[335] The tower of Belsay measures 51½ by 47½ feet. The tower of Knaresborough, which is of the same period, measures 62 by 54 feet; while that of Gilling measures 79½ by 72½ feet.
[336] This is said to have been the medieval vicarage of the church, which was appropriated to the cathedral priory of Carlisle. A pele-tower forms part of the rectories of Elsdon and Rothbury and of the vicarage of Embleton, Northumberland.
[337] The term “pele-yard” is applied to the base-court of the castle of Prudhoe in Pat. 1 Rich. II., pt. 1, m. 1; where there is a licence to Gilbert de Umfraville, earl of Angus, to apply a rent to the augmentation of a chaplain’s stipend in the “chantry of St Mary in le Peleyerde of Prodhowe.”
[338] Enlart (ii. 623-753) quotes 242 examples of French churches which show remains of fortification. Most of the midland and southern departments of France contain a few; but the thickest clusters occur near the northern frontier (15 in the Aisne, 10 in the Ardennes department), and on the coast of Languedoc and Roussillon, where inroads of pirates were common (Pyrénées-Orientales 22; Hérault, 12). Among the larger fortified churches were the cathedrals of Agde, Béziers, Lodève, and Saint-Pons (Hérault), Elne (Pyrénées-Orientales), Pamiers (Ariège), Viviers (Ardèche), and Saint-Claude (Jura), and the abbey churches of Saint-Denis (Seine), Saint-Victor at Marseilles (Bouches-du-Rhône), La Chaise-Dieu (Haute-Loire), Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne), and Tournus (Saône-et-Loire). The example of Ewenny was followed in one or two churches of the same district, such as Newton Nottage, and in the peninsula of Gower.
[339] At Llanfihangel-cwm-Du, near Crickhowell, there was a fireplace upon the first floor of the tower until recently: the vent for the smoke remains in one of the corner turrets of the tower.
[340] The constant pressure of Scottish invasion upon the northern border is illustrated by the persistence of military architecture in the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. Thus, as late as 1399, William Strickland undertook the building of Penrith castle “for fortifying that town and the whole adjacent country” (Pat. 22 Rich. II., pt. 2, m. 16; cf. pt. 3, m. 37).
[341] Bishop Burnell was building this house in 1284. He left the king at Conway on 25th July, to look after the progress of the works (Pat. 12 Edw. I., m. 7).
[342] 4th July (Pat. 3 Rich. II., pt. 1, m. 43). A contract is still preserved, of 14th September 1378.
[343] 26th April (Pat. 5 Rich. II., pt. 2, m. 21).
[344] The builder of Raby, John, Lord Neville (d. 1388), was also responsible for the fortification of Sheriff Hutton.