KNARESBOROUGH CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.

AMONG the various windings by which, still bearing its original British appellation, the river Nidd finds its way from its sources in Nidderdale and on the flanks of Whernside to its union with the Ouse a few miles above York, none are more remarkable than those by which it traverses the ancient forest of Knaresborough, where it lies within a deep ravine, celebrated, even in Yorkshire, for its happy combination of wood, and rock, and water.

Near the middle of this part of its course a bold promontory of rock projects as a rugged cliff towards the stream, rising on its eastern bank to a height of about 230 feet. Two tributary ravines, to the north and south of the rock, isolate it from the adjacent high ground, and become broader and deeper as they descend towards the river, so that the rock is strongly fortified by nature upon its northern, southern, and western fronts. To complete the strength of the position nothing was wanting but a ditch connecting the heads of the ravines and traversing the neck of the peninsula, and this was long since executed, and with it the upper parts of the ravines were also rendered deeper and broader, so that the position, before the use of gunpowder, must have been well-nigh impregnable.

By whom, or by what people, this formidable platform was first turned to account, is unknown, but no inhabitants of the district to whom security was an object could have overlooked its advantages. There is, however, no actual evidence of either British or Roman occupation, unless the rectangular area fortified by bank and ditch still to be traced through the streets of the later town can be accepted, as at Tamworth and Wallingford, as the work of semi-Romanised Britons; a people who, having acquired some knowledge of the principles of Roman castrametation, were yet unwilling or unable to include their strong places within walls of masonry.

The manor of Cnaresburg is mentioned in Domesday as the private demesne of the Conqueror, as it had been of the Confessor. Nothing is said of an “Aula” or a castle there; but, as eleven Berewicks depended upon it, it is clear that it was, during, and probably long before, the time of Edward, the centre of a considerable estate, and if, as was usual, its early lord had there a fortified residence, it would naturally be placed upon the rugged and knotty platform that bore the descriptive name of Cnaresburg.

William granted the manorial lands, returned in Domesday as “wasta,” to Serlo de Burg, Burg being probably the manor now called Boroughbridge. Burg was a territorial designation, not a regular surname, and does not appear to have been used by the family. The Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I., 1130, mentions Serlo as holding lands in Notts and Derby, and gives the names of Osbert, his son, and of another Osbert, his “nepos” or nephew, both of whom seem to have died before their respective fathers. The successor and heir of Serlo was John the One-eyed, whose son, Eustace Fitz-John, was a Yorkshire Justiciar. He appears in the same Pipe Roll as farming Burg and Chenardesburg, and to him was then allowed £11 for the king’s works, evidently upon the castle, at the latter place. Eustace married Beatrice, a De Vesci heiress, and their son William assumed that name. Richard FitzEustace, another son, married Albreda, the daughter and heir of Robert de Lisours, by Albreda, sister of Ilbert and Henry de Lacy, and aunt and heir of Robert de Lacy of Pontefract, who died childless, 1193. In consequence, Roger, Constable of Chester, the son of Richard FitzEustace and Albreda, took and transmitted the name of Lacy. Eustace had also a brother, Pain Fitz-John, a considerable Herefordshire landowner, and ancestor of the Barons FitzPain. With Eustace, who fell in the Welsh wars in 1159, the family occupation of the castle ceased, and it was from time to time granted by the Crown to various castellans. One of these, Hugh de Morville, took refuge here after the murder of Beckett. It was held also by the Estotevilles, and, in the reign of John, by Brian de Lisle, who is reputed to have excavated the castle ditch, and to have repaired or added to the buildings. Henry III. granted the castle to Hubert de Burgh in fee. Before that time the manor had been erected into an Honour, and the Honour, the Peculiar, and the forest of Knaresborough are from time to time the subject of royal grants. In 1257, Henry III. gave them to his brother Richard, who founded a priory on the river bank below the castle. Edward II. repeated the grant to Gaveston, about which time the Slingsbys appear as keepers of the forest. In 1327, the castle was taken for the Earl of Lancaster, but only to be resumed by Edward III., who, in 1371, granted it to John of Gaunt, and it has ever since formed a part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Richard II. was imprisoned here in 1399, and the keep has since borne the name of the king’s tower, it is said, in consequence. In 1642 the castle was held for the king, and was the head-quarters of an active and somewhat unscrupulous body of soldiery. It was, in consequence, besieged and taken by Fairfax in 1644, and in 1648 was, by the Council of State, ordered to be slighted, which seems to have been effected by removing the curtain wall, and blowing away one angle of the keep.

