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

by George Thomas Clark

At a later date, during the early English period, still greater changes were made. The north wall was either rebuilt or refaced, the basement was vaulted, and the north-east angle was taken down and rebuilt, a well-stair being probably inserted into it. At the same time the lateral walls and the west appendage were raised, the first floor fitted with a flat ceiling, and two floors inserted above it, with doors into the western appendage, and two turrets were carried up at the two northern angles of the building.

The next and final alteration occurred in the Tudor period, when the vault of the eastern entrance was rebuilt, and faced with an outer door-case, the well-staircase fitted with doors and loops, and the old straight staircase walled up, and fireplaces inserted in the walls. Also the north door and window of the basement were refaced. Of course all this is a matter of opinion only, the alterations having been so great, and of so complete a character, that it is difficult to form even a theory concerning them. This is one of the most curious and perplexing Norman keeps now standing. It is much to be desired that its owner would cause an accurate plan and section of it at each floor to be made and published.

The curtain connecting the keep with the Bakehouse Tower is 36 feet by 38 feet long, 7 feet thick, and about 20 feet high to the ramparts, but it had a covered passage, and rose towards the tower, probably having a narrow staircase communicating with the second floor, while the main gallery opened into the first floor. The tower is rectangular, about 23 feet by 27 feet. It projects 16 feet into the ditch, and its interior measures 15 feet by 11 feet. It was originally open at the gorge into the inner ward, the masonry being replaced, as at Cologne and Avignon, and as in the later gatehouse of the Tower of London, by a timber partition. A large oven has been built at the ground level, filling up the whole area, and an arch turned at the first-floor level, supporting a wall, which replaces the timber work in the upper floors. In this wall are a fireplace, small oven, and window. A door in the east wall opens from the curtain, and in the west wall another door opens into a mural passage in the west or outer curtain, in which it has a loop. On the left, or south, is a garderobe chamber, 6 feet by 5 feet, with a loop to the south, and in the opposite direction the passage runs 11 feet, descending four steps. It probably was continued in the substance of the curtain to the postern tower, but is now walled up. The upper or second wall of the tower is not accessible. It seems to be on the pattern of the first floor, and is entered by an exterior staircase from the south curtain, and on the other side has a garderobe and passage opening upon the rampart of the west curtain, towards the postern tower. The bakehouse tower is Norman, and of the age of the keep. Its floors were of timber.

The Postern Tower is spiked up and inaccessible. It is about the size and height of the bakehouse tower, and of the same date, but its gorge was always closed. At the ground level a small door opens from the inner ward, and there is a similar door on the north and outer face of the tower, which is the postern. Both are full centred and plain. This tower has no internal projection. In the ward, close to the tower door, in a most inconvenient position, is the well, with a shaft worked roughly in the rock, 8 feet in diameter. It is now partly choked up.

The cross curtain from the postern is carried straight to the north-east angle of the ward, and thence turns south, till it abuts upon the keep. This wall, though probably Norman, is not so old as the keep or main curtain, so that in the original castle the inner and middle ward seem to have been one. There is a round-headed door in the curtain near its north-east angle, which opens between the inner and middle ward.

The Middle Ward is the most important division of the castle. In it are the domestic and state buildings, the chapel, the kitchen, and the great gatehouse. The principal buildings occupy its north side, resting upon and partly forming the exterior curtain wall. Near the centre is the hall. This was a noble apartment, 60 feet long by 30 feet broad, and 35 feet high to the springing corbels of its open timber roof. The recesses for the hammerbeams remain, and the corbels on which the principals rested. Owing to the low springing of the main timbers, the roof had from within the appearance of a very high pitch, which the water table shows not really to have been the case. The hall is on the first floor, and approached from the court by a broad exterior staircase, opening in the south wall near its west or lower end. In the north wall are three long narrow windows of one light each, trefoiled, and crossed by a heavy transom, and in the east end of this side a small door leads, probably, into a garderobe. The view from these windows is up the Teme and Corvedale. In the south wall are three large windows looking upon the court; they are of two lights, trefoiled, and crossed by a transom. Their recesses have equilaterally arched heads, and the angles are replaced by filleted beads. One window only has a stone seat. The great door, towards the west end of this side, matches with the window recesses, though a little lower. In the west end are two buttery doors of unequal size, and at the north-west corner a door opens, as at Pembroke, into a well-stair to the roof. In the east end of the hall, near the north-east corner, and high up, is a combined door and window—a sort of hatch, by means of which those in the upper state room could either look into the hall or step down into the gallery that ran across above the dais. The central south window has been blocked up, and converted into a late Tudor fireplace. No doubt the original grate, as at Penshurst, stood in the middle of the hall.

West of the hall is the buttery tower, a very fine group, which occupied the north-west angle of the ward. Part of it projects boldly, and caps the north-western angle of the curtain. The part within the ward is also rectangular. The part connected with the curtain is Norman, and was a large rectangular tower with an open gorge. In its base are two round-headed doorways, now nearly buried, whence mural passages led to garderobes in the curtain. The older part has been raised, and a pointed arch turned, and upon it a wall built, closing the gorge at the second floor. This tower has had large additions on its inner face, and is now a part only of the building, of which the basement seems to have been a store, and the first floor, 33 feet by 27 feet, a serving-room and buttery attached to the hall. This room was entered by a side-door on the great hall staircase, so that the dishes were brought from the kitchen up the great stair, but not through the great door of the hall. In the buttery is a large fireplace.

At the other or east end of the hall are the state rooms, contained within a grand and lofty structure, rectangular in plan, and projecting beyond the hall. Whether the foundations are Norman, or whether, like the superstructure, the whole is of Decorated date, is doubtful. The material is excellent ashlar. There are a basement and two upper floors. In the first is a grand fireplace; but the principal apartments were on the second floor. The door and window openings are numerous and varied. Some are excellent Decorated, with lancet and segmental arches; others are insertions in florid Perpendicular; and others, in wretched taste and of base materials and workmanship, are of Tudor date. The upper room has also a large fireplace, and the abutments of the hood are two carved heads. The north window is of one light, and of great length, divided by transoms. The south window is of similar character, but has two lights. This upper room had an open roof of low pitch, supported by three pairs of principals.

Next to these rooms, on the east side, is a smaller pile of buildings, also rectangular, which fills up the space between the state rooms and the north-eastern tower. This, probably, was appropriated below to servants’ apartments, and above to the principal bedrooms. There are, in the basement, three fine early Perpendicular windows of two lights, trefoiled, and with the centre mullion carried through the head. Windows of this size, so low down in an outer wall, are rare, and what is also curious, they open from two rooms by no means remarkable for size or ornamentation. This part of the suite, originally Decorated, on perhaps a Norman foundation, seems to have been remodelled or rebuilt in the Perpendicular period. Connected with these buildings and with the state apartments, and abutting upon both, is the garderobe tower—a grand rectangular structure projecting from the curtain, and wholly of ashlar, and of Decorated date. It is composed of a basement and four upper floors. The basement is occupied by several garderobes, the spacious outlets of which have already been described. The upper floors seem to be connected with the state rooms, and in the walls are many small chambers not accessible. The windows are of one light, trefoiled, usually with a transom. Between this building and the hall, projecting outside the curtain, is a multiangular turret containing a staircase.

The north-eastern tower caps the angle of the ward. It is rectangular in plan and of Norman date. It forms a part of the two curtains of the middle and outer ward, standing upon each. In its base a door leads into a mural passage in the east curtain, now blocked up with rubbish, and in its first floor is a garderobe in the north wall.