Upon the motte a Shell Keep was erected in the late Norman Period; it is about 20 feet high, with walls nearly 10 feet thick, and is almost 70 feet in diameter. The walls are faced with Caen stone covering a core of Sussex stone and Chalk. The barbican, called the Bevis Tower, and a portion of the great gatehouse, were built in 1295 by Richard Fitz-Alan, who also erected four towers at equal distances round the enceinte. After the last siege the place remained a heap of ruins for many years, but about 1786 the tenth Duke of Norfolk began to rebuild it, and expended vast sums upon the fabric. The result was the practical re-erection of the present magnificent structure, a typical example of the stately homes of England, and an appropriate dwelling-place for our premier Duke, who has in comparatively recent years erected a sumptuous Cathedral as a fitting companion to the ancient baronial Castle.
Carisbrooke.—Carisbrooke stands upon a site which was undoubtedly a fortress occupied by the Jutes, who conquered the island; William Fitz-Osborne, Earl of Hereford, obtained possession from the Conqueror and reared a motte and bailey castle there. His son, who was imprisoned for life, forfeited the estates, which came into possession of Richard de Redvers, whose heir became Earl of Devon. Piers Gaveston held the Castle in the fourteenth century, and also the Earl of Rutland, son of Edmund of Langley; it was in the occupation of a number of persons subsequently but fell to the Crown in the fifteenth century. It is intimately associated with the unfortunate Charles I., who made three distinct attempts to escape from its confinement.
The mound of the Norman Castle was enclosed by a Shell Keep by Richard de Redvers; it is an irregular polygon of eleven faces and sixty feet in diameter, the walls being of enormous strength and thickness. Entrance is gained by a long flight of steps leading to a passage defended by a portcullis and double gates. The Keep encloses one of the two Castle wells.
Very extensive additions were made by Anthony, Lord Scales, who was Lord of the Castle in 1474. The majestic gateway dates from his time; it is a fine and impressive entrance, flanked by two lofty cylindrical towers with a good example of machicolation between the towers, added late in the fifteenth century. The ruins of the apartments occupied by the royal prisoner lie to the north of the enclosure. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth an elaborate system of fortification was carried out by an Italian engineer, in view of the advent of the Spanish Armada, but was never put to use. After the Restoration many regrettable alterations and additions were made by Lord Cutts, with a view to modernising it, but some of these have been modified recently by the Crown. The picturesqueness of the ruins and their surroundings are an acknowledged feature of the island, and few visit the latter without seeing this venerable relic of the past.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE RECTANGULAR KEEP, c. 1100-1200
We have seen that the Shell Keep was a logical sequence in the development of a castle which had been originally erected upon the Motte and Bailey plan, and the question will naturally suggest itself as to the nature of Castles which the Normans built in the twelfth century upon a site not previously occupied. This was the Rectangular Keep with its fortified enclosure, answering approximately to the Shell Keep and the bailey.