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

by George Thomas Clark

ROCHESTER—Fortress, Cathedral, and City—is a very remarkable place—in some respects the most remarkable place in the South of England. In each of its triple capacities it claims a high antiquity. Its ecclesiastical history commences with Augustin and Æthelbyrht, the founders of its see, over which Justus, the friend of Augustin, was the first to preside, and to the endowments of which a long succession of Kentish and Mercian princes contributed. Its secular history, though often obscure, ascends to a yet more remote period, and its material evidences are still to be read in the form of works either in earth or masonry, showing Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman occupations.

Rochester is built upon a low cape or promontory formed by a grand bend of the Medway, the central part of which is occupied by the city, and the most prominent and northern point by the castle. The great Roman way from Canterbury to London traversed the length of the cape, and crossed the river near its apex, in the line of the ancient and nearly of the present bridge.

The position of the fortress is very noble. Rising from a base of hard ground high above the stream, it forms a grand feature upon the shore of the Medway, here 1,000 feet in breadth, and which almost vies with the Thames in the volume of its waters. From the turrets of the keep is seen outspread a view of great extent and exceeding variety, including the steep and verdant slopes of the chalk, and the broad and fertile meads across which the great river flows in graceful folds, concealed and betrayed by the inequalities of the hills and the scattered masses of forest trees. The cathedral, indeed, is scarcely worthy of these advantages. Far from asserting, as at Durham, Canterbury, or York, its equality with, or even superiority over, its temporal neighbour, the cathedral of Rochester, venerable as it is, and honoured as are the ashes that lie within its precincts, is of small dimensions, and in position low. The castle, on the other hand, is a masterpiece of Norman skill, and the first and last object that strikes the eye of the visitor.

The castle of Rochester occupies the northern termination of a chalk ridge which forms the right bank of the Medway for many miles above the city, and intervenes between the river and the cathedral, upon the margin of the one and but a short distance from the other. It thus covers about half of the western front of the city, and extends into what was the south-western angle of its walled enclosure.

Though of ancient date, the castle proper, that is the structure in masonry, has evidently been preceded by the works in earth, in close connection with a part of which it has been laid out. These are on a large scale, and, though much degraded by time and obscured by buildings and enclosures, are still tolerably apparent. They seem to have been composed of an oblong space included within a ditch, which commenced near the bridge foot, and was carried eastwards for about 130 yards, when it turned to the south, and ran for about 270 yards roughly parallel to the river, towards which it was again returned. This oblong area was subdivided into two unequal parts, the southern being the smaller, by a cross ditch, and the latter part was occupied by a large flat-topped conical mound, known as Boley Hill. The northern part contains the castle. Along the east or cathedral side, this ditch is in part a bold natural depression. Along the west side it is superseded by the river, here very broad, deep, and rapid. The area thus included is about 7¼ acres. The mound is of large size, though reduced by modern operations. It is in part natural, in part formed from the adjacent ditches. Like the mounds at York, Wallingford, and Wareham, and those formerly existing at Hereford, Buckingham, Worcester, Hertford, Nottingham, and Stamford, it is so placed as to watch the river, which must always have been an open and dangerous highway.

These lines of earthwork, though the principal and most evident now to be traced, are by no means the earliest among the defences of Rochester. Though the discovered Roman remains are not indicative of a large town, the Watling Street here crossed the Medway, and there was certainly a fortified post on the site of the mediæval city. Its rectangular form, about one-third longer than its breadth, the cruciform arrangement of its main streets, its four gates opposite to each other, and the termination of its name, all point to a Roman origin, and the Roman defences are thought to have been composed of a wall and ditch, represented by the line of the later wall, only that they are supposed to have passed from the south gate towards the river, about 45 yards west of the site of present keep.

The area measured about 470 yards by 160 yards, and therefore covered about 15½ acres, and of the gates Childegate stood to the north, and to the south was a gate removed only in 1770, the road between them passing close to the west end of the cathedral. Roman coins and sepulchres have been found in the castle area, and that Rochester was the Roman Durobrivis seems generally admitted.

