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

by George Thomas Clark

Between the hall and the keep were, on the ground-floor, passages leading on the left to what was probably a cellar below the hall, and on the right into the keep, while at its end is a small square-headed postern in the curtain, still in use. Above this passage was the withdrawing-room, placed between the hall and the state floor of the keep; and the window of this room, in the curtain, is the well-known bay which displays in its soffit the “bristly boar” of Richard III. The window is projected over the postern, upon bold corbels and is mainly of good Perpendicular date, but the superstructure has been altered and debased by some very poor Tudor work, similar to the window in the keep, and possibly due to Sir George Bowes. This was called “The Great Chamber” in 1592.

Its gatehouse occupied the south-west angle of this ward, and was built on the edge of the cliff. The remains of it are very scanty. The curtain between it and Mortham Tower seems to have been a mere parapet, cresting the cliff.

The curved curtain connecting the gatehouse with the keep, and covering the two landward faces of the ward, is tolerably perfect. It is strengthened by an exterior buttress and a small tower. This latter, which is placed near the angle of the curtain, towards the keep, contains a basement and upper chamber, both vaulted, though of the latter, which was at the rampart level, only some fragments remain. This tower is rectangular, but the angles are chamfered off. It has no internal projection, and outside, against each of its three faces, is applied a Decorated buttress of 2 feet 6 inches breadth, by 3 feet 6 inches projection at the base. Each is of three stages, and dies into the wall near its summit. Between this tower and the keep is a large buttress, apparently hollow, possibly for the pipe of a garderobe. This also is a Decorated addition. Near it the curtain has a flat Norman pilaster strip, but of three stages. It is 4 feet broad, and diminishes from 18 inches to 6 inches projection. It also dies into the wall near the top.

It is not unlikely, from the aspect of the inner ward, that this was a fortress of the tenth century, composed of a cliff on two sides, a ditch on the other two, and a centre more or less nearly circular, and artificially scarped; in fact, a motte, upon which stood the original stronghold. The outer ditches may be of the same date, but from their figure and plan they are more likely to have been a later, probably a Norman, addition. Their contents are thrown inward so as to form a ramp behind the wall.

It is evident that the whole area of the castle, as it now stands, was inclosed by the Normans, and the walls throughout and nearly all the towers are latish in that style. Here and there, spread over the whole enceinte, are remains of Norman work. The pilaster strips on the inner curtain, the arches in the several ditches, the square tower and gate on the north curtain, Brackenbury’s Tower, and much of the wall towards the town are original. In the inner ward the base of Mortham Tower, and the half-round mural tower near the north gate, are probably Early English. The keep, the fragments of the hall, the south-east tower of the inner ward, and most of the remains of other buildings are evidently Decorated. The original walls were mostly of sound rubble, with ashlar dressings. In the Decorated work ashlar was more freely used.

The castle must have undergone almost a rebuilding in the Decorated period. The Norman architect evidently treated the whole inner ward as a shell keep. His successors added part of Mortham Tower, and the Decorated artist, more ambitious, raised the round tower as a keep, added—probably rebuilding—the hall, and completed Mortham Tower, and strengthened or restored the curtain in various places.

Here, as was much the practice in the North, the round-headed arch and the flat lintel were largely employed in the Decorated period. The general style of the work is much to be admired. Strong, sound, massive, very plain, of excellent execution, it is in admirable taste, and in good keeping with a military structure. The keep, though not one of the largest, is one of the finest round towers in England. Its proportions are good, its materials of proper size and rich colour, and its very plainness is indicative of strength.

There is but little Perpendicular work; probably it was of a lighter character, and has fallen and been removed.

Whatever may be regarded as the value of the material evidence of its earthworks, the notion of Bernard Castle occupying the site of an earlier stronghold is unsupported by records. The present town is thought to have risen on the fall of Marwood, a place the very site of which is now forgotten; neither is it a parish, being included in the vast parish of Gainford, the church of which is eight miles distant. From Domesday no aid is to be derived, seeing that this valuable record does not include Durham, nor is there any mention of either Marwood or Gainford, still less of the castle, in Hugh Pudsey’s Domesday of Durham, the Boldon Book, compiled in 1133, for this is confined to the bishopric, within which the Baliol fee was not at that time included.

Guy de Baliol received from William Rufus the Barony of Bywell, in Northumberland, and either from that king, or his father, the lordship of Gainford, of which he gave the church to St. Mary’s, at York.