The third tower is 50 feet from the second, and projects to the south. Here also has recently been discovered a chamber somewhat similar to the dungeon already mentioned, also not vaulted, and of very rough masonry, as though a mere foundation intended to be filled up with earth. These two last towers are blocked in by later masonry, the first within, the latter both within and without, as it projects into the buildings of the gateway. As this tower could never have been intended to be thus concealed, it points to the conclusion that the keep was built before the wall of the inner court.
Besides these three half-round towers is a fourth, rectangular, and a much larger work, to the north, forming a part of the exterior line of defence. This is known as Thorpe’s Tower, and the family of that name are said to have held their adjacent estate of Wanswell by the tenure of its defence. This tower is 64 feet long by 17 feet deep. It forms a part of the curtain, having a very slight interior projection. At each end it expands into a square turret, that to the west 17 feet, that to the east 20 feet. The western turret and the body of the tower are thought to be solid, which is very improbable. They are not unlikely to have been filled in with earth to increase their power of resistance when the castle was battered from the churchyard. The eastern turret contains a square well-staircase of fifty-four steps, which leads to the battlements, and has a mural chamber on its way. The entrance below to this staircase is by an original full-centred arch, partially blocked up. This tower is somewhat higher than the curtain, with which it does not communicate. It is said to have been originally higher by a few feet more. Even at present it is the highest part of the castle, and hence the family banner is displayed. Below and outside this tower, to the north, are some modern offices.
Between Thorpe Tower and the Well Tower is seen in the wall the outline of a recess for a loop, and above it a segmental arch and Norman moulding, now closed up. The whole south side of the keep area is occupied by a block of building, about 80 feet long by from 20 feet to 30 feet deep. No doubt part of this building may be original, but by far the more prominent part is evidently modern, and sadly out of place. It covers the rear of the two southern half-round towers, which are thus not seen from within.
The entrance to this keep is peculiar. Usually, as at Tamworth, Lincoln, York, Cardiff, and Arundel, the entrance to a shell-keep was at its ground-level, and that of a rectangular keep, as at Castle Rising and Dover, at its first or second floor. Here, however, both conditions may be said to be fulfilled, for although the entrance is on the ground level as regards the interior of the keep, it is the full height of a first floor above the ground outside, and this height is gained by an exterior stair, guarded by a middle and lower gate, and above the latter by a regular tower. This forebuilding is common to rectangular keeps, but does not occur elsewhere in shell keeps. Here the Forebuilding is 72 feet in length, and is applied to the south-east side of the keep, or that within the court. In breadth it varies from 15 feet to 10 feet. Five steps ascend to its outer gate, a large full-centred archway contained within a plain chamfered moulding. As the doorway has been blocked and reduced in size by a perpendicular work, its jambs are concealed or may have been removed. Within is a vaulted passage, carried through the gate-tower, which is 15 feet square, and has an upper story. From the doorway twenty-four steps ascend to an open platform, having on the right a high and pierced parapet, and on the left the wall of the keep. At the stair-head a ledge on the right serves as a way to the upper floor over the gateway. This is a small chamber lighted by two windows and a lancet loop. The two larger windows and the door are of Tudor date, as may be the whole room; but, if so, it is a rebuilding, for the original tower must have been on the same pattern. In the room is an ancient bed and some hangings of needlework or tapestry, very early, but scarce of the age of Edward II., whose chamber this is reputed to have been.
A little beyond the stair-head, against the walls, right and left, are seen the rebates of the middle gate, and in front, in the wall of the Oratory Tower, is the weather moulding of a roof. Hence it would seem that the staircase, as at Castle Rising, was covered all the way up.
The main entrance to the keep opens upon the platform at the stair-head. It is a handsome, full-arched doorway with closed tympanum and flat head. It was flanked by highly ornate shafts, of which one remains. This portal opens into a vaulted passage through the keep wall, and enters the keep under an original archway, segmented with Norman mouldings. The jambs are worked in a very bold chevron pattern. From the exterior platform a narrow stair is continued to the battlements of the curtain over the bakehouse; but this may be an addition, for usually every part of a Norman keep was complete in itself, and had no direct communication with any other part of the castle. There is another and parallel stair in the wall, but opening outside and leading to the room above the bakehouse. This is not original.
The keep is constructed of exceedingly rude rubble masonry. Upon two parts of its face are nine narrow and shallow pilaster strips: three towards the barbican, and six between the inner gate and the forebuilding. The keep wall has a rude plinth, with no set-off or string. It is evident that this, as at York, and in other shell-keeps, was lined by lodgings, having an upper floor, placed all round against the wall with an open court in the centre. These were probably of timber. In the part of the keep towards the barbican is a breach about 40 feet broad down to the level of the inner floor. It is said that this part of the wall was partially broken down during General Massey’s attack, and was afterwards enlarged to its present condition, as at Kenilworth, rather as a matter of favour, to render the castle untenable without injuring it as a dwelling. Had the keep been blown up as was usual by gunpowder, it would have presented a very different aspect.
If the masonry of Berkeley Castle were to be removed, as at Kilpeck or Ewias Harold, its remains would show a mound of earth, and attached to three sides of it a platform, the whole encircled with a ditch or scarp. It would, in fact, be a moated mound with an appended platform, of a character very common in England, in the Welsh Marches, and in Normandy, and would resemble such works as Tamworth and Towcester, the dates of which are given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The inference is, therefore, that Berkeley was the seat of an English lord, probably from the ninth century. Had the fortress been an original Norman work, it is scarcely probable that a shell would have been the form of keep selected, or that, having been so selected, its lower 22 feet would have been filled up with earth. Evidently the Norman builder, finding a moated mound of no great height, but of considerable breadth, built his shell round it, as at Pontefract, as a revetment wall, and upon this, when clear of the top of the mound, raised his curtain. At a lower level, along the scarp of the existing ditch, he, or his immediate successor, constructed the walls, which, then as now, contain the whole castle.
All the main walls of the castle are either Norman, or rebuilt upon Norman foundations, or very nearly so. Probably the keep was built first and the court enclosed shortly afterwards. Much was done in the Decorated period. The inner wall of the hall, at least, was rebuilt, and it may have been enlarged. The porch was added, the chapel much altered, and the domestic buildings possibly gutted and recast. Henry VII., when in possession, seems to have made some inconsiderable alterations, and others have been added since.
Berkeley is a rare example of an estate which has descended in the male line from the reign of Stephen, and in the female line from the Norman Conquest. The first of the latter ancestry is entered as the Lord of Berkeley in Domesday; the first of the former is also there entered, though as proprietor of other estates. Few, if any, of our oldest families can say with truth as much, but further than this the Berkeley tenure has been “per Baroniam,” and from the Conquest they have been barons of the realm, first by tenure, and when, in the reign of Henry III., tenure fell into disuse, then by writ; but by one right or the other they have ever sat in the great council of the nation.