms. The three windows are unusually large, and being only 12 or 14 feet from the ground, must have much weakened the strength of the place. No doubt the framing or tracery filling up the apertures was heavy and strong, but still no tracery or mullion could have resisted a heavy stone from a catapult, nor indeed could the shell of wall containing the staircase. Probably the borderers, whose raids the tower was intended to resist, had no military engines at their command.
As the roof is gone, with the walls that immediately supported it, it is impossible to say whether it was flat or pitched at an angle. There is seen, however, in the west wall, at its north end, a patch of ashlar cut to a low slope, evidently that of a former roof, and there is a like indication in what remains of the cross-wall, at its south end; also about the same level is a square hole, which evidently carried the water from the gutter on one side of the wall to that on the other. The level of these indications of a low-pitched roof is about that of the floor of the upper story, and many feet below even the present top of the wall. It looks as though here, as at Richmond, Ludlow, Porchester, Bridgenorth, Kenilworth, and in many other instances, the original roof had been over the first story, and the second story had been an afterthought, generally not more than a few years later. Possibly the whole wall above the string-course is an addition, but if so it is a very early one.
Bowes tower may safely be pronounced to be very late Norman in style. The cross-walls are certainly original, but the vaulting was probably an addition, and, to judge from the skewbacks of two ribs in the south wall, of the Decorated period. The basements of Norman keeps were very rarely vaulted, and here, as at Brougham, Richmond, and Carlisle, the vaulting looks later than the walls.
The two open sides of the tower, the west and south, show that it was guarded by a ditch at from 40 to 70 feet distance, and this may have been continued all round. The tower stands a few yards south of the highway which traverses this district from east to west, and represents the Roman Way from Greta Bridge by Brough, Appleby, and Brougham, with branches northwards to Alston and Carlisle. At Bowes, as at Brough and Brougham, the road was strengthened by a camp, and Bowes tower stands within the camp, near its western boundary, and to the south of its central line. The ditches of the camp may be traced to the north and west, and partly to the east, and its area is about 130 yards, by 140 yards: to the south the ground falls sharply towards the deep bed of the Greta, and is defended by terraces and scarps, in which, a little west of the centre, is an opening probably for communication with the river. The remains of a Roman bath have been laid open outside the south-east angle, and a fragment of lead pipe, no doubt feeding it, was dug up in the adjacent churchyard. To the west are the remains of four small barrows in Roundhill Close, and the defence of the camp is strengthened by two watercourses at a short distance on the east and west fronts. Besides this camp there is one at Greta Bridge, 6 miles to the east, and two others at 6 and 8 miles to the west, of which one known as Raycross is regarded as a British camp, adopted by the Romans. The cross, commemorated in the name, is said to have been set up in 1067 to mark the boundary then agreed upon between England and Scotland. The further camp is known as Maiden Castle. Bowes is held to be the Roman Lavatræ. The position is well chosen, having considerable local elevation. It is 928 feet above the sea, and commands extensive views, especially to the south and east.
As the history of North Yorkshire is as yet unwritten, but little is known as to Bowes, save that both manor and castle were always held by the Earls of Richmond. King John, that most restless of monarchs, was at the castle on the 16th February, 7th of his reign, that is, in 1206, when he thence, “apud Bouas,” addressed a mandate to the Foresters of Nottingham, and again, according to Mr. Hunter’s itinerary, 16th June, in the 14th year of his reign, 1212. “The Earls of Richmond,” says Camden, “here levied a through toll, and set up a gallows.” Rymer also gives a charter of Henry III. to Peter, Earl of Richmond, dated 25th March, 1262, granting and confirming to him, with other lands, “Villas de Richemund et Boghes, cum castris et wapentachiis, et omnibus aliis pertinentiis suis;” and “Bowes castrum” was held of Peter of Savoy, 10 Edward I., and “Bowes Manerium” of John le Dreux the elder, Earl of Richmond, 13 Edward I. 19 Edward I., William de Felton was put in charge of Richmond and Bowes, &c., for the King. John le Dreux, Earl of Richmond, had it 5 Edward III. 36 Edward III., Margaret de Dacre died, seised of Bowes manor, as, 4 Henry VI., did Joan, widow of John de Gray, Chevalier; and, 14 Henry VI., John Duke of Bedford. 22 Henry VI., two parts of the manor or lordship of Bowes were held by John Duke of Somerset. Its present owner is Mr. Pulleine of Clifton. Mention is made of a Bowes in Northumberland in the reign of Edward III. and of a tenement called Bowes in Boulne in Sussex, 4 Henry IV. The castle was probably built late in the 12th century, and dismantled by either Charles or the parliament in the 17th century. It is a very good example of a late Norman keep. The mill, the almost invariable appendage of an early castle, stood upon the river Greta.