Scarborough is not only a strong castle by nature and by art, but is capable of containing several thousand men,—in fact, a small army. South of Scarborough, also upon the coast, but where the natural advantages of the cliff had to be supplied by enormous earthworks, was Skipsea, held and strengthened by Drogo, William’s Flemish lieutenant in that country. Aldbrough was also a Holderness castle, built by Odo of Aumarle, of which there remain only the mound and the wall.
Between Scarborough and York stood Malton, a seat of Earl Siward, and held by David of Scotland against King Stephen. The masonry is now gone, but the site is still marked by the Roman camp within or upon the edge of which the castle stood. North of Malton is Pickering, once the burh of the English Morcar, where are the remains of a shell keep upon the mound. Here the mound is central between and common to both wards. The general enclosing curtain is tolerably perfect, and the whole affords an excellent example of the manner in which the Norman architects dealt with an earthwork when the mound stood in the centre of an enclosure, instead of as usual upon one side of it. On the edge of the Honour of Pickering is Hamlake or Helmsley, the seat of the Barons de Ros before they inherited Belvoir, and where the remains of a very late rectangular keep stand on one side of a rectangular court, having two regular gatehouses, walls built against lofty banks, and beyond them strong and extensive outworks in earth and masonry. It is difficult to form an opinion upon the age of these earthworks. They impinge upon and are certainly later than a small Roman camp. At Mulgrave and Normanby were castles; at the latter are still parts of a rectangular Norman keep. Mulgrave stands on the sea cliff. It was the seat of the Saxon Wada and afterwards the Castle of Nigel Fossard and the Mowbrays. At Gilling some early vaults and walls are worked into the later castle of the Fairfaxes. Thirsk, Black Bourton in Lonsdale, and Malzeard, the “capita” of three Mowbray Baronies, all contained castles of some importance in the twelfth century. Of Malzeard and Bourton the earthworks are considerable. Tadcaster, a place of strength both in Roman and Danish times, possessed also a Norman castle, of which, however, only the mounds remain; and there is even less of Hugh Puisèt’s work of Northallerton, surrendered to Henry II. in 1174, and ordered to be destroyed in 1177. Its earthworks are intersected by a railway. Of Tanfield, a Fitz-Hugh and Marmion castle, there are still some small remains.
The great castle of North Yorkshire is Richmond, so called by Earl Alan, who obtained in 1070 the possessions of the English Edwin, and removed the seat from the adjacent Gilling, where the earthworks long remained, to a stronger position on the Swale. The Norman Castle was built in 1071: it includes a large area, most part of which is defended by a natural cliff. The containing wall is mostly original, and within its substance is a curious small Norman chapel. The rectangular keep is placed at the weakest part of the circuit next to the town, and in front of it are the remains of a barbican. The well-known “Registrum Honoris de Richmond” specifies to which part of the castle the castle guard of each great tenant was due, and the Hall which the family of Scolland were bound to maintain and guard to this day bears their name. The town was also walled. Near Richmond are the scanty and late remains of Ravenswath, a Fitz-Hugh castle, and lower down the Swale was Bedale, the castle of “Le beau Bryan de Fitz-Aleyne,” now entirely gone, though the site is still pointed out. The warlike habits of the Lords are, however, represented by a curious portcullis closing the door of the belfry in the parish church. Middleham Castle, on the edge of its celebrated moor, was founded by Ribald, brother to Earl Alan, and ancestor in the female line of the great family of Neville, under whom the Norman keep received its handsome addition and gained its fame. Masham, a castle of the Scropes, is now a mere ruin. Drax seems to have been held by Ralph Paganel as early as the reign of Stephen. Merhall, in Weston, a castle of the Barons Lancaster, is reputed to have been demolished by King John. Killarby, Albruck-on-Tees, and Cawdwell were early castles, as were Armanthwaite, Bowes, Hatlesey, Sigston, and Whorlton. Of Gleaston, the moot-hill remains, which is thought to have been surmounted by a keep; and Hornby was also a Lonsdale castle. The passes of the Lune were, however, more celebrated for their defensive earthworks, due to the Danes or the English, than for Norman castles.
Coningsborough, on the Don, is no less from its position than its architecture one of the most remarkable of Yorkshire castles. Its grand cylindrical tower, supported by buttresses of great depth and height, is superior in design and workmanship to that of Pembroke, and almost rivals Coucy. It stands on the summit of a steep rocky knoll, and has been inserted into an earlier Norman wall, which is built upon the steep edge of the rock and encloses a court of moderate area. Upon the slope are the remains of the entrance and fortified approach, and at the base of the hill is a ditch, or rather a ravine, and on one side beyond it an outwork in earth. Probably the hill has been occupied as a place of strength from a very early time, but the masonry is the work of the Warrens Earls of Surrey, and is worthy of their greatness. Knaresborough Castle, on the Nidd, visited by Henry II. in 1181, occupies the top of a rocky promontory. Here the keep, though of Norman form and dimensions, is of Decorated date, and remarkable for the excellence of its details. The adjacent town has also been fortified, though apparently by a ditch and bank only. Pontefract, another celebrated Yorkshire castle, is also peculiar. Here the castle encloses a large and elevated platform of rock, scarped and revetted all round, and at one end of which, enclosing an earthen mound, is the circular keep. Much of its masonry is of the eleventh or the early part of the twelfth century. Its subterranean passages and chambers, of Norman date, are curious. Besides these, Yorkshire contains many other castles connected for the most part with great baronial families, and playing their part in the defence of the country against the Scots. Harewood, reputed a Danish seat, was the castle of Robert de Romeli; Skipton, also built by that family, contains some early parts, and has always been inhabited. Kilton was a castle of Cleveland, as was Castleton, where the Bruces fortified a moated mound. Burton was granted by the Conqueror to the same family, having been a seat of Earl Morcar; Danby was also a Bruce castle, and Skelton Castle, built in 1140, was the head of their barony. There was also the Archbishop’s castle of Cawood, and Crake, a castle of the Bishops of Durham, said to be mentioned in the seventh century. Baynard was a castle of the Lords Wake of Cottingham; Leeds Castle was besieged by Stephen in 1139; Wilton was an early castle of the Bulmers; Guisborough was founded in 1120; Sandal Castle, under the walls of which was fought the battle of Wakefield, was a late Warren castle, but the mound and earthworks are on a large scale and old. Yorkshire contained also a considerable number of fortified houses, some of which bore the names of castles, though whether of early date is uncertain; such were Ryther and Slingsby. There is said to have been a castle at Upsal, and one at Hilderskelf, in the grounds of Castle-Howard. Wressill and Sheriff Hutton in their present forms are very late, but the latter has an early history, and near the parish church are some remarkable earthworks, which it is thought mark the site of an early castle.
Yorkshire is rich in earthworks, and especially in moated mounds. Many have already been mentioned as having been incorporated into later castles; there are others of at least equal age and strength which do not seem ever to have been connected with masonry: such are Mexbrough, Castleton, Wakefield, Levington on the Leven, and others on the Lune. Some of these are known to have been the seats of English Earls and Thanes, and after the Conquest fell into disuse and decay, though at that period they were probably formidable.
Lancashire, in the castle-building age, was not recognised as a county, but was divided between the part then included in Yorkshire and the tract between the Mersey and the Ribble. This latter formed the great Barony of Roger of Poitou, a younger son of Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. His castle of Penverdant or Penwortham is named in “Domesday,” and its colossal mound is still called the Castle Hill, but the “caput” of the barony was the Castle of Clitheroe, the small but strong square keep of which stands on the point of a steep promontory of rock, and must have been nearly inaccessible to assault. Upon Earl Roger’s fall, Clitheroe came to the Lacys. The great castle of Lancashire is at Lancaster, well placed high above the broad water of the Lune, and within the area of a Roman castrum, whence it derives its name. Here, as at Carlisle, the railway is so laid out as to show the castle to great advantage. The castle is attributed to Roger of Poitou, but the Norman keep, a grand structure, ninety feet high, appears somewhat later, as is the Edwardian gateway, also a superb specimen of military architecture. Unfortunately, being a prison, the whole is closed against antiquarian visitors. There was a castle at Liverpool said to have been built by the same Roger in 1076. Merhull and Kirkby are Lancashire castles attributed to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfrid. There seems to have been a castle at Manchester, on the Irwell, just outside the old town, in Leland’s time, and one at Greenhalgh, and one near Rochdale, probably at Castleton, where was the burh of the English lord. At Halton is also a lofty burh, as usual near the church, indicating the site of the “aula” of the English lord, and of the keep of his Norman successor. Castlehead in Atterpole, near Cartmel, is also reputed an early castle. The castles of Holland, Hornby, Peel, Thurland, Ulverston, and Glaiston are probably of later date.
