In 1356, ten years after the battle of Nevill’s Cross, the Scots burned Norham, probably the village, and surprised the town, but not the castle, of Berwick, which held out till the arrival of Edward III. from Calais, when the affront was amply avenged, and Bishop Hatfield attested Baliol’s surrender of the crown at Roxburgh Castle in 1357. During the reigns of Henry IV., V., and VI., Norham was well maintained, and played a part in all the great transactions on the Border. The accounts kept by the Bishops of Durham are very copious, and contain many curious technical and local words. The outer bridge was repaired with timber in 1405, as was the roof of the Pex or Pox hall within the castle. A wheel was made for the well, with an axle, gudgeons, and a bucket. The great and other chambers and the kitchen were leaded. Mention is made of the chapel and of the chaplain. The nights being long and cold, extra wages were paid to the watchers, lights were allowed for the chapel, and repairs effected for the whole castle, excepting the great tower. In 1408, the west gate was wholly rebuilt in 298 days, at a cost of £37. 6s. 7d. This can scarcely be the lower or outer gate at the extreme west, which is much older, and was probably the inner gate, which is also to the west of the keep. “Les skafald” is mentioned, and a paling of wood round the tower. In 1422 was built the “new tower within the castle,” and in 1426–7 four iron doors were brought from the bishop’s forges at Auckland.
In 1429–30, during the episcopate of Cardinal Langley, “quædam nova latrina” was appended to the west side of the great tower, a work not completed in 1431–2. Also a great doorway in stone was made under the vault of the Dongeon of the great tower, probably the door in the north wall, of which one jamb remains. The doorway was fitted with an iron door. The draw-well had a new wheel, and a new horse-mill was constructed within the castle.
Hitherto the bishops, when in possession of the castle, had occupied it by their own officers, but in 1435 the cardinal introduced the practice of letting it for a term to some powerful captain who was bound to maintain and defend it, and received a good payment for so doing. This practice was found convenient, and resorted to not infrequently afterwards. The lessee seems sometimes to have been invested by the bishop with the offices of constable of the castle and sheriff and escheator of the see. Bishop Fox began his rule in 1495 by deepening the outer ditch, and, indeed, the aspect of the times rendered prudent all possible precautions for defence.
In that same year, Henry VII., alarmed at the reception of Warbeck in Scotland, prepared for war: a commission of array for the Marches was issued to the bishop, and Lord Surrey took the command north of Trent. King James crossed the Border from Scotland in two successive years, and in the second, 1497, appeared in person before Norham. It was strong and well garrisoned, and by some accounts the bishop threw himself into the fortress, within which shelter had been afforded to all the country round. During sixteen days of fierce assault the outer defences were much injured, but the place was not entered, and Surrey came to its relief. The bishop then laid aside the temporal arm and excommunicated Redesdale and Tynedale. In September, 1498, he was at Norham, and lifted his censure from the borderers who submitted. Hamerlin and Garth, his lieutenants, during the siege, were pensioned for their bravery in the defence.
In 1513, 22nd August, the year of Flodden, King James crossed the Tweed in force, and on the 29th Norham, imperfectly garrisoned, was surrendered to him and very roughly handled. The king then
Wasted his time with Heron’s dame,
while his army took Etal, Wark, and Heton, and the lesser holds of Tilmouth, Shoreswood, Twisel, Duddoe, and Thornton. This gleam of success was succeeded by the defeat of Flodden, after which, in 1514, Lord Dacre ravaged the Scottish border to beyond Borthwick. If the bishop’s garrison showed want of courage during James’s attack, the main body of the forces of the bishopric redeemed its character at Flodden, where they led the van under Sir William Bulmer. It was the last appearance of St. Cuthbert’s banner in the open field, and often as it had been displayed, it had never been attended by defeat. Bishop Ruthal once more put the castle in repair; the inner ward and the keep were made safe, and much money expended in masons’ and carpenters’ work on walls and roofs. The castle had been “prostratum et disruptum ad terram” by the Scots, a phrase which, however, is not to be taken literally. Bishops-Middleham is said to have been stripped for materials for Norham. By 1515 the castle was in order, victualled, and garrisoned. The walls were countermined as a precaution against “sawting,” or blowing up. The outer walls were buttressed and provided with “Murderers,” a well-known piece of ordnance of that day. When all was done, the masons were despatched to pull down Home Castle.
Nothing seems to have lasted very long at Norham, for William, Lord Greystoke, the captain, found the outer ward so ruined as to be defenceless. Its four towers were too low, but the inner ward was regarded, “with the help of God,” as impregnable. At this time the long wall between the inner gate and the nether gate next the water was ready to be embattled. The four towers were to be raised with ashlar, and quarry rubbish was ready to fill up three of them. Wolsey held the see from 1522 to 1528, but does not seem to have troubled himself about the castle.
About 1530 the Scots appeared before Norham, but the castle was saved by the valour of Archdeacon Franklin, who had a special coat-of-arms assigned to him by Henry VIII. for this service. At this time there was regular stabling for 60 horses, a byre for cattle, which, if necessary, could hold 50 more horses, and there was room beneath the chapel for another 20, or 130 in all. Besides stores of salt meat, fish, and grain, 6 fed oxen and 400 sheep lay nightly beneath the castle wall. The garrison was composed of 59 men, besides children. This state of defence was probably stimulated by a whisper of treason, which caused the Privy Council to direct the Duke of Norfolk “to look to it.” Bishop Tunstal seems to have maintained the defences during the reign of Mary.
In the next few years, however, great changes took place. In 1542, the castle was finally put in order by Bishop Tunstal; but in 1551 the bishop was deprived, and the castle was reported again to need repairs. The wall of the inner ward towards the Tweed was rotten, the water having got into it on the removal of the lead from the adjacent buildings, and in such a state that a very light battery on the Scots’ bank would suffice to bring it down with the hall and kitchen. Half the keep had some time since fallen. The reporter, Sir George Bowes, points out the weakness of the place, and then, at great length, how an old castle was to made defensible in modern warfare. He especially dwells on the absence of flanking works. The outer ward wall, on the east, west, and south, is old, thin, and weak, and its small ward towers badly placed as flankers. The north wall was a low parapet, and the outer ward gates so hung that they could be lifted from the outside. He advises filling hall and kitchen with earth to support the river ward wall, and constructing a hall in the ruins of the keep. He is said to have lowered the keep one storey, reserving only the stair turret as a look-out. Probably it was at this time that the north-east bastion was built, and the embrasures made in the outer ward wall.