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

by George Thomas Clark

How the castle was connected with the defences of the city does not appear. The city wall is said to have been built about 1225, on the Roman site, as far as the south gate, from which it seems to have left the Roman line, and to have included the subsequent earthwork of Boley Hill. When this was done the old ditch was widened in some places to 85 feet and made deeper. Part of this wall is said to stand upon arches, like that of the castle; if so, there was probably an earlier wall, of Norman date. The city wall is so blocked in, that little is visible to an ordinary visitor. There is thought to be a trace of Roman masonry in the east wall, and there is a small door of Henry III.’s time, near the east end of the cathedral, where the wall is 4 feet thick and 30 feet high, and a tower of that date at the north-east angle, said originally to have been upon the town wall. This tower is a very fine work, 30 feet diameter, outside a cylinder and within an octagon, with three loops, and a door in the gorge, from which pass two mural galleries, one leading to a well-stair and the other to a garderobe. The upper floor is at the level of the top of the curtain. The line of the south side of the city wall was altered by the monks in 1290, by permission from the king. They were to rebuild it 5 perches and 5 feet to the south or outside of the old line, and it was to be 16 feet high and embattled. Moreover, the old ditch was to be filled up to the length of 54 perches 14½ feet, and in width 5 perches and 5 feet. As this involved prolonging the east wall, they turned an arch over the old ditch. This expansion of the old area lay to the east of the south gate of the city, a little east of which was the gate of the priory. The old wall is thought to have included Boley Hill.

The Keep, for which Rochester Castle is justly celebrated, is placed within, and very near to the south-east angle of the castle area, and upon the highest ground within it, about 60 feet above the river: a point probably specially selected because it is opposed to Boley Hill. It does not, like Porchester, form a part of the enceinte, but, like Carlisle, stands just within it, being from 16 feet to 33 feet from the eastern, and from 10 feet to 15 feet from the southern wall. Though not one of the largest, Rochester is one of the loftiest Norman Keeps in England, and one of the most worthy of note for its history, position, the boldness of its decorations, and its substantially perfect condition. Of additions, with the exception of the early rebuilding of its south-east angle, it shows no trace, and its dilapidations are not greater than may be attributed to seven centuries of age, of which the three latter have been periods of neglect.

The keep is a square of 70 feet at its base, and the walls are 12 feet thick, reduced at the summit to 10 feet, so that its exterior dimensions are there 66 feet. This reduction is made by a very slight exterior batter, not perceptible to the eye. There is no set-off or string-course, outside, and no regular shelf for the floors inside. This uncommon thickness is intended to allow, as at Dover and Hedingham, of an unusual number of mural chambers and galleries. The height is 113 feet from the ground to the coping of the parapet, and the turrets rise 12 feet higher. The two western angles are flanked by broad flat pilasters, with hollow angles or nooks of 8 inches. They rise from a common plinth, and each is carried up clear of the parapet to form the outer face of a square turret, the height of which adds much to the commanding aspect of the building. The north-east angle is capped in a similar way, save that the pilasters are rather bolder, have no plinth, and the angles are solid until clear of the forebuilding. The south-east angle has neither plinth nor pilaster, but is capped by a rounded projection, which, though early, is not original. This also terminates in a turret, which is rounded towards the field, but flat on its two inner faces. On each face of the keep, near its centre, is a single pilaster of moderate width and projection. These also rise from the plinth and ascend to the parapet, two of them actually to its coping. On the north face is a second narrower pilaster, formed by continuing the wall of the forebuilding upward.

The keep has many openings, mostly of small size. A tier of round-headed loops marks the basement, and of square-headed ones, a trifle larger, the first floor. Next a line of small round-headed windows shows the level of the second or main floor, and one of larger windows the gallery of the same. Above all, a line of rather larger windows, also round-headed, indicates the uppermost floor. The two upper lines were ornamented, and had Norman half-piers and mouldings, and in some of the openings the windows were coupled, but the ashlar dressing has been much broken away. There are besides several loops placed near the angles, indicating garderobes, mural chambers, and staircases, and each turret has a window on each of its outer faces.

Internally, the keep is divided into two nearly equal chambers by a cross wall, east and west, 5 feet 6 inches thick throughout, and rising to the roof, where it carried the main gutter. Thus each floor was composed of a north and south chamber, one 21 feet and one 20 feet broad, and each 46 feet long. In the cross wall, near its centre, thickened by a pilaster strip on each face, is the well, said to be 60 feet deep from the ground level, and to contain usually 10 feet of water. It has an ashlar pipe, 2 feet 9 inches diameter, which seems to have been carried up to the roof, and was accessible by four small round-headed doors, one on each floor. It is unusual to see the well-pipe carried higher than the first floor: at Dover it reaches the second. To the north face of the Keep is appended the forebuilding covering the main entrance, which, as usual, was at the first-floor level.

The basement is reached only by a well-stair in the north-east angle, which stair, as in the Tower of London, ascends from the base to the summit. This staircase is 11 feet diameter, and contains 133 steps. It communicates with each floor, with several galleries and mural chambers, with the chapel, and with the roof of the forebuilding. The basement is at the average level of the ground outside, and there is no underground chamber.

The north chamber is entered at the north-east angle by the well-stair from above, and aired rather than lighted by three round-headed loops placed in its east, west, and north sides. These are of 4 inch opening, set in splayed recesses, and these again in flat-sided recesses, 6 feet broad and 3 feet deep, all round-headed, and the larger descending to the floor. The north loop, which opened into the bridge-pit of the main entrance, has been converted into a rude doorway, but the head of the loop remains. In this wall are two narrow doors, of which one descends 8 feet by nine steps into the basement of the forebuilding, and the other ascends by a slight slope into the first floor of the same. Besides these, near the west end of this wall, is a recess, 6 feet wide and 6 feet 9 inches deep. This recess, the depth of which seriously weakens the wall, can here produce no bad effect, the wall having been supported outside by the solid steps and lower gate of the forebuilding. In the west wall, besides the loop, is a broken doorway opening into a mural chamber, 4 feet 6 inches by 10 feet, which occupies the north-west angle of the building. In the cross wall, besides the opening to the well, are two doorways of 4 feet 7 inches and 5 feet opening.

The south chamber has single loops to the east and west, and two in the south wall in recesses, all of the pattern already described. There is also a mural chamber 3 feet 10 inches by 10 feet, in the south-west angle, entered by a door in the south wall, and near the east end of the same wall is a recess, 6 feet broad and 3 feet deep, but without a loop. The masonry shows this angle to have been rebuilt. Besides these cavities there are two, one in the west wall, 2 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 7 inches, entered by a rugged opening, 2 feet 7 inches broad, and the other in the south wall, 2 feet 10 inches by 4 feet 3 inches, with an opening much broken away. These cavities are shafts, which ascend vertically in the wall, and above are divided, showing that they are the vents of the garderobes in the first and second floors. The openings into them are not original, and probably the shafts were sunk a few feet below the floor, and ended either in cesspools or a drain. As there are other garderobes in the upper floors, there are, no doubt, other shafts, not broken into. There must be at least two, one at each end of the cross wall in the north chamber. It is curious that these vents, which in Norman buildings often open, as at Ludlow, upon the outer face of the wall, should have vertical shafts, while the turrets of the fire-flues vent in the face of the wall. At Coningsborough the arrangement is the reverse; the flues are vertical, the garderobe vents horizontal. The basement was evidently a store-room. It was about 15 feet high, and from it 20 steps led to the first floor.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.