Cheshire, the palatine earldom of Hugh, named, probably by his posterity, “the Wolf,” standing upon the Welsh border, demanded and was supplied by many strong places. Chester, the seat of the earldom, represents the Roman Deva, the Castra Legionum; and the Norman castle, with a small and early rectangular keep occupying one corner of the area, stands on the verge of the river Dee. Near to Chester in Wirrall was Shotwick, of which the earthworks remain, and higher up upon the Dee was Holt. Beeston is almost the only remarkable fortress in the county. It stands on the platform of an inaccessible rock. The masonry is probably late, but the deep well may be a part of the Norman castle. All the fifteen barons of the palatinate, feudatories of Earl Hugh, had castles, but these, representing private estates, mostly continued to be occupied and became fortified houses. The sites and more or less of the remains are to be seen of Halton and Kinderton, the castles of William Fitz-Hugh and Venables; Shipbrook of the Vernons; Nantwich of Piers Malbanke; Malpas of Robert Fitz-Hugh; and Dunham of Hamo de Massy. There were also castles at Frodsham, Oldcastle, Uttersford, Pulford, Dodleston, Shockleach, Nantwich, Stockport, Burton, Ullerwood, Runcorn, West Derby, Northwick, Castle Cob, and probably some others. A large number of these sites are marked by moated mounds, and there are besides many similar mounds in the county to which masonry does not appear to have been added.
Thus, between the Thames and the Tees, the Bristol Avon and the Lune, the central parts of England contained at the close of the reign of Henry II. at the least 214 castles, of which about 17 had rectangular and 44 shell keeps. As to the remaining 153, nothing is accurately known, or they are found not to have belonged to either of the great types. Of these castles probably at least 180 stood on old English sites, and very few indeed can be said with certainty to have stood upon altogether new foundations.
There remain to be considered the castles of the northern counties, Westmoreland and Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, for centuries exposed to invasions from beyond the Tweed, and fortified accordingly. In this tract were at least four castles of the first class,—Durham, Bamburgh, Norham, and the strongly-posted town and castle of Berwick; and of the second class Brough, Appleby and Brougham, Cockermouth, Carlisle, Prudhoe and Newcastle, Ford and Alnwick, and Warkworth. Besides these were others, some perhaps at times almost their equals in importance, but the continued incursions of the Scots were fatal to the English fortresses, as were those of the English to the Scotch, and thus many on both sides the border were again and again burned and levelled, until they were either not rebuilt or only represented by peel towers and castellets, which again were destroyed, so that of very many castles the names only are preserved.
The lake country of Westmoreland was strong and contained little to attract plunderers; but on its edge on the winding Eamont is Brougham Castle, with a pure Norman keep, bearing testimony to the power of the Barons Vipont, its early lords. It stands upon the side of a well-preserved Roman camp, as does Brough, another Norman castle, also with a rectangular keep. A similar keep at Appleby is still inhabited. Kendal Castle is probably an early fortress, though nothing remains of it but an encircling and not very early wall. Westmoreland is peculiarly rich in fortified manor-houses, some of which may be on old sites, though the greater number, like the castle of Penrith, belong to a later period. There were peels or castellets at Bewly, Hartley, Howgill, and Pendragon.