[564] There are similar nook-shafts to Henry II.’s keep at Scarborough, and to Castle Rising. Mr Hartshorne (Arch. Journ., v., 207) thought that there had been an earlier stone keep at Peak Castle, because some moulded stones are used in the walls, and because there is some herring-bone work in the basement. But this herring-bone work only occurs in a revetment wall to the rock in the cellar; and the moulded stones may be quite modern insertions for repairs, and may have come from the oratory in the N.E. angle, or from some of the ruined windows and doorways. The sums entered to this castle between the years 1172 and 1176 are less than half the cost of Scarborough keep, and do not appear adequate, though the keep was a small one. But there is some reason to think that the cost of castles was occasionally defrayed in part from sources not entered in the Pipe Rolls.
[565] Rex E. tenuit Peneverdant. Ibi 2 carucatæ terræ et reddebant 10 denarios. Modo est ibi castellum.... Valent 3 libras. D. B., i., 270.
[566] We need not resort to any fanciful British origins of the name Peneverdant, as it is clearly the effort of a Norman scribe to write down the unpronounceable English name Penwortham.
[567] See ante, under [Clitheroe].
[568] Mr Halton’s book (Documents relating to the Priory of Penwortham) throws no light on this point.
[569] Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. ix., 1856-1857, paper on “The Castle Hill of Penwortham,” by the Rev. W. Thornber; Hardwick’s History of Preston, pp. 103-11.
[570] In a paper published in the Trans. Soc. Ant. Scot, for 1900, on “Anglo-Saxon Burhs and Early Norman Castles,” the present writer was misled into the statement that this hut was the remains of the cellar of the Norman bretasche. A subsequent study of Mr Hardwick’s more lucid account of the excavations showed that this was an error. There were two pavements of boulders, one on the natural surface of the hill, on which the hut had been built, the other 5 feet above it, and 12 feet below the present surface. The hut appeared to have been circular, with wattled walls and a thatched roof. Several objects were found in its remains, and were pronounced to be Roman or Romano-British. The upper pavement would probably be the flooring of a Norman keep.
[571] Mr Roach Smith pronounced this spur to be Norman. As its evidence is so important, it is to be regretted that its position was not more accurately observed. It was found in the lowest stratum of the remains, but Mr Hardwick says: “As it was not observed until thrown to the surface, a possibility remained that it might have fallen from the level of the upper boulder pavement, 5 feet higher.” We may regard this possibility as a certainty, if the lower hut was really British.
[572] Mr Willoughby Gardner says the castle commands a ford, to which the ancient sunk road leads. Victoria Hist. of Lancashire, vol. ii.
[573] Hugh Candidus, Cœnob. Burg. Historia, in Sparke’s Scriptores, p. 63. This passage was kindly pointed out to me by Mr Round. Hugh lived in Henry III.’s reign, but he must have had the more ancient records of the monastery at his disposal.