[355] This is the date proposed by Bates, Border Holds: C. H. Hartshorne (Archæol. Inst., Newcastle, vol. ii.) proposed a later date, c. 1435-40. Mr Bates’ date is more likely than the other: for neither is there any direct evidence.
[356] New works were begun at Porchester in 1386, when Robert Bardolf, the constable, was appointed to impress masons, carpenters, etc., and to take materials at the king’s expense (Pat. 8 Rich. II., pt. 2, m. 23). This probably applies to the building of the barbican, but the hall may also have been remodelled at this period. There are considerable remains of twelfth-century work in the substructure of the hall, as already noted.
[357] The stone gatehouse of the Norman castle appears to be incorporated in the fourteenth-century work, the outer archway, which was covered by a barbican, being merely a facing added to earlier work. The inner walls of the gatehouse were also lengthened, as part of the fourteenth-century enlargement.
[358] John of Gaunt was duke of Lancaster 1362-99. The gatehouse of Lancaster castle, known as John of Gaunt’s gateway, was not built until after his death. See p. [327].
[359] This hall was probably built late in the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth century.
[360] Charles also seems to have rebuilt the chapel on the south side of the enclosure.
[361] See the drawing by Androuet du Cerceau and plans in W. H. Ward, French Châteaux and Gardens in the XVIth Century, Plates III., IV., and p. 11.
[363] The three principal features of the strong tower at Stokesay are (1) its isolation from the range of buildings adjoining it, its only entrances being from the outside, in the basement and on the first floor; (2) the division of its face towards the field into two small half-octagons; (3) the stairs carried from floor to floor in the thickness of the wall. The stair from the basement to the first and second floors crosses the entrance-lobby on the first floor; but, in order to reach the roof, the second-floor chamber has to be passed through, and a new stair entered in the embrasure of a window. This was planned partly, as at Richmond and Conisbrough, to give the defenders complete control of the stair, and partly to keep the stair within the wall of the tower which was least open to attack, and could therefore be lightened most safely.
[364] This was done towards the end of the twelfth century. The licence stated that the wall was to be without crenellations (sine kernello).