The castle occupied the whole area of the platform up to the edge of the ditch, the crest of the ravines, and the river cliff. In figure the plan is an irregular oval, in the proportion of about three parts east and west, to two parts north and south, and containing about 2½ acres. Close south of, and dependent upon, the castle, was the town. The area within the line of the town ditch measures about 500 yards north-east and south-west by 850 yards north-west and south-east, and includes all the older part of the town. About 170 yards of the ditch, where it divided the castle from the town, has been filled up since the dismantling of the castle. The castle was contained within a great curtain wall 7 feet to 8 feet thick, and of the unusual height in places of from 30 feet to 40 feet. The keep forms a part of the enceinte, being built upon the crest and slope of the northern ravine, not far from the centre of that front. The curtain abutted upon its two ends, so that the building was partly within and partly outside the area. Connected with its southern angle are some fragments of masonry showing that the area was divided by a cross wall into an eastern and western part, the one being the outer and the other the inner ward, and the keep is so placed that its south-eastern face looks upon the outer, and its south-western and north-western faces upon the inner ward.

Very nearly the whole both of the curtain and cross wall are gone, but the projection from the northern angle of the keep shows that the curtain, at that point at least, was about 40 feet high and at least 11 feet thick. It would seem that the curtain had originally no mural towers, for these, in the shape of half-round or segmental solid buttresses, have been added, built against the face of the curtain, the removal of which has laid bare the rough face of the applied work. Leland speaks of eleven or twelve of these buttress towers. There remain at present only six. They have all been faced with ashlar. Upon one is a good stringcourse of Perpendicular date, and on another is seen the shaft of a garderobe, the upper part of which must have been on the battlements. Two of the largest of the buttresses are placed opposite to the town, about 21 feet apart, forming a sort of solid gatehouse, and flanking the main entrance to the castle through the outer ward. The gateway was 18 feet wide and at least 18 feet high to the springing. The arch is gone. The square groove for the portcullis remains, and within is a rebate for the door. Outside in the northern jamb is a hole as for the heel of a drawbridge, but there is no corresponding hole on the other side, so that the indication is probably deceptive. A drawbridge there must have been, but it was possibly more advanced. Leland also mentions a subterranean passage opening upon the slope of the ditch, but this, of which nothing is now known, was probably a sewer. In the inner ward is the house in which are still held the courts for the Honour. This is a modern building, but it contains an original Decorated doorway, and a large fireplace, plain, but probably of the same date. There is said to have been a well near this, now lost, and local tradition describes a chapel as having stood near the courthouse.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

Fig. a.

gSteps to Dungeon.
jDungeon.

PLAN OF DUNGEON.

Fig. b.

aaRecord Room.
jDungeon.
bbDoor of Kitchen.
ffPorter’s Lodge.
lInner Gateway.
rrWindow of Lobby.

ELEVATION OF KEEP FROM INNER WARD.

The principal interest of the building centres upon the King’s Tower or keep, of which the remains are considerable. It may be described as rectangular in plan, 64 feet north-west and south-east by 52 feet north-east and south-west, or nearly square. Its symmetry is, however, broken by the cutting off of the north angle. Also the whole of the eastern angle is gone, and it is a question how far out this extended, and with much of the north-east side, the whole south-east end, and the angle between them are gone, but enough of the two other sides remains to show the general plan and details of the building. [[B. Fig. a.]]

The western angle is capped by a cylindrical turret of solid masonry, 6 feet diameter, and, at present, 52 feet high. It was probably, together with the main building, about 10 feet higher. This was the height from the level of the inner ward; the absolute height of the keep, measured from the dungeon floor, was about 16 feet more, or about 78 feet or 80 feet.

The principal or south-west is also the most perfect front, and that which looks into the inner ward. It is here seen that the keep was composed of a sub-basement below the court level; a basement at the level; a first or main floor; and an upper floor: the lines of floor being indicated by two stringcourses or mouldings.

