The northern chamber seems to have been one room only, broken into four compartments by groined vaulting, between each bay being a broad flat band. There is a loop at the east end, and two others near it, in the north wall. The two western bays are broken down. In the west wall is a loop, and near it, in the north wall, the jamb of a door of entrance, probably the stone doorway into the dungeon vault made in 1429–30, and fitted with an iron gate. This basement vaulting is about 10 feet high to the springing, and is original, as at Bamborough, Mitford, and Newcastle, and the walls and loops all round, seen from within, seem also original, and their interior face work is excellent open or jointed ashlar. The remains of the cross-wall show the first floor to have contained two chambers, both probably vaulted; the southern certainly so. Each was entered by a door from the western staircase. The north and much of the east wall of this north chamber is gone. In the west end is a Decorated window in a large round-headed recess, flat-sided, and near it the entrance from the staircase. In the east end was a loop in a splayed recess. The southern chamber was probably a lower and lesser hall. In its east end is a door from the well-stair, and another door, large and round-headed, once the main entrance. Against the south wall are seen the remains of the vault, of four compartments, groined, the bays divided by cross arches springing from corbels. In the most western bay was a fireplace; in each of the three eastern a round-headed window in a splayed recess. In the east end is a pointed recess and a large lancet window, the whole evidently an insertion. The height of this floor was about 12 feet to the spring of the vault.
NORHAM KEEP.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
BASEMENT.
The second was the floor of state, and, in the original keep, also the uppermost floor. The two rooms had low-pitched open roofs, of which the weather mouldings are seen, as at Porchester, in the end walls. These rooms were entered, each by its own door, from the well-stair, but the northern door has been built up and a loop placed in it. Of the north chamber there only remains a large window in the west wall, in a drop arch, a Decorated insertion. If there was any fireplace, it must have been in the dividing wall. The south chamber was evidently the great hall. In its east end is a large full-centred Norman recess, containing a Norman window. In the west wall, besides the staircase door, here pointed below a square label, is a pointed recess and window. In the south wall are two bold, round-headed recesses splayed to small lancet windows, and west of these a pointed door, probably entering a mural chamber, and communicating with the door already mentioned, in the outer face of the wall.
Originally there was no third floor, and to provide this the hall roof was removed, and for it substituted a flat ceiling supported by nine joists, the holes for which remain. On these were laid the planks of the third floor. Of this the north chamber had in its west end a segmented arched window recess and the staircase door, now blocked up. In the north chamber, west end, was a similar staircase door and a pointed window recess. The east wall was not pierced, neither was the south wall, save by one window, and near it a small pointed door, near the west end. The covering of this storey was composed also of nine joists, which carried the planks of the fourth floor.
Of this floor the remains are but slight. It also was composed of two chambers. Of the north the west wall remains, but it contains neither window nor staircase door. The south chamber has in its west end a window, and in its south wall a fireplace. Of this wall only about 6 feet in height remains, so that probably about 4 feet to 6 feet of its upper part is gone. Considering the thickness of the walls, the absence of mural chambers and galleries in this keep is remarkable.
The keep was certainly built originally by Ralf Flambard in 1121, and the eastern end and adjacent halves of the north and south sides were certainly of the same date. It is also pretty certain that Flambard’s keep was of the same size with the present one, and the whole basement, and the vaulting of the first floor, seems original. Probably there was but one entrance, that in the west end at the first-floor level, and there would be, in that case, an exterior tower or fore-building, covering the staircase, and of which there seem to be traces in the face of the curtain against which, as at Kenilworth, it must have abutted. The entrance is quite plain, and without a portcullis. Bishop Pudsey, who ruled from 1158 to 1174, is said to have rebuilt the western half of the ruined keep. Possibly he only restored it, for it is scarcely probable that half of so very substantial a building should have been pulled down, either with the means or in the time at the disposal of any band of invaders; still, it must be admitted, that the western half differs materially from the eastern. In the latter, the plinth is bold and high, and the pilasters marked features. In the western part are no pilasters, and no plinth of any consequence, and the setts-off of the wall are at a different height. If Bishop Pudsey rebuilt the western half, he did so in the late Norman style, so that the work harmonises inside with that of Flambard. Pudsey, no doubt, raised the walls somewhat, converted the ridge roofs of the second story into a flat covering, and, in the space thus gained and created, added two more floors, as was done to the extent of one floor, at Porchester, Kenilworth, and Richmond, and in many other Norman keeps.
In the Decorated Period great changes were certainly made. Doors were opened at the ground level in the north and west walls. The fore-building was removed, and in its stead a well-stair inserted in the centre of the west wall, so as to provide a new and convenient approach to each floor; and this was carried up to the end in a raised turret, adding somewhat to the view. The entrance to this staircase was at the ground floor on the outside, but it did not lead into the basement. The whole of the west wall and the contiguous half of the south wall were faced with ashlar, and window-cases of the period inserted. All this may well have been the work of Anthony Beke, “Presul Magnanimus,” called “the maist prowd and masterfull Busshop in all England,” in that period—