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

by George Thomas Clark

ALNWICK CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND.

THE castle of Alnwick stands upon a moderate eminence on the south bank of, and about 150 yards distant from, the river Alne, which was thus its immediate defence against the Scot. It is about five miles from, and about 200 feet above, the sea-level. Towards the east and south the castle is cut off from the town of Alnwick by a deep combe, once the bed of the Bow Burn. This has been trimmed and scarped by art, and its upper part towards the town has been almost obliterated by modern upfilling.

To the west is a nearly level platform in front of the castle, and separated from it by a ditch wholly artificial, and in part filled up and covered by the stables. This ditch was formerly produced along the south front, and communicated with the Bow Burn ravine. A modern bank of earth conceals the town from the castle on this, the south-western quarter.

The walls of Alnwick town were embattled, and probably built, under a licence to Henry Percy, in 1434, when he constructed the Bond Gate, now standing. It is uncertain whether the town wall was independent of the castle, as at Chepstow, or abutted against its outer wall, as at Carlisle. The main entrance to the castle and its principal postern were both outside the town. The former was approached from it by a town gate, the position of which is remembered, and its name preserved, in the way called “Narrow Gate.” The castle postern opens towards the river. The Lion gateway in the south wall, leading to the town and the railway station, is altogether a modern structure, but may represent a by-gate communicating with the town.

In plan the castle is irregular and many-sided; the west and south sides terminate, the one in the Abbot’s Tower, and the other in the Eastern or Ravine Tower, and are 125 yards and 213 yards long; and the side towards the river, and contained between these two towers, is 226 yards. The area within the walls is nearly 3 acres; that included by the ditch is near 7 acres.

There is no single keep-tower. The keep is in plan an irregular polygon, set round with clustered towers, and containing a central court. This is placed nearly in the middle of the general inclosure, with which it was connected at three points: one, on the south, by a bold and lofty gallery which has replaced an original curtain, and projects 35 yards from the keep to a gatehouse which divides the eastern and western wards, and is known as the Middle Gate. The other connexions on the north side were two curtain walls, of which one reached from the keep 33 yards to the Falconer’s Tower, now rebuilt and shifted, and had upon it the Armourer’s Tower, now destroyed; and the other was a curtain, now removed, which extended 20 yards from the keep to the Postern Tower.

By these arrangements the area was subdivided into an outer or western, an inner or eastern ward, and a central open keep. There remained, however, on the north front a three-sided space, bounded by the keep and the two curtains, and flanked by the Falconer’s and Postern towers. This space, open towards the river, is at present protected on that side by a low retaining terrace-wall and bastions of very modern date. A survey of 1567 shows this side open, and no doubt it was so originally; the river, its steep bank, the keep, the flanking towers and curtains, and no doubt palisade, being regarded as a sufficient defence. This disposition is, however, singular and very curious, and looks as though the engineer wished to attract the enemy to this the strongest and most completely flanked part, by a show of weakness by the absence of an outer enceinte. Economy of construction could not have been the motive, for the cross curtains, in length, would go some way towards completing the broken enceinte.

It would seem, from existing fragments and traces of foundations, that the lines of the present enceinte and keep are those of the old Norman fortress. The outline is governed very much by the disposition of the ground, and the shell keep was the approved Norman way of occupying such a knoll, whether natural, as at Durham, or artificial, as at Windsor, or, as here, probably a very slight addition to a natural knoll. A distinct ditch, now filled up, encircled the keep and protected it from its containing wards. Towards the river this ditch seems to have worked out into a steep scarp.

The keep is at this time an open court surrounded by towers. To the south-east, the gatehouse, about 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, has grand external and internal round-headed Norman arches of 9 feet 2 inches span, the vault between being segmental and crossed by plain chamfered ribs. The exterior arch has a double band of bold chevron mouldings within a circle of double-hatched work. The inner arch has a single chevron band, and above it a band of which the voussoirs have alternate patterns of sunk nail-heads and the heraldic “lozengy.” This is the work of Eustace de Vesci, who died 1157, and may be dated 1150, though possibly a part of his “munitissimum castellum,” which, according to Mr. Tate, was existing in 1135. This Norman gateway is imbedded within a complete gatehouse by Henry de Percy in 1530, of which the main features are two lofty towers, which as half octagons flank the entrance from the eastern ward. Original shields of arms, in the Northumbrian fashion, are carved below the parapets; and upon the merlons, which are looped, are some original figures, as at Bothal and Chepstow. The archway is portcullised. The parapets are not machicolated. The vaulting of the interior of these towers is very good, and they contain in the basement the original dungeons, which are described as vaults 10 feet square, aired by loops, while below these are oubliettes, 8 feet by 9 feet, and reached only by trap-doors in the floor above. Over the gateway is the private dining-room. The plan of encrusting an original Norman gateway with later work is very common; the gatehouses at York afford excellent examples of it.

Entering the court, the open part of which is about 24 yards across, on the right, in the wall, is the very curious well. Within a pointed panel are three deep recesses, also pointed, of which the centre contains the mouth of the well, the shaft of which descends in the thickness of the wall. A wooden axle crosses above it, and is fitted in the lateral niches with two wheels, set round with pegs, for winding up the water-buckets by hand. Above, within the panel, in a small niche is a figure of St. James blessing the source. This curious and probably singular well was the work of the first Henry de Percy, in 1312–15; but the figure of the saint is thought to be an insertion of the last century. There is a similar arrangement over the great gate of Goderich Castle for working the portcullis.