Beaumaris, another of Edward’s castles, deserves special attention from the fact that it stands upon open ground, and its plan is therefore unaffected by any peculiarities of level. It is composed of two wards; the inner rectangular, 58 yards by 66 yards, with high curtain walls, drum towers at the four angles, a gatehouse in the centre of each end and half-round towers in the centre of each side, of which one is the chapel. The apartments were in the gatehouses, and the hall was on the first floor, above the portal. The curtains are remarkable. They are 16 feet thick, but are pierced longitudinally below the ground level by a series of sewers, and above by a mural gallery, the rampart walk being above all. The outer ward is an irregular octagon, the opposite sides being equal. It is strengthened by twelve drum towers. The space between the two walls, forming the ward, is narrow—from 40 to 50 feet broad. At one end is a gatehouse, protected by a double traverse raking the passage, and at the other is a postern, part of a gatehouse, either unfinished or pulled down. From one end towards the sea shore projects a wall 5 yards broad and about 33 yards long, containing a passage looped each way and traversed by a gateway. This is a spurwork, and was connected with the quay, and ended in a round tower. There was but one ditch, which girdled the whole, and was fed from the adjacent sea. It is now filled up.
The additions to the Tower of London, by which its Norman keep and Early English inner ward were converted into a regular concentric castle, are skilfully managed. Here the second ward, as usual, is very narrow, and a broad and deep ditch girdles the whole. One limb of the ditch is, however, represented by the Thames, but between it and the outer wall is a strip of land serving as a quay for the landing of stores, of which the rear is strongly fortified. At each end was a sluice for regulating the water of the ditch, and in the centre a grand and strongly fortified water-tower, with a portcullised canal from the river, known as Traitors’ Gate. The annexed plan of the Tower represents very fairly a composite but concentric castle.
When the size of the fortress did not require more than one ward, as at Pennard in Gower, or where the ground was unsuitable, as at Conway and Chepstow, the concentric arrangement was laid aside. At Chepstow the Norman keep stands upon a steep ridge of rock, occupying its whole breadth. The additions, therefore, were necessarily at each end, so that the whole castle, constructed at various times, is an oblong, composed of five wards opening one from the other, with the keep in the centre. Its plan is, as it were, a slice cut right across a concentric castle.
In an Edwardian castle the principal feature was the hall, spacious, well lighted, usually with a handsome fireplace and an open timber roof. At Beaumaris it occupies the first floor of a gatehouse; at Ludlow, Durham, Pembroke, and Conway it is built against the curtain. The domestic apartments opened from the dais end of the hall. The accounts of Henry III. often record works in the halls of castles. 28 Henry III. a great louvre was ordered for the hall at Woodstock, and a new hall 60 feet by 40 feet at Ludgershall, with offices and two kitchens for the king and his household at one end of it. At Chepstow Henry ordered a hall and kitchen to be constructed of timber.
The kitchen was a very important part of an Edwardian castle. The Norman cookery was probably very simple, and few of their keeps have any discoverable kitchen. The later kitchen was often a great feature in the castle. At Caerphilly, as at Cockermouth, it occupies a large tower. At Ludlow it stood out alone in the court-yard. At Kenilworth its remains are considerable. The oven was often of large size. That at Morlais was 12 feet diameter.
The chapel is also an essential part of an Edwardian castle. Many of the Norman keeps contain mural oratories. In Newcastle, Dover, and Middleham there were regular chapels within the forebuilding. At Guildford the oratory is an ∟-shaped mural cell. At Caerphilly the chapel opened from the lower end of the hall. At Kenilworth foundations of a large chapel, of Decorated date, have been laid open in the outer ward. At Goderich the chapel is connected with the gatehouse, and at Prudhoe. At Beaumaris, Kidwelly, and Oxwich it occupied a mural tower. At Chepstow the chapel was on a large scale, and in the outer ward. There is also, in Martens tower, a charming Early English oratory. In royal castles, in the reign of Henry III., the chapel often appears in the accounts. In one castle Henry orders a chapel to be constructed 25 feet long, and the head of the oriel was to be in the king’s chamber. At Kennington Castle, the chapel was to be wainscotted and provided with a staircase of plaster 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Its upper part communicated with the queen’s private chapel, and the household sat below. At Winchester the chapel opened into the queen’s chamber, and at Woodstock was a passage between the two, so that the queen could go and return dryshod. Twelve mats for the worshippers were ordered in St. Thomas’ Chapel in Winchester Castle. Many of the larger castles contained regularly endowed chapels, sometimes, as at Windsor, even collegiate. Pontefract and Hastings were so provided. This was also the practice in Scotland. Dalkeith Castle had a chapel endowed in 1377, and to Lord Moray’s chapel, in Bucharm Castle, were attached certain tithes early in the thirteenth century. At Dunster and elsewhere was a provision that the officiating monks, who came from an adjacent priory, should during a siege perform their services at home.
An Edwardian gatehouse is a very imposing structure. It was usually rectangular in plan, always flanked in front by two drum towers, and sometimes in the rear by two others containing well-staircases. In its centre was the portal arch opening into a long straight passage traversing the building. Three loops in each flanking tower commanded the bridge of approach, raked the lateral curtain, and covered a point immediately outside the gate. Above the portal was usually a small window, and above that, at the summit, a machicolation set out on corbels, or in its place a sort of bridge, thrown across from tower to tower a couple of feet in advance of the wall, so that a chase or slot was left, down which stones or even beams could be let fall upon those who might be assailing the gate below. Such an arrangement is seen at Neath, Leybourne, and Pembroke, and is not uncommon. Over the town gate at Coucy and at the barbican gate at Ledes the projection was of timber, and part of it remains.
The portal arch, wide enough to admit a wain, or three men-at-arms abreast, was usually of the form known as “drop.” Within, the first defence was a herse or portcullis, and behind it a door of two leaves, opening inwards, and, when closed, held by one or two stout bars of oak, which could be pushed back into cavities in the wall. Behind the door the vaulting was often replaced by a flat roof of timber, through which worked a second portcullis, and then came two lateral doorways opening into porters’ lodges, usually connected with a small prison. At St. Briavels the lodge doors are portcullised. At the end of the boarded space the vault recommenced, and there was a second pair of doors and a second portcullis. These two were intended against assaults from within, each gatehouse being constructed for an independent defence.
Usually, in addition to these gates and doors, the vault was pierced with from one to five square or round holes, about a foot across, called “meurtrières.” These might serve to hold posts to check the entrance of a body of men, or for thrusting pikes down upon them. They have also been supposed to be intended to allow water to be poured down, supposing the passage filled with bushes set on fire, though it is difficult to see how any quantity of water could be obtained, any more than melted lead or pitch, which are spoken of. The first floor of the larger gatehouses contained a handsome chamber with lateral doors leading to the ramparts of the curtain, and sometimes, as at Caerphilly and the Tower, to an oratory. The portcullises were worked through the floor, and their tackle must have given an air of warlike reality to the room, like the guns in a state-cabin at sea. At Caerphilly and Chepstow the passage to the curtains is protected by a portcullis and a drawbridge, of which the pit is a deep hollow in the wall.