KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE.
The first floor, also of two chambers, was lofty, gloomy, and perfectly plain. It was probably the soldiers’ lodging during a siege.
The North Chamber. In the north wall, near the east end, is the main entrance, 15 feet from the ground, and opening from the vestibule of the forebuilding. This is a bold, full-centred arch, of 6 feet 2 inches opening, with flat sides, in a wall here 10 feet 6 inches thick. The outer face is flanked by nook shafts, and the architrave has a bold chevron moulding. The inner architrave has a similar but rather plainer moulding, but the jambs are broken away. Just within the outer face is a square portcullis groove, and behind it a rebate for a door, expanding the passage to 7 feet. Near the inner face, in each side, is a small round-headed recess, 2 feet 6 inches broad by 1 foot 4 inches deep, probably to hold the keys or a lamp. The door was secured by a stout bar, and the grate, which seems to have been of iron, was worked from a mural passage above. This portal led direct into the north chamber, about 7 feet from the well-stair door. In the north-west angle is a mural chamber, called “Gundulph’s room,” vaulted and groined, 10 feet 3 inches by 11 feet 7 inches, entered by a door in the west wall, and lighted by two loops to the west. In its rounded north-west corner is a fireplace with a small Norman hood of 2 feet 6 inches projection, having a segmental arch. The tunnel is conical, and ends in a couple of openings in the hollow angle of the south end of the adjacent pilaster, in the face of the wall, above 12 feet above the hearth. Near the north-east angle of this chamber is a small blocked-up doorway, which, as at Middleham, opened upon the roof of the outer gate of the forebuilding. The ashlar rings of the loop recesses, and the hood of the fireplace, are of excellent workmanship. Besides these openings there are in the north chamber four windows, one at each end, and two in the north side. These are set each in a recess, 5 feet 6 inches opening, and 9 feet 6 inches deep, 15 feet high, and round-headed, the loops being square-headed, about 1 foot 6 inches high by 12 inches broad. These recesses, from their great height, produce a good effect, but were probably found to weaken the wall, for they have been partly built up and reduced at their lower 6 feet to a depth of 3 feet. The blocking is of inferior masonry, executed in haste. Between the two northern loops is a fireplace of 5 feet 6 inches opening, round-headed, having no hood, and with a round back. It is strengthened by a pilaster of 9 inches projection and 10 feet breadth, from the inner wall. The tunnel from the fireplace is conical, and has a lateral vent about 15 feet up. In the east wall, near the entrance from the well-stair, is a recess, which, besides the loop, contains a postern and a garderobe. The latter is a mural chamber, 5 feet 10 inches by 13 feet, which opens from the southern jamb of the recess: the postern, 2 feet 6 inches broad, is cut obliquely through the wall, and opens in the face of the keep, 15 feet above the ground, and about 30 feet from the rampart of the curtain, with which it must have communicated by a light plank bridge. There is such a door in the Norman keep at Adare, and in the later Wakefield tower in London, to which a stone bridge has recently been fitted. In the cross wall, besides the well opening, are two doors corresponding to those below.
The south chamber has a loop at each end, and three in the south wall, all in recesses similar to those in the north chamber, and these also have been partially blocked up to strengthen the wall. There is a fireplace in the south wall corresponding to that described above, and in the south-west angle a door leads into a well-stair, 11 feet diameter, which commences at this level, and communicates with the floors above, and with the battlements. There are four mural recesses in this chamber. One, a garderobe, opens in the south jamb of the recess of the west window, and another in the east jamb of the central window in the south wall. The shafts from these recesses descend into the wall of the lower chamber, as described. The other galleries open right and left from the window recess in the east end. That to the north is a passage, 3 feet 6 inches by 8 feet, with a garderobe in the end of it. That to the south is a gallery, 20 feet long by 3 feet broad, which ends in the south-east angle, where it has two windows to the south and east. This is in the rebuilt angle. This floor rested upon timber joists. From it forty steps lead up the north-east staircase 30 feet to the main floor, and at thirty-six steps branched off a narrow stair to the chancel of the chapel.
The main, state, or second floor, 32 feet high, rested on each side upon eighteen joists, whole timbers. It contains two tiers of windows, the lower opening directly from the chamber, the upper with the intervention of a mural gallery. Between the two is a plain string of Norman pattern. The roof was flat, being the joists and planks of the upper floor. The window recesses of the lower tier range from 3 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 10 inches opening, and those of the gallery tier nearly correspond to them. All are flanked with nook shafts, but the lower architraves have a bold roll and hollow moulding, those above have the chevron pattern. The ashlar of the windows is mostly gone. The lower seem to have been plain and small, the upper richer and rather larger, but none at all large. The projections in front of the well, the fireplaces, and the two staircases, are beaded at the angles. There are no marks of corbