UPPER FLOOR

The keep, the chapel, and the gatehouse, the only parts in early masonry of which anything now remains, were probably among the works earliest executed. The Keep is a very noble example of the rectangular Norman type. Not that its area, still less its height, would place it in the first rank, but to considerable dimensions it adds a degree of ornament rarely bestowed upon military buildings, and though a ruin, its parts are unusually well preserved, and excellent both in materials and workmanship. Like Hedingham, it stands within, but not in the centre of, the inner ward. It almost touches the slope of the western bank, and is about thirty yards from the gatehouse and the eastern bank. Between the north and south banks it is nearly midway. It is in plan rectangular, measuring at the base 75 feet east and west, by 64 feet north and south, and, to the rampart walk, 50 feet high. Each face is flanked by two pilasters, 7 feet broad by 6 inches projection. These meet at, but do not cover, the angle, and the nook so formed is occupied by a shaft, not quite detached, and similar shafts take the place of the other angles of each flanking pilaster. Intermediate, on the north and south faces, are three pilasters of 3 feet breadth, and there is one on the east face, all dying into the parapets. The west face is of a complex character. Upon it are two large recesses, 9 feet broad and 2 feet deep, of which one is arched over the near parapet level. There are, besides, four recesses, each of 4 feet opening, by 2 feet 6 inches deep, arched over a little below the first-floor level. All these five recesses have their soffits pierced by the vents of garderobes. The wall has only one slight set-off near its summit. The flanking pilasters have none, the others mostly two, but very high up. There was a square turret at each angle, now nearly gone. At the base of these turrets, the nook-shafts ceased, and the turret angle was solid. The parapet is gone. Considerably below its base were round holes, apparently to take off the water. The walls at the base are, the north and east sides, 7 feet, the south 6 feet 6 inches, and the west 6 feet thick, and this thickness is preserved to the top, or very nearly so. The east face is covered by the forebuilding, here very perfect. This prolongs the north front by 20 feet, and the south by 9 feet. The keep has a basement at the ground level, and a first floor. At two points, however, the upper floor is subdivided so as to give a partial second floor. Part of the forebuilding also, as at Rochester, has a second floor. The entrance is in the south end of the building, in which a straight stair rises to the main door of the keep, which is at the first-floor level. There are well-staircases, 7 feet diameter, in the north-east and south-west angles of the keep, ascending by seventy-six steps from the base to the summit, and communicating with the first floor. It is, however, to be observed that the base of the well-stair is about 4 feet above the ground-level, so that it is entered by a stair of five steps, projecting into the rooms. This seems to have been the case at Dover, before the floor was raised. It is difficult to discover the reason for it.

The keep is divided into a north and south chamber by a cross-wall, 6 feet thick, which ascends to the roof. The two chambers are 58 feet long; the north 25 feet, and the south 16 feet broad. The north chamber was again divided, equally, longways, by an arcade of four lofty arches, of 11 feet span, springing from corbels in the wall, and from three square piers, 3 feet broad by 4 feet. The spandrel walls of this arcade supported the joists of the floor above. The three eastern arches and their two piers are gone. The western pier gives off two lateral arches north and south, dividing the end bay into two square spaces, which are vaulted and groined and carry upper chambers, shortening by so much the upper great room or hall. This lower room is aired rather than lighted by three loops in the north and two in the west wall, placed high up and in splayed recesses, round-headed. There is also in the north wall a small lobby at the foot of the well-stair, from which there seems to have been a passage rising 3 feet into a mural chamber 8 feet above the ground. In the west end of the great chamber an interior door at the ground-level has been broken. It has a pointed head, and is an insertion. Probably it represents a loop. A round-headed doorway of 4 feet aperture opens in a segmental recess in the cross-wall into the south chamber. The door opened towards the north, and was barred on that side. The recess is groined. The well is in the floor of the north chamber, between two of the piers, under the second arch from the east. It is 4 feet diameter, with a pipe of ashlar rising about 3 feet above the ground-level.

The south chamber was crossed by three plain broad arches, springing from corbels high up in the wall, and carrying the joists of the floor above. The eastern bay, however, is vaulted and groined, and supports the chapel. The other two arches are broken away. This chamber has four loops to the south and one to the west. Its well-stair also has a small lobby in the wall, 5 feet above the floor. In the east end of the south wall is a door ascending four steps, which opens into the staircase of the forebuilding. Although this door, in its present state, appears not to be original, it may be really so. There is one in a somewhat similar position at Dover.

The first floor is also divided into two main chambers by the cross-wall, and each is shortened by the rooms cut off, from one at the east, and from the other at the west, end. The great chambers are, the north, 47 feet by 23 feet, and the south, 42 feet by 15 feet. The north room was the hall. It was entered from the vestibule of the forebuilding by a handsome main door, of 6 feet opening, near the north end of the east wall. Close to it, in the same wall, is a second round-headed door, which descends by ten steps upon the staircase of the forebuilding. This door is evidently an insertion in the place of a loop. A third and small door, segmental, opens into a narrow mural passage leading over the middle gate of the fore-building, and by a branch into the chapel. In the cross-wall, a door opens into the south chamber, and near it is a deep round-headed recess, 5 feet from the floor, perhaps a cupboard, and again a recess, 8 feet broad and 5 feet deep, at the floor-level, possibly for a brazier of charcoal, but without a flue. Near the east end of this same wall is a small window, a Decorated insertion, and near it a segmental door, both opening into the ante-chapel. The north wall is pierced by a gallery, 3 feet 6 inches broad, of five bays, between each of which is a plain arch, reducing the way to 2 feet 9 inches. Two of these bays have coupled exterior windows, one pair square-headed, the other round-headed and trefoiled, and on each cusp a disc, as in the recess at Coningsburgh, producing a heavy effect. The fifth bay has a loop. Four of these bays open by large arches, at the floor-level, into the great chamber, of which this gallery thus formed a part. The eastern bay communicates with the well-stair. It is groined, and its side towards the chamber seems to have been partially closed, and there are three small shafts which seem to have opened into the mural chamber below. They cannot be for garderobes, and their use is obscure. This bay has a very handsome window, of two lights, coupled, and the shaft common to the two is worked in a rather remarkable fret or knot. These windows had shutters. There is no trace of glass. The gallery, which is 62 feet long, has a loop at its west end, and a rude opening, probably once a window, of three small lights, near that end in the north wall. The north-west aisle is occupied by a cylindrical shaft, 5 feet 6 inches diameter, which commences with the floor-level, and is open like a fireplace. At the roof-level it is gathered in with brick, and ascends as a chimney-shaft. In its sides are four loops, in two tiers, besides six small round-headed niches higher up, probably for the escape of smoke and steam. At this end the gallery opens into a lofty vaulted chamber, in the east wall of which an opening has been broken into the hall, and in the south wall is a curious low segmental recess, of 10 feet span and 3 feet rise, partly walled up, and in the upfilling some small niches. The great height of this chamber, the vaulted roof, the shaft and steam-holes at one corner, the niches round it, and its position next to the hall, point it out as the kitchen.

In the west end of the hall a door leads into a room corresponding with the kitchen, to the south of it. This is 8 feet by 12 feet, and has three niches in its west and two in its east wall. In its north and south walls are arches of relief, like that of the flat recess in the kitchen. The reason for these three arches, turned in three parallel walls, is not apparent. Two of these might serve to direct the weight of the wall above from the vault below upon the piers, but the third is in the cross-wall, which is solid. The south room had a timber roof, and was probably a sort of still-room, for light cooking or pastry. Between these two rooms a door from the hall opens into an ∟-shaped vaulted passage, ending in a mural vault, 10 feet by 5 feet, in the west wall of which are two loops and two double garderobes.

The roof of the hall was of timber, resting on six pairs of principals, of which the corbels that carried the hammer-beams remain. Some are carved as male or female heads, and one represents an animal. The pitch of the gable is marked upon the east wall, across which, at the level of the corbels, is a bold band of chevron work, and upon this rests a window of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which gave light from an upper mural gallery into the roof. In this gable a second opening, 7 feet wide, has been made into the same gallery. This larger window cuts the chevron band, descending somewhat below it. It was evidently an insertion to give more light to the hall, and is opened on one side instead of in the place of the small window, in order that it may be clear of the forebuilding.

The south chamber was entered from the hall by a doorway 5 feet broad, placed in a large recess 5 feet deep. In the south wall are two round-headed windows, trefoiled, with discs on the cusps, and between them a fireplace and chimney-shaft have been inserted, probably during the Tudor period. There is also a sort of cupboard in this wall, and a door opening into a lobby 7 feet by 3 feet 4 inches, which opens upon the south-west well-stair. In the east wall is a small door, a Decorated insertion, opening into the chapel. In the north wall, besides the door from the hall, are a cupboard and a small segmental door, opening into a mural garderobe in the west wall. In the west end are two small doors opening into mural chambers, each containing a garderobe lighted by a loop. It will thus be seen that all the garderobes are upon the west front, and there seem to have been others in the battlements above them. The south chamber had a lofty open roof like that of the hall, but high up in its west gable a window has been opened as though to suit an added interior gallery or balcony at the level of the room above the chapel at the opposite end. This window, however, is the only indication of such an insertion, nor are there any other windows or any traces of floor-joists, only below the window are some joist-holes. This window is of two lights, lancet-shaped and trefoiled. In the central spandrel is a peculiar ornament composed of four loops, which outside are replaced by a small circle. This window stands in a full-centred recess which may be original, but the window itself is an insertion.

Walled off at the east end of the chamber is the ante-chapel, 9 feet by 13 feet, and vaulted. It is placed partly in the cross-wall and partly in the south chamber. It has a door and window into the hall, of which the latter seems an insertion. Also are seen a door and two loops, of hour-glass section, in the opposite or south wall opening into the chapel. In the east wall is a door, whence a narrow passage leads upon the roof of the forebuilding over the middle gate.