The sub-basement consists only of the dungeon. [[A. Fig. a.]] The entrance is by a sunken doorway, approached by a descending flight of steps. It is placed 14 feet from the western turret, and the top of the doorway arch shows just above the ground level. The doorway opens into a vaulted passage, down which twelve steps lead to a second doorway, that of the dungeon. This may be described as a square of 23 feet, of which the two north-eastern angles are cut off, reducing one end to a sort of apse of three faces of 9 feet 6 inches each. In the centre is a plain cylindrical pier, 3 feet diameter, with a chamfered base, but no cap, from the head of which branch out twelve ribs, plain and substantial, with a slightly hollow chamfer. They are arranged in groups of three, separated by four rather wider openings, of which two, including the two right angles, are traversed by diagonal ribs, so that the plan of the vault is an octagon. There is an air-hole 3 feet square in the north wall, whence a passage, slightly zigzag, and 14 feet long, ended in a loop, now broken down. There seems also to have been a garderobe, as the mouth of a sewer is seen outside at the foot of the wall, 10 feet below the loop.

The basement floor contains three chambers, entered from the inner ward by three doors. [[A. Fig. b.]] Of these a narrow one of 2 feet opening placed close to the turret leads by a vaulted passage 3 feet long into the record-room. [[B. Fig. a.]] This is an L-shaped chamber, of which the arms are 6 feet 6 inches broad, and on the longer sides 12 feet, and on the shorter 5 feet 6 inches, one limb being a few inches the larger. In the north-west wall is a loop for air. Each limb is crossed by a plain chamfered rib, and the square space thus formed, common to the two limbs, is crossed diagonally by a single rib. This chamber was recently used as a debtor’s prison.

Next to the record-room, and nearer the centre of the front, is a large window, of which the ashlar casing and tracery have been removed, and the cill cut down to convert it into a door. At present the aperture is 6 feet broad and 13 feet to the crown of the arch. Close to, but beyond this, is the original doorway, now blocked up, but quite perfect. It was of 5 feet opening with a low drop arch, and over it a good Decorated drip stone or hood moulding. This door led into the kitchen. [[B. Fig. a.]]

The kitchen may be described as a square of 24 feet, having applied to its north-east side an apse of three faces of 8 feet each; or it may be called a rectangle of 24 feet by 30 feet, with two of its angles cut off so as to form an apse.

This chamber is also vaulted after a peculiar fashion. Twelve feet from the apsidal end is an octagonal pier, from the head of which spring eight ribs at equal angles. At 6 feet from the pier, that is, at the crown of the vault, each rib is met by two others, sixteen in number, which spring from eight half piers or responds in the angles of the wall. There are, however, actually only six of these wall piers, two being replaced by a different arrangement, rendered necessary by the oblong form of the chamber, which leaves a space 6 feet by 24 feet to be covered in. Of this space one third, being the western angle, is solid, and, in fact, contains one limb of the record-room. The remainder is divided into two square bays, vaulted diagonally. Between this compartment and the larger one stands a second pier, which receives the thrust of three ribs from the main pier, and has five ribs besides of its own. The general result is not unpleasing, but the vaulting is exceedingly complex, containing eight rhombs and eighteen triangles, great and small. The height to the crown of the vault is 12 feet. Besides the great window towards the inner ward is a small opening, probably a loop, though now enlarged, towards the ditch. The fireplace occupies one of the north-western bays. It is 7 feet broad, and the grate stood in a half-round recess of 3 feet 6 inches radius, with a vertical flue in the wall. From the kitchen open two smaller chambers and a well-stair. One of these, plainly vaulted, and 11 feet by 7 feet, is placed in the south-east wall. It is entered by a small door from the side of the kitchen, and near the door is a loop, also looking into the kitchen. This was probably the cook’s bedroom.

B.
KNARESBOROUGH KEEP.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

Fig. a.

Record Room.
Kitchen.
Garderobe Chamber.
Cook’s Chamber.
Staircase
Lodge.
Stairs to Dungeon.
Entrance from Outer to Inner Ward.
Foot of Outer Staircase.

PLAN OF BASEMENT FLOOR.

Fig. b.

Outer Gate.
Inner Gate.
Trough Recess.
Fireplace.
Window Recess.
Small Fireplace.
Staircase.
Exterior Lobby.
Exterior Staircase.

PLAN OF MAIN FLOOR.

