Warwickshire: The Land of Shakespeare

by Clive Holland

The stabling, which is on the ground floor, of stone, and the upper part mostly of timber and brick, has in the centre a large porch and a wide entrance, as though this part of the building was once used for the purpose of a barn. The work is chiefly in the Late Perpendicular style, although traditionally of a much earlier date.

Mortimer’s Tower lies at the other end of the stable buildings, past the warder’s chamber, and is at the castle end of the tilt–yard or dam. Why called Mortimer’s Tower has never been satisfactorily settled, as although Scott and some other writers believe that it took its name from the Earl of March, who played the principal part in the great tournament in the reign of Edward I., and may possibly have lodged in it, others incline to the view that it derived it from the circumstance of a Sir John Mortimer having been imprisoned in it during the reign of Henry V. As a fact, the tower is more properly to be considered a strong double gateway, leading into the tilt–yard, and formerly provided with two portcullises and a double set of gates. Remains of chambers on either side are discoverable, the one on the left hand possessing a garderobe; the outer entrance is defended by two half–round towers, which are pierced with loopholes for repelling attack. The tower gateway leads out upon the high bank, which was originally a portion of the dam of the great lake, and was used as a tilt–yard. It extends for a distance of about eighty yards to the Gallery Tower placed at the end of this isthmus–like strip of land, which in ancient times separated the lower lake from the great lake. The Gallery Tower, however, cannot now be reached from the tilt–yard, owing to the fact that a deep cutting was made through the dam for the purpose of draining off the waters from the lake, but it can be seen embowered in trees from the castle side of the cutting. This name was probably derived from the fact that in ancient times it was furnished with “a broad and fair gallery, set aside for the use of the ladies, who were thus able to witness in comfort the jousts and feats of chivalry which took place in the tilting–yard,” and also a “spacious and noble room” for the same purpose. It was through this gate that Queen Elizabeth made her entry into the castle, and from it to the other gate the special bridge had been constructed across the lake.

The “Brayz,” which are huge mounds of earth, once forming formidable outworks to the castle, now overgrown by trees and underwood, probably derived the name from the Norman–French braie, meaning a low rampart; although another authority seems to think that the word was derived from “brayda,” a suburban field or broad place.

Near the Water Tower, which is situated almost midway between Lunn’s Tower and Mortimer’s Tower, can be traced the foundations of the castle chapel, built by John of Gaunt. The tower is an interesting example of architecture, in the ground–floor room of which, possibly originally a kitchen, is a fine fireplace. The upper chamber, from which a good view of Lunn’s Tower is obtained across the long, picturesque, and weather–stained roof of the stables, is known as the Queen’s Chamber; why, there is no record to tell, and it is, therefore, probable that the name is a fanciful one. The Warder’s Room, which contains a fireplace, and a large stone aumbry or recess, with a broken shelf, and also a garderobe, is principally constructed in the thickness of the wall, but projects to a slight extent on its outer face. It is situated almost exactly midway between the Water Tower and Mortimer’s.

The great lake, mention of which has already been made, was upwards of a hundred acres in extent, about a hundred yards in width, ten or twelve feet in depth, and extended round the castle on its southern and western sides for a distance of nearly half a mile. The second or smaller lake, which existed in medieval times on the southern and eastern sides of the castle, was drained by Leicester and converted by him into an orchard.

Entering the castle buildings themselves from the outer ward into the inner court, the huge impressive pile of Cæsar’s Tower rises above one on the right, with the ruins of Leicester’s buildings opposite, on the left. Once the inner court is entered, one has on the left the Privy Chamber, Presence Chamber, and the ruins of the suite of rooms used by Queen Elizabeth.

Immediately opposite the entrance to the inner court are the ruined walls of the great hall, under which is the postern leading out on to the ramparts by which, in Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, Wayland Smith was ejected by Michael Lambourne. The outer path to this postern cuts through the great bank on which the hall is placed, and which was the inner boundary of the moat of the older castle, the moat of which was what is now a hollow space between it and the garden wall. It seems probable that this great mound of earth was the buhr of the original Saxon owner. Other authorities, however, suppose that the mound was the site occupied by the keep.

The postern is a square–headed doorway, and formerly had a portcullis, but this must have been rather more for show than as able to afford any special security, as the huge windows of the hall above would have made the defence of this particular side of the castle a matter of considerable difficulty.

Cæsar’s Tower, and the block of buildings contiguous to it, are well seen from the point where the postern gate and passage running under the Banqueting Hall open upon the inner court.

From the summit of the Strong Tower one has a fine view of the surrounding country, and also of the gardens, pleasance, and the remains of the Swan Tower, now almost hidden in ivy and trees, the bottom stage of which used probably to be anciently used for the purposes of housing or feeding the swans in the moat.