THE KEEP OF MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.
ALTHOUGH the size and extent of Middleham Castle are but moderate for the figure it has made in local story, and the rank and power of the succession of great barons who built, augmented, and have inhabited it, it is in itself a remarkable building, and presents much of antiquarian interest. It is placed on the southern edge of the town of Middleham, and a little above it. Its immediate position presents no great natural advantages, but for the general defence of Wensley Dale, it is not ill chosen, standing between the Yore and the Cover, about a mile and a half above the junction of the two streams.
In plan Middleham is rectangular, composed of a keep about 100 feet north and south, by 80 feet east and west, and to the base of its parapet about 55 feet high, which is placed in the centre of an enceinte, also rectangular, 240 feet north and south, by 190 feet east and west, so that the area of its only ward is but limited. The enceinte is a curtain wall, about 30 feet high. At its north-west and south-east angles, it has rectangular towers of slight external projection, which rise above the curtain. Its south-west angle is capped by a drum tower of three stages, and on the north face, but at its north-east angle, is the gatehouse, rectangular, of slight projection, but four stages high, basement included. The east curtain has been destroyed. Upon the south and west curtains are many exterior projections, buttresses, and near the centre of each a rectangular tower. The domestic buildings were chiefly placed against the curtains on the north, west, and south sides, and thus the ward is reduced to a mere passage between these buildings and the keep.
The gatehouse is about 25 feet deep by 50 feet broad. It has in its exterior front a central portal, round-headed, beneath a pointed arch of relief. This is flanked by buttresses, 2 feet broad by 1 foot deep, and the adjacent angles of the building are supported by similar buttresses, two being set on each. At the first story these pass into a single buttress, which caps the angle,—a pleasing arrangement, giving variety to the outline. The entrance vault, like the gateway, is round-headed, with ribs for doors, and it has a single portcullis groove at its inner end. It is all of one date, and in the Decorated style. This gatehouse, and the buildings of the ward generally, are Decorated, and require far more examination than the writer has been able to bestow upon them.
The Keep is reinforced at the four angles by broad, flat-capping buttresses, of variable breadth and projection, and which, no doubt, rose above the battlement into rectangular turrets. The buttress on the north-east angle has a breadth of 26 feet on the north, and a projection of 7 feet, and to the east a breadth of 16 feet, and a projection of 1 foot. It contains the chamber communicating with the battlement of the outer gate of the fore-building, and below is solid. The buttress on the north-west angle has to the north a breadth of 22 feet, and a projection of 3 feet, and to the west a breadth of 12 feet, and depth of 1 foot. On the south-west angle the breadth of the west face is 14 feet, and of the south 11 feet, and the depth of each is 1 foot.
The south-east angle, as at Rochester, contains the staircase. It has no projection on the east face, being covered by the fore-building. On the south its breadth is 20 feet, and its depth 6 feet. This alone preserves the remains of a turret above the battlements. Excepting the stair-turret, the angles of the keep seem solid below, though worked into chambers on the first floor.
There are also projections on the west and south wall. That on the west has a depth of 12 feet, and a breadth of 18 feet. The lower story is broken away; it was hollow, and looks as though meant for a gigantic cesspit. The upper part hangs unsupported save by the cohesion of its cement, and greatly needs conservation. This turret is about 51 feet from the north end, and 31 feet from the south. The projection on the south wall is 12 feet broad, and 8 feet deep. It is placed 24 feet from the west, and 44 feet from the east angle, coinciding with the partition-wall within. This turret is hollow, and forms a great shaft for garderobes in the upper stories. In its face, at the ground level, is a round-headed arch, of 3 feet opening, and 4 feet high, the outlet of the sewer, but above ground. These two turrets at present cease at the level of the parapet, but probably rose sufficiently above it to cover a garderobe. The keep has a plinth on the north, west, and south sides. The east face is covered by the fore-building. The walls are about 9 feet thick.
The keep has a basement floor at the ground level, and a first or state floor, and on the east side an upper floor. It is divided by a wall 9 feet thick into two unequal parts, that to the east being 29 feet, and that to the west 24 feet broad, each being about 84 feet long. A well-stair 12 feet diameter, ascended in the south-east angle from the basement to the battlements, lighted by loops, and with doors to each floor.
