Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

City and castle are naturally strong. The castle occupies a bluff, projecting towards the north, in a position which no doubt created its early, and caused its long-continued importance. Across its front flows the deep and rapid Eden, here seven miles from the sands, and a score from its final disappearance in the Firth of the Solway. Above the city, and covering its eastern flank, the Petterill comes down to reinforce the Eden, which river, close below the city and beneath its walls, receives, by two branches, the waters of the Caldew, which thus covers the flank of the post towards the west.

The city, so protected on the three sides on which it was most liable to be attacked, is built upon ground about 60 feet above the Eden, and which, slightly rising, terminates to the north in the prominence occupied by the castle, and which no doubt is the site of the “Caer,” whence, whether of British or Roman origin, the city derives the first half of its name.

Luguballia, or Caer Luel, does not stand upon, but about a mile within, the line of the Roman wall. This great work, coming from the direction of Wallby, and in the line of Linstock and Drawdykes, passed by Stanwix, across the river, to terminate on the Solway, at Dykesfield, near Burgh-upon-Sands.

The castle occupies the northern, highest, and strongest part of the city, about 60 feet above the river. It is built upon the New Red Sandstone rock, and to the east, north, and west the slopes are very steep towards the meads, which fringe to a considerable breadth the left bank of the Eden, and the right of the Caldew. In plan the castle area is nearly a right-angled triangle, of which the right angle is to the south-west, and the long side, somewhat convex, and 256 yards in length, is presented towards the north and east. Of the other sides, that towards the city on the south is 200 yards, and that to the west 143 yards in length. The space within the walls is rather under three acres.

The outer defence towards the city is an artificial ditch, 240 yards long, 30 yards broad, and about 10 yards deep, cut across the high ground from slope to slope, and stopped at each end by the wall connecting the city with the castle, which thus, though an independent work, is made to form part of the general enceinte. Between the castle and the city is an open space, about 78 yards broad, which contains the ditch and a broad glacis, and which, with the castle, lies outside the municipal boundary. On the west side, about 45 yards within this boundary, is Irishgate Brow, the site of the Irish gate of the city. The Scottish gate stood on a somewhat similar position on the east side; and the third or English gate, guarded by the citadel, was at the opposite or south end of the city.

The castle is composed of an outer and an inner ward, the keep standing in the latter. The inner ward forms the eastern end or apex of the area, of which it occupies about a fifth, and it is divided from the outer ward by a cross wall, 90 yards long, upon the low salient of which is the inner gatehouse. The other sides of this ward are the east, 96 yards, and the south, 73 yards. The keep stands in the south-west angle, about 20 feet from the two adjacent curtains, of which the south is thrown out about 18 feet to gain space, and to form a shoulder flanking the outer gate.

The main entrance is from the city in the middle of the south front, 40 yards west of the keep, through the great gatehouse. The drawbridge across the ditch was removed in the last century, and is replaced by a bridge of stone, which crosses the ditch and leads up to the gatehouse, called John de Ireby’s or Irby’s tower. It opens into the outer ward.

The plan of this gatehouse is peculiar. It may be conveniently described as a plain structure, 44 feet square and of 20 feet projection in front of the line of the curtain. It is composed of a basement and upper floor, but the entrance, instead of passing, as usual, through the centre of the building, is at its east end. The south-east angle of the building is hollow, forming a nook or recess of 18 feet each way, the two outer sides being walls 6 feet thick, and about half the height of the main building. These walls are provided with parapets, front and rear, so as to form a covered way, which communicates with the east curtain. In front of this inclosure is the outer gate, of 11 feet opening, with a drop-pointed arch, placed in a sunk square-headed panel, intended to lodge the drawbridge when lifted. This entrance leads into an open chamber 12 feet square, commanded by its outer walls. It is, in fact, a barbican, niched in a hollow angle of the gatehouse, with outer walls the height of the curtain. The barbican leads to a second archway, with a portcullis in a square groove, and a gate. Then follows a vaulted passage ending in another gate which opens into the ward. In the passage, on the left, is a lancet doorway opening upon a rising well-staircase, and beyond it a drop-arched door opening into the lodge. On the right hand is a shoulder-headed door, which leads, or did lead, into a staircase. In the front wall of the gatehouse are two corbels, which seem to have carried a small oriel or bartisan, commanding the approach. Appended to the east side of the gatehouse, but entirely within the ward, is a smaller building, fitted on obliquely, as though an addition.

Entering the outer ward, the well is seen at 40 yards’ distance. The buildings within the ward are modern, of various degrees of ugliness, and painfully substantial. Some are detached and harmless; others are built into the old curtain, so as to conceal and more or less injure it. The curtain, which is extremely curious, and most of it original, is best seen from the outside. Besides the gatehouse, it carries but one mural tower,—an original one, open in the gorge, in the centre of the west front.

The gatehouse of the inner ward is placed upon the salient and central point of the cross curtain. It is called the Captain’s Tower. It is rectangular, or nearly so, about 32 feet each way, with a projection from the curtain of 18 feet. There is one floor above the portal, which is central. The gateway is a low drop arch, flanked by a pair of buttresses. The passage is vaulted, and has a door at each end, and at the inner end also a portcullis. Over the outside of the inner gateway is a ring of tracery, unusual, but effective. Much of this gatehouse is Decorated, but the buttresses seem Norman.