A second chamber, 8 feet by 9 feet, also vaulted, is placed in the north wall, and is entered by a small and much mutilated doorway and a short oblique passage. This chamber has a loop towards the ditch, and a garderobe, the outlet from which seems to join that from the dungeon.

The staircase is contained within the wall at the south angle of the chamber, and is lighted by two loops from the inner ward. It is entered from the kitchen by a small door opening into a straight passage, whence the well-staircase rises. This leads to both the first and second floor, and has a stone hand-rail carved in the wall. It is 2 feet 6 inches radius.

There remains only in the basement to be mentioned the Porter’s Lodge. [[B. Fig. a.]] It is composed of a couple of cells, at present occupied by the keeper of the castle. The outer cell is entered by a small door very near to the passage between the outer and inner ward. The hollow angle formed by the junction of the cross wall with the keep is crossed by a squint, or oblique arch, which supports a bartizan turret above, and affords a sort of hood over the door. The outer cell, vaulted, measures 12 feet by 9 feet. One angle is filled up. There is a small two-light window towards the inner ward. From this cell a door opens into an inner cell, 7 feet by 8 feet, also vaulted, and with a small window or sort of loop, now broken down, which is formed in the south-east wall, and seems to have opened beneath the first arch of the bridge which carried the ascending road from the outer ward to the level of the first floor of the keep.

The first or main floor of the keep presents its chief peculiarities. [[B. Fig. b.]] It is, or was, a rectangular chamber 24 feet 6 inches by 31 feet, and 19 feet high to the boarded floor of the room above. The north-west end, which is tolerably perfect, is wholly occupied by a segmental arched recess with a handsome moulding. It is 2 feet 9 inches deep, and contains a sort of table or shelf 2 feet high and of 1 foot projection, the upper part of which is hollowed into a narrow trough, as though for animals to drink from, had it been a little broader. It is much broken, so it does not appear whether it was provided with a feed-pipe and drain. What it was intended for it is difficult even to guess. The wall is broken, and within it is seen the flue from the kitchen fireplace below. Above, a weather-moulding in the wall shows that at some time there was a low-pitched roof.

Of the adjacent north-east side only about 12 feet remains. It is chiefly occupied by a large fireplace, 7 feet broad by 4 feet deep. It was flat-topped and quite plain. The wall has been broken down and the flue is disclosed. Next south of this is the jamb of a bold arched recess which runs through the wall, 14 feet deep, and must have contained a large window opening over the ditch.

With the eastern angle is also gone the south-eastern side. Much of this must have been occupied by a large doorway, of which the south-west jamb remains, and its external and internal mouldings, in the Decorated style and of a very elaborate character. The wall was 10 feet 6 inches thick, and in its centre, half-way between the two moulded arches, is a rectangular portcullis groove. It is evident that this was a regular gateway, fortified in the usual manner, and, as what remains of the arch shows, of a large size.

The south-west wall, which is tolerably perfect, contains at its north end a door of the same size as that just described, saving that there is no portcullis, which, this being the inner gate, was not needed. The wall is here 11 feet thick, giving a very deep recess 10 feet broad, in which the doorway was placed. It is panelled and 15 feet high to the arch crown; the recess narrows to 7 feet 6 inches width, which was that of the doorway. The doorway is richly moulded, and the mouldings are continued down to the cill, showing that it was a door, and not, as some suppose, a window. There was, however, tracery in the head, of which a fragment remains, but not enough to show the pattern. In the jambs are a set of stanchion-holes, too large for the rods by which window-glass was usually supported, and which are evidently the remains of the bars inserted when the keep was used as a prison. The outermost hollow of the mouldings contains a band of delicate ball-flowers. There is also a handsome drip supported by two heads as corbels.

Outside the doorway, in the wall on either hand, are two square grooves 7 inches broad and about 6 inches deep, and 11 feet apart. They commence at the stringcourse, which corresponds with the cill of the doorway, and are 6 feet high. Above this, 10 feet 6 inches from the stringcourse, and 12 feet apart, are two similar grooves, 7 feet 6 inches long, and which, therefore, reach a little above the level of the top of the doorway arch. It is evident that these two pair of grooves were connected with the drawbridge, the lower pair probably receiving the ends of the parapet rail, and the upper the struts supporting the beams of the bridge.