The east chamber into which this stair opens by a large and apparently round-headed door, now broken, was vaulted in two lines, each resting upon five cylindrical piers, about 3 feet 6 inches each in diameter, and averaging 14 feet from centre to centre. The vault seems to have been a barrel, groined. At each end were two square-headed loops, high above the floor, with stepped recesses. The east wall contains only three square lockers, and the door of the staircase. The west or partition-wall side is pierced by five openings, about 4 feet broad, and round-headed, three to the north and two to the south of the thick solid central part. Probably these were introduced to lighten the work, and all but one or two thinly walled up. One must have been a doorway, as from the eastern lay the only communication with the western chamber.
The western chamber seems to have been spanned by a single vault, apparently slightly pointed and groined in six bays. In each end is a single square-headed loop. On the west side are seven loops, the central part being occupied by the unpierced rear wall of the turret already described.
First floor, east side. This was evidently the hall. It is very lofty, and in its north end is a round-headed window of 2 feet opening, and 7 feet high to the springing. In the south end are two similar windows, but about 14 feet long, and a curious water-drain between them and the door. This, the door from the stair, is plain round-headed, and of 6 feet opening. Close north of it is a similar door, of 7 feet opening, quite plain, and without a portcullis. This is the main entrance, and opens from the barbican tower. Beyond this is a short window, and then three long ones, like those at the north end, so arranged as to open clear of the exterior barbican stair. The west wall has an opening at each end, the bulk of the wall being solid. The northern of the two openings was probably the great door of passage between the rooms; the southern communicated with the garderobe in the south wall. In the north-east angle is a very curious mural chamber, 12 feet east and west, by 9 feet north and south, vaulted in a single groined bay, round-headed, and springing from half-octagon brackets in the angles, each the cap of a detached shaft, now removed. In the north wall are two and in the east one loop. A door in the south wall opens into the north end of the hall, and one in the east wall passes obliquely through the wall, and evidently led to the battlements of the outer gate of the barbican, over the foot of its staircase. This room is much broken, but its fittings are original, and late Norman. If the hall had a fireplace in masonry, it was in the west wall, at a part recently repaired. It is not clear how the hall was roofed; possibly the original covering was a high-pitched roof, with the battlements above, but at present the side walls carry a table, with corbels of a plain billet moulding, on which an upper wall, about 12 feet high, is advanced 6 inches. In these walls are large window openings, with segmental arches, three on each side, which must have opened clear of the roof of the west chamber, and upon the battlements on the east side. In the south end, above the two narrow windows mentioned, is a third smaller one, as though to light a roof of high pitch. There are no corbels for principals, and no holes for main beams, but above the corbel table on each side is a range of holes, about 9 inches square, and as much apart, neatly stopped with ashlar, as though an original flat roof had been removed, and a roof of high pitch introduced. However this may have been, the windows of the side walls are clearly additional, and belonged to a second floor. Altogether the history of this roof is very obscure, and demands a close local investigation. The upper door in the well-stair is not at a level to suit a second floor, nor consistent with a high-pitched roof.
First floor, west side. In the north end is a round-headed window, 2 feet opening by 7 feet high, and a door into a now inaccessible mural chamber in the north-west angle. At the south end are two similar windows, and a door into a chamber in the south-west angle. In the east wall are the two broken doorways already mentioned, and the broken tunnels of two, if not of three, large fireplaces, the shafts of which, much broken, still rise clear of the roof. The fireplaces are gone, and the wall has been much patched recently to give it support. There are two rather curious lockers in this wall. In the west wall there seem to have been four round-headed windows of 2 feet opening and 7 feet high, and near the middle is a door opening into the middle buttress tower, which contains two chambers of unequal size. These are not accessible, but one was probably a large garderobe, and the other may have been the way to a small drawbridge, opening from the keep upon a rectangular tower in the ward, not 12 feet distant, so as to give direct passage from the keep to the outer walls. In the keep wall, north of this tower, is a large segmental-arched window, evidently an insertion, probably the work of Richard III. In the north-west and south-west angles, as already mentioned, are mural chambers, not accessible. There do not appear to be any galleries in the wall.