The Roman lines were in part adopted by the later inhabitants, and fortified in the English manner. The position of the new city laid it open to frequent and severe attacks by both land and water, and its works suffered much from the inroads of the Danes, especially towards the close of the ninth century, and to that people, though perhaps on insufficient grounds, has been attributed the mound.

The earthwork fell into the hands of the Normans at the Conquest, and it became necessary to fortify the position according to the improved manner. The usual custom with the Normans, when dealing with an English stronghold, was to erect a shell keep upon the mound, or, where there was no mound, a rectangular tower, and to surround it with a strong curtain wall built upon the bank within the scarp of the existing ditch. Probably, in this case, the older area would have required too large a garrison for its defence, and the mound was at a rather inconvenient distance from the bridge or its preceding ferry. The mound, therefore, was excluded from the new enceinte, as it was at first from the area of the city. Probably it was occupied as an outwork, or it may have been reduced to a rather lower level. The new curtain was built on the scarp of the ditch of the northern division of the earthwork on the three landward sides. On the fourth it was placed upon the crest of a low cliff, about 40 feet above the river, and rather less above the quay, which has been widened in modern times, and in part added to the shore.

The Norman enceinte, the general substance of which is probably of the eleventh century, is roughly four-sided, about 130 yards east and west by 160 north and south, and includes about 4¼ acres. The eastern front is opposite to, and about 60 yards from, the cathedral. The south front faces the old mound of Boley Hill, and the north front, of rather greater length and set obliquely, points towards the bridge. It is probable that the ditch outside the south wall represents that of the Roman work. The gatehouse stood at the north-east angle, and the steep causeway leading up to it, and which has superseded the drawbridge, is known as the “Vennell.” The gatehouse is gone. At the north-west angle are the remains of a bastion tower, standing in 1735, and containing a postern. In it was a shaft for lifting stores from the river, an arrangement seen in another form above the Wye at Chepstow. This tower commanded the bridge. The south-east angle is still capped by a bold drum tower, of 30 feet diameter and three-quarters projection. It has a ground and upper floor, each pierced by an arcade with loops in narrow lancet recesses. The floor was of timber. The gorge is broken down, but may have been always open. This tower does not rise above the curtain, and seems to be an insertion in the early English period. Upon the east wall are two rectangular towers, one of 35 feet breadth and 25 feet length, wholly of exterior projection, and the other 30 feet by 25 feet, and partly within the wall. These seem insertions of the Perpendicular period. The curtain is much broken down, and part altogether removed; 40 feet of it remain next the south-east angle, on the south front. This portion is 7 feet thick, 30 feet high, and seems decided Norman. On its outer face are traces of two flat pilasters. It is pierced by three loops with splayed round-headed recesses, 3 feet broad and 8 feet from the ground, inside. There must, therefore, have been a platform against the wall. From the same angle, along the east face, the curtain is tolerably perfect all along. Near the rectangular tower it is seen to be built upon arches, intended to be covered up, as in the walls of York and of Southampton Castle. The top of one arch is seen inside the wall, and the whole of two arches outside. A long piece of the north wall remains, and is a good example of early masonry, probably Norman. It is very thick, and built of layers of rough undressed stone laid in very thick beds of mortar. As at Cardiff, there is no foundation, the wall being laid on the surface of the ground, as was not uncommon with very, thick walls. About 260 feet of the river front remains. At its south end was formerly to be seen some herring-bone work, and in other parts of it is shown a tendency to this mode of building. It is about 40 feet high. Upon its inner face are seen the outlines of two pointed arches, as though two vaults had abutted on the wall, only the arch stones do not project for toothing. There was an upper floor, and in the wall, but outside, are seen the outlines of two rather large round-headed arches. It is in this wall that Roman masonry has been suspected. Much of it seems late Norman. There was a cross wall, now removed, which ran close north of the keep—and divided the Norman castle into a north and south ward.