Within the mediæval or inner ward an excavation shows the position and plan of the chapel, with a nave 40 feet by 16 feet 8 inches broad, and chancel of 12 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 6 inches. A fragment of the font has been preserved. The chapel is, no doubt, of Norman date, and older, therefore, than the castle in its present form. There is also a rude pillar piscina, such as is now and then found in Norman buildings. There are one or two in Glamorganshire. The free chapel in the castle is mentioned in the grant of John of Gaunt. The well also has been discovered at the foot of the mound. It is cylindrical, 7 feet diameter, and lined with ashlar to a depth of 52 feet, below which it is square and lined with timber.
The Roman works at Pevensey have been explored and examined, as already stated, by Mr. Roach Smith. Unfortunately, the mediæval castle has been less fortunate, and has not been accurately described. A short but complete and brilliant description of Pevensey, and a notice of the part it played in the campaign of 1066, will be found in Mr. Freeman’s “Norman Conquest.” It also plays a conspicuous part in his recent life of the Red King.
PICKERING CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.
THE castle and town of Pickering stand upon the southern edge of the moors of north-eastern Yorkshire, where the upland subsides into a broad tract of meadow, which, under the names of Carr, Ing, Marisch, and Bottom, extends southwards nearly to Malton, and east and west from near Scarborough to a little short of Helmsley. This is the district known as the Lythe or Vale of Pickering, of which the castle was the chief seat.
One of the principal passes into the Lythe from the north is that now occupied by the Malton and Whitby Railway, and down which flows the Pickering Beck, a tributary (through the Costa Beck) of the Rye and the Derwent. The pass is rather a ravine than a valley, and is deep, rocky, narrow, and winding. The castle occupies a rocky knoll near where the pass opens out into the plain, and stands a few yards east of, and 100 feet or more above, the stream, on either bank of which is built the town, below and under the immediate protection of the castle.
The position is upon a rocky headland, about 70 feet or 80 feet above the town, and jutting out sharply towards the north and west into the valley. Thus two sides, covering nearly half the area, are naturally strong. Towards the south and west the ground rises gently, attaining to the height of 200 feet and even 300 feet, at distances of a quarter of a mile to two miles. On these sides, therefore, the defence is artificial, and composed of a deep and broad ditch, which opens out upon the valley at each of its ends. It is quite dry, and from its position and level was probably always so: a part of it, indeed, carried the way up to the postern.
The area thus defended falls somewhat towards the west. It is pear-shaped, the stalk being towards the south-west. Its cross dimensions are about 500 feet by 350 feet. It is contained within a curtain wall of considerable height and strength towards the town front, and having upon its southern half four towers. Upon the northern half were formerly two, both of which have disappeared. The keep and the inner gatehouse belong to both divisions, being upon the line common to both. Within the general area, and rather near to its north-eastern or larger end, is a conical flat-topped mound, wholly artificial, and surrounded by a circular ditch, of which a part towards the east is quarried out of the rock. Upon this mound stood the keep, and from it, on nearly opposite sides, sprung the cross curtain which traversed the area in almost its greatest diameter, and, with the keep, divided it into two nearly equal wards, to the north and the south. On the outer or the southern front of this wall is a deep and wide ditch, which extends from the ditch of the mound each way towards the enceinte, the eastern limb opening into the outer ditch, and the western upon the face of the low cliff. Each of these openings is, however, traversed by the main curtain. Upon the southern and longer limb of the cross-curtain is the inner gateway, leading from one ward to the other, and opposite to the outer gate, which is on the southern front.
The four mural towers already mentioned are all in the southern ward. They are, Mill Tower, Rosamond’s, the Devil’s Tower, and the Gate Tower. Devil’s Tower contains a postern. Besides the keep, Leland mentions three towers in the north ward. Of these the inner gate was one, and the other two probably capped the two angles of that ward. The domestic buildings in Leland’s time were of timber, and are gone. There remains a chapel, desecrated, and of which the existing building is of very doubtful date.
The mound is 76 feet diameter at the flat top, about 70 feet high, and at its base in the bottom of the surrounding ditch about 220 feet diameter.