The glories of Norham, indeed, have been honourably recorded in every stage of its stirring existence. Its sieges, misfortunes, reparations, and their particulars and cost, are entered in considerable fulness in the sheriffs’ accounts and in those of the Palatine see, and, finally, in its neglect and decay, it has been honoured with Scott for its poet and Raine for its historian.
The plan of the castle is irregular, following the general outline of the ground. Like Barnard Castle, its form is a sort of quadrant, the north and east faces 143 yards and 108 yards long, being nearly at right angles, and more or less straight, and the border to the south-west a curve of 223 yards, connecting the two sides. Of the area thus enclosed, the north-eastern portion is occupied by the upper or inner ward, the plan of which is roughly square, 57 yards east and west by 47 yards north and south, covering, therefore, within its walls 2,680 square yards. The north and east sides of this ward form part of the common curtain of the whole. In front of the other two sides is a broad and deep ditch, which extends from the eastern ravine to the northern steep, and is contained wholly within the outer ward, the available area of which is thus considerably reduced. The whole was contained within a curtain wall which, where it belonged to the inner ward, was high and strong, but where to the outer ward was unequal, being high where it crossed the ends of the inner ditch and along a part of the north front, but elsewhere either very low or of but moderate thickness. Most of the care of the engineer was lavished upon the inner ward.
NORHAM CASTLE.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
- Keep.
- Inner Ward.
- Ditch.
- Outer Ward.
- Entrenchments.
- Arches in Curtain.
The keep, the great, and, though a mere ruin, the best-preserved feature of the fortress, is rectangular, and measures at its base about 64 feet north and south by 86 feet east and west, and is or has been about 90 feet high. The walls range from 12 feet to 15 feet thick, and appear to be 8 feet to 10 feet at the summit, which is inaccessible. The east end is a part of the exterior line of defence, and ranges with the curtain. The south face looks into the outer, the two other faces into the inner, ward. The exterior faces have certain peculiarities. The south-east angle is capped by two pilasters, 11 feet broad and of slight projection, which, like the similar pilasters at Kenilworth, rise from a rough, bold, sloping plinth, 12 feet high, continued all along the east end. These pilasters have various sets-off reducing them to 10 feet at the summit. They meet at and cover the angle, which is solid. Near the centre of the east end is another somewhat similar pilaster, only 10 feet broad, and beyond this the wall has been pulled down to the first floor. The part left, forming the north-east angle of the keep, had no pilaster, but is bonded into the northern curtain, which is of its age. The southern curtain is not in the line of the keep, but sprung from its south face about 25 feet west of the south-east angle, where it is seen to have been 7 feet thick and of the height of the first floor of the keep, or about 30 feet. This also was of the age of the keep. The southern face of the keep, so far at least as its outer face is concerned, is of two dates. In the centre, but belonging to the eastern or older part, is a pilaster, 8 feet broad, but without setts-off. Between this and the south-east angle, above the curtain, and also without sett-off, is another pilaster, only 3 feet wide. A flat wall, without pilasters, but with two setts-off near the summit, occupies the next 36 feet westward. The base seems old, but the upper part is certainly later, into which the Decorated windows are probably insertions. Near the west end, about 16 feet from the angle, is a plain pilaster, 3 feet broad and 6 inches projection, which ascends to the second floor level, and stops at the cill of a small pointed doorway in the second floor; above this, in the two upper storeys, are two similar but rather smaller doors. It is probable that these opened from mural lobbies into garderobes of timber, projected from the wall: at least, it is difficult to suggest any other reason for doorways so placed.
The west face is all of one date; the doors and windows are of the Decorated period, but the wall itself is Norman. The curtain of the inner ward abuts upon the south-west angle, and is about 30 feet high and very thick, with a mural closet high up within it, which may be the garderobe, completed probably soon after 1431–2. There are two pointed doors, both at the ground level; one leading into the south chamber of the keep, the other, near the centre, into a well-stair, 10 feet diameter, which ascends in the wall to the summit, and terminates in a raised square turret, a marked feature in every view of the keep. Six loops, one over the other, show the line of this staircase, and a few feet from the top, and over the door, are four or five corbels, which evidently supported some kind of brétasche of timber to protect the doorway below. Above are various windows, three of two lights, trefoiled, square-headed, but Decorated, and others of one light, with square labels. Towards the south end of this front, at the first-floor level, is a large round-headed doorway, evidently the original main door of the keep, the outer stair leading to which is removed. No doubt this stair ascended from the north end, and the chamber in the curtain, now inaccessible, was either an oratory or a garderobe, opening from the vestibule before the door. This end, like the south, is tolerably perfect.
The north front is almost all removed. About 15 feet from the west end there remains one jamb of a door at the ground level. Beyond this, about 26 feet is level with the ground. The remainder, about 45 feet, remains to the level of the first floor, and is pierced by two loops from the basement.
The interior of the keep shows it to have contained a basement and four floors, the whole divided east and west, or longitudinally, from bottom to top, by a party wall 5 feet thick, of which only the lower part remains. The basement, at the ground level, is composed of a north and south chamber, each 60 feet long, the northern 20 feet and the southern 15 feet broad. The southern was divided by a cross-wall into two chambers, both barrel-vaulted, the western rather the longer. The eastern has a loop to the east, high up, set in a splayed, round-headed recess; and in the north wall is a door leading into the north chamber. In the south wall, here 12 feet thick, is a breach 8 feet wide, at the ground level, which probably represents a loop. The western chamber has a loop in the south wall, the recess of which runs into the barrel, producing a groin. In the west end is a doorway and passage through the wall, here 15 feet thick, and by its side a loop. There must have been a door between these southern chambers, in the cross-wall.