This west chamber was probably divided by a brattice, and the north part used as a withdrawing-room from the hall. There does not appear to have been a second floor on this side. It is, however, curious that there should be no corbels, nor any of the usual indications of the principals of an ordinary open roof. In each side wall, high up, is a row of holes, about 9 inches square and 18 inches from centre to centre, so that probably the roof was flat, or at any rate, was composed of heavy rafters, without principals.
The east face of the keep was occupied by the fore-building or barbican, and which, as was not uncommon, contained the chapel.
The approach seems to have been, as at Rochester, Scarborough, and elsewhere, by a flight of stone steps built against the wall, commencing, in this case, about 10 feet from its northern end, and rising about 20 feet to a vestibule, upon which opened, right and left, the great door of the keep, and that of the chapel. The staircase was about 9 feet broad, and 45 feet or 50 feet long to the vestibule. It seems to have been protected by a side wall, reducing the actual stair-breadth to (say) 5 feet or 6 feet, and to have been either vaulted or roofed with timber. Its lower gate must have opened beneath a small tower, the battlements of which were reached from the chamber in the north-east angle of the keep. About half-way up the staircase past what, from the appearance of the wall, seems to have been a second gate in the keep wall, is a large cavity capable of holding comfortably twenty men, evidently as a guard in case the entrance should be forced. Higher up, where the staircase landed on the vestibule, there seems to have been a third door.
The vestibule is part of the second floor of the usual rectangular barbican tower, built against the keep, about 12 feet from the south end of the east face. This tower measures about 33 feet north and south, and about 48 feet east and west. It rose about two-thirds of the height of the keep, and is divided into a basement or sub-crypt, an upper crypt, and a chapel and vestibule floor.
The basement is at the ground level. Next the keep, or rather, next the solid mass of masonry which supports the stair and vestibule, is the sub-crypt, 20 feet north and south, by 24 feet east and west. Beyond, that is, east of it, a passage runs right through the building, 5 feet broad, with a door at each end; and beyond this are the ruins of a small chamber, which probably reached to the outer curtain wall. The passage gave a communication between the north and south parts of the ward, otherwise divided, on this side, by the barbican tower, and from this passage a door led into the sub-crypt. This room was vaulted in two lines in eight bays, springing from a central line of three columns now gone. The arch gables show that the vault was round-headed. In the south wall at the west end is a well-stair leading to the upper crypt, and the only way to it. The sub-crypt is lighted by two small round-headed Norman windows in each of the two open faces, one on each side of an exterior plain pilaster buttress, 3 feet broad by 3 feet deep.
The first floor, or upper crypt, extended eastward over the passage the whole length of the barbican and was 20 feet broad, and probably 40 feet long inside. This also was vaulted, but the vault spanned the whole breadth, and formed two bays only. The ribs of the groining sprang from half-round mural pilasters. In the north wall, near the east end, is a fireplace. This floor has no communication with that above it. It was not uncommon for the basement of the barbican to be quite independent of the keep, and to be entered, as here, by an outer door of its own.
The second floor of the barbican contained the chapel and the vestibule, this floor being on the level of the great entrance to the keep. Whether the vestibule was vaulted is uncertain, probably it was. It is about 20 feet north and south, by 9 feet east and west, the entrance stair arriving at the north end, the keep door being on the west, and the chapel door on the east side. The chapel was loftier and vaulted in a lighter style than the crypts below. Its walls were 7 feet thick, and its area about 20 feet by 40 feet. It was vaulted in two bays in a light style, probably early English. The great door of the keep was plain Norman, but chamfered round the head and jambs. There are traces of caps, and probably there were two flanking shafts, but no mouldings or drip-stone. The walls of the barbican are, no doubt, mainly original, though the vaulting of the sub-crypt and crypt may have been renewed. The chapel probably replaces an earlier building.
Middleham seems never to have had any works beyond the enceinte wall, save a slight ditch, of which traces remain on the south side only. On the east, a field road has superseded the ditch, as have some modern buildings on the west side. There is no present trace of either ditch or drawbridge on the north or town front.
The keep is built of coursed rubble, with ashlar groins and dressings. The Decorated and later work is mostly of excellent ashlar.
As regards the age of the several parts of the castle, the keep is plainly late Norman, and, likely enough, the work of Robert Fitz-Ranulph, Lord of Middleham, in 1190; and to his immediate descendants are certainly due the earlier alterations, especially the chapel, before the extinction of the male line, in 1271.
