CASTLE RISING: stair of forebuilding
Rochester; internal cross-wall
As the main doorway of a tower-keep was set in the outer face of a thick wall, a narrow passage had to be traversed before the interior of the tower was reached. At Castle Rising, the wall is comparatively thin, and the doorway is recessed deeply, so that the tower is entered directly. In most cases, the keep was divided internally into two parts by a cross-wall, which reached from the basement to the summit.[182] This wall was often central, as at Porchester, Rochester, and Scarborough; but in towers which are oblong in plan, as at Castle Rising and Middleham, it divided the keep into two unequal rectangles. At Bowes, as also in the Norman keep of Domfront, it was so far from being central that it cut off only a narrow oblong from the interior, the large main room on the first floor of Bowes being left nearly square. In a square keep, the cross-wall was frequently opposite the main entrance, and parallel with the fore-building. At Hedingham, Lancaster, Porchester, and Scarborough, it is at right angles to the fore-building, so that the main entrance is, as in the oblong keep of Castle Rising, in an end, and not in a side of one of the rooms. The cross-wall at Scarborough was not continued to the second floor; and, on the first floor, a transverse arch took its place, throwing the two main rooms into one. A great transverse arch, perhaps the finest architectural feature in any of our tower-keeps, also spans the second floor at Hedingham, in place of the cross-wall ([147]). On the second floor at Rochester, the cross-wall is represented by two pairs of rounded arches, divided by a central block of wall containing the well-shaft ([145]). But a cross-wall was not an universal feature of a tower-keep. Neither Clun nor Guildford, towers of moderate size, have one; and, of the greater keeps, Newcastle, Richmond, and Kenilworth have undivided interiors. This is remarkable in a keep of the area of Kenilworth: at Newcastle and Richmond the walls are so solid that the interior space is comparatively small, while at Newcastle additional room was supplied by unusually spacious mural chambers. At Castle Rising, in addition to the main cross-wall, each of the divisions of the keep has a smaller cross-wall at its extremity, cutting off additional apartments from the main rooms, and allowing in one place the insertion of an upper floor.
Of the divisions of the tower, whether divided by a cross-wall or not, the basement was probably used for the storage of arms and provisions. It sometimes contained the opening of the well of the keep.[183] The first floor, where there was no other, contained the main apartment or hall. In the loftier type of keep, this was on the second floor, and, as we have just seen, the substitution of an arch or arcade for the cross-wall sometimes converted this floor into one large apartment. At Dover and Porchester, as in the Tower of London, the division into two apartments was maintained, and there is only a small doorway through the cross-wall. The second room, in these instances, probably formed the “great chamber” or private apartment of the lord of the castle when in residence. Where the hall was on the second floor the first floor was probably set apart for the garrison in time of siege and for the servants. The provision for private bedrooms was, in those days of publicity, extremely small; but where, as at Dover and Newcastle, the thickness of the wall allowed of several large mural chambers, some of them may have been devoted to this purpose; and in some keeps, as at Hedingham, an upper floor above the main apartments was provided, which doubtless served this end.[184]
HEDINGHAM: doorway of great tower
HEDINGHAM: second floor of great tower