Next to this door recess, in the inside of the chamber, is a small plain fireplace, placed in a tall pointed recess, like a doorway, and beyond this again is a lower recess, but broader, and also pointed, in which is a plain, square-headed window, 4 feet high by 1 foot broad, looking towards the inner ward. In the jamb of the recess is a side door, leading by a short passage into the well staircase from the kitchen, which also, at this level, has a loop towards the inner ward.

The floor of this chamber at present rises about 2 feet, or 1 in 26, from the outer to the inner gate. This, however, may be a modern arrangement, intended to carry off the water from the asphalt with which the floor has been paved.

Outside the outer gate of this chamber, towards the south, is a small mural chamber, lighted by a very handsome window, 2 feet 6 inches broad, with tracery in the arched head and a handsome drip-stone above, looking towards the inner ward. This chamber opens upon a sort of lobby, now mostly destroyed, outside the great gate, and provided with a small doorway of its own, fitted with a portcullis, and from this descends a small staircase with a ribbed and vaulted roof, which communicated with the lodge connected with the entrance from the outer to the inner ward. This was evidently a postern for such foot-passengers as came after the great gates were closed, and who did not wish to enter the main or guard-chamber of the keep. From this lobby ascended a well-stair to the upper story, rather larger than the other one, which was close beside it in the wall. The position of the larger staircase is marked by a sort of bartizan or projecting round turret, which commenced at the first floor level, and was lighted from the inner ward. Most of this is broken away, and only traces of it remain.

Of the upper floor but little remains save the wall towards the inner ward. In this wall is an excellent trefoil-topped window of one light beneath a square head. This is placed in a recess of the wall, vaulted and ribbed.

Near it a small door opens upon the head of the staircase from the lower floor and the kitchen. The other staircase from the postern is destroyed.

It appears from what has been described that the main floor of the keep was in fact a passage by which the principal entrance led from the outer to the inner ward. As the level of the first floor is 17 feet above that of the inner ward, and something more above that of the outer, the approaches were upon arches leading up to the gateways. The outer bridge no doubt was built against and protected by the curtain of the outer ward. That the road rested upon arches is evident from a trace of a skewback or springing stone below the gateway, and from the position of the window of the inner cell of the porter’s lodge. There is similar evidence of another bridge from the inner gateway down to the level of the inner ward, and excavation there would probably show the pier bases. How there came to be two fireplaces in what must have been the guard-chamber, and what was the use of the trough, are questions as yet unanswered. So far as I know, this is the only example of a main entrance so raised and carried through the keep. This keep is, in fact, a gatehouse.

There remains to be noticed the fragment of a building attached to the southern angle of the keep, and from which evidently sprang the wall which ran between the outer and the inner ward. [[B. Fig. a.]] This seems to have been an oblong, divided into two compartments. One, of which much of two sides remains, was 11 feet square, vaulted and ribbed, the fans spreading from the four angles. This was entered on one side from a small Decorated door of 2 feet 3 inches opening, which led into a bent passage. The face towards the inner ward seems to have contained a second small door, by the side either of a window or a larger door. From this chamber a door probably led, through the second chamber, now removed, to the base of the winding steps already mentioned as ascending to the eastern entrance to the keep. The designs of the mouldings of this appended building are peculiarly delicate and graceful, and well executed.

This keep is probably the latest example of a rectangular keep as well as a singular one of a keep with its main floor employed as a gatehouse. Its ornaments and details generally are in the late Decorated style, and of the reign probably of Edward II., though it is by no means likely that the work was due to Gaveston. Ashlar masonry is freely employed outside and inside the building, and the details throughout are admirable. It is probable that the addition of the solid buttresses to the curtain was the work of the builder of the keep. The masonry and material correspond. The portcullis grooves are alike, and the solitary stringcourse on one of the bastions is nearly, if not quite, of the pattern of that employed on the keep. It is much to be desired that the inhabitants of Knaresborough would obtain the castle as a promenade, reopen the ditch, or part of it, restore the bridge leading to the outer gate, excavate the foundation of the north-east angle of the keep and of the bridge covering the way into the prison, and check the progress of weather and exposure in the upper portions of the keep. A moderate sum would execute all that is required, and the result would add to the comfort and augment the attractions of the town.