No doubt the exterior ward is built on the site of a Norman enceinte, and some of the original work may remain; but this part of the fortress was completely recast by the Neviles, who married the Fitz-Ranulph heiress, and, no doubt, either by Robert, called the Peacock of the North, who had Middleham, &c., from his grandmother, and who died before 5 Edward II., 1331, or by Ralph, Lord Nevile of Raby, his brother and successor, who died 41 Edward III., 1367.
Of the later residence of Richard, Duke of York (Richard III.) the traces are the large window opening on the west face of the keep, and perhaps the upper story on the east side of the same building, and certain details added to the ward.
Middleham was a part of the broad territory granted by the Conqueror to Alan Fergaunt, the founder of Richmond Castle, and lord of that extensive Honour, stepping thus into the seat of the English Earl Edwin, which he shifted from the adjacent Gilling. His younger son, Ribald, had Middleham for his especial lordship, by the gift of the second Alan, his brother. Ribald was followed by Ralph, his son, and he by Robert FitzRalph, or Ranulph, who married Berta, niece of Ranulph de Glanvill, and is the reputed builder of Middleham Keep in 1191, 2 and 3 Richard I.
Ranulph FitzRobert was the founder of Coverham Abbey, “Near his manor-house of Middleham,” and was there buried in 1251 (31 Henry III.), leaving Ralph Fitz Ranulph, his son, who appears to have been lord of Middleham Manor in an inquisition for the partition of his lands (55 Henry III.), the year of his death. He left three daughters, co-heiresses, of whom Mary, the eldest, married Robert de Nevile, and had Middleham. Ralph died (55 Henry III.) 1271. It appears, by an inquisition under the name of Peter of Savoy, that Middleham was a fee owing suit of court to the Honour of Richmond. 18 Edward I., Maria de Nevile is styled Domina de Middleham, and 13 Edward II. she had the manor. She lived till 14 Edward II. (1320), having held Middleham for life.
Their son was Ralph Nevile, who died 5 Edward III., (1331), and who appears in an inquisition (1 Edward III.) as holding Middleham Manor and Castle. His son, Robert Nevile, the Peacock of the North, had from his grandmother the castle and manor of Middleham. He died, without issue, before his father, leaving Ralph his brother and heir, who died 41 Edward III. This Ralph, Lord Nevile of Raby, took a very active part in all the public transactions of his time, both in war and peace. He died seized of the castle and manor of Middleham, and was the first layman buried in the Cathedral of Durham.
The next lord was John, his son, also a great soldier and diplomatist. He died 12 Richard II., 1388, leaving Ralph, his son and heir, who added to the wealth and power of the family, and also held the castle, manor, and lordship of Middleham at his death in 4 Henry VI., 1425. John, son of Ralph, died before his father, 1423, who was succeeded by his grandson, Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, who died 2 Richard III. Middleham, however, had passed to Richard Nevile, Earl of Salisbury, son of Earl Ralph, who died 4 Henry VI., by his second wife, a daughter of John of Gaunt. The Earl of Salisbury, by an inquisition of 12 Richard II., had then Middleham. This is the earl who, in 37 Henry VI., marched with 4,000 men from Middleham into Lancashire on his way to London, to obtain redress from the king and queen for injuries done to his son. On this earl’s forfeiture, before 38 Henry VI., his Lancastrian kinsman, Sir John Nevile, was made constable of Middleham Castle, then in the Crown. Sir John fell at Towton, 1 Edward IV., and his son Ralph became Earl of Westmoreland. But Middleham remained in the Crown.
At Middleham, then in charge of Nevile, Archbishop of York, Edward IV. was confined by Richard, Earl of Warwick, the prelate’s brother. Edward escaped when hunting in the park. After Barnet the castle was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to the exclusion of the male heirs of the Marquis Montagu, Warwick’s brother. Richard was much here; raised the rectory to a deanery, with a view to the foundation of a college; and here his son Edward, Prince of Wales, was born. After Richard’s death, Middleham fell to the Crown, and was leased to various persons. Finally it was sold to Mr. Wood, of Littleton, ancestor of the present owner. Recently the keep has been partially cleared of rubbish, and some of the most dangerous portions have been under-pinned; but a little more assistance of the same character is much needed to save some of the most prominent features of the ruin from destruction.