The baron was Sir George Bowes, who held the castle for eleven days against the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569, and then, according to some accounts, capitulated on fair terms. Probably Percy beck was then so named.
The town ward, occupying the north-east quarter of the area, much less extensive than the outer ward, was more strongly fortified. Upon its east curtain are the remains of a rectangular building, projecting inwards from the wall, and known as Brackenbury’s Tower. There was also a square tower at the north-east angle. On the north front is a half-round tower, projecting from the wall, and serving to flank a large round-headed doorway, evidently a main entrance from the north, independent of the town. The arch of this portal is composed of three rings of voussoirs, each chamfered, of excellent ashlar, but without ornament. The jambs are also chamfered. They have a plain impost also chamfered, but with a sort of bead-moulding underneath. There is no portcullis. This seems to have been the middle or inner doorway of a regular rectangular gatehouse, the lines of the side walls of which are indicated by toothings on each side of the door. There are remains of similar lateral walls within. With the gatehouse, the drawbridge is, of course, gone, and the ditch has been filled up.
BARNARD CASTLE.
- A. Inner Ward.
- B. Middle Ward.
- C. Town Ward.
- D. Outer Ward.
- E. North Gate.
- F. Brackenbury’s Tower.
- G. Round Tower.
West of this Norman gate, and standing on the counterscarp of the ditch of the inner ward, opposite to the keep, a shoulder in the curtain is occupied by a small rectangular tower, in substance Norman, whence the curtain, of great height and strength, closing the north end of the ditch, runs up to the keep. In its base, in the bottom of the ditch, is seen the upper part of one of the round-headed openings already noticed. This is of 4 feet span, and more like a postern than a drain.
The area of this town ward is occupied as a kitchen-garden, and part of it is locked up, and entry refused. The curtains seem substantially Norman. Grose shows the remains of a drawbridge between this and the middle ward, and no doubt there must have been some such communication.
The middle ward seems to have contained stables and offices, now destroyed. Its communication with the outer and town wards has been mentioned. It had also a drawbridge, superseded by an earthen causeway, at its north-west corner, leading into the inner ward. It is difficult to say whether the ditch was here run out upon the face of the cliff, and has since been filled up, for a cottage has been built on the slope outside, and effectually conceals the point for examination. Grose, however, indicates a doorway in the ditch here, as at the other end, and in the cross-wall dividing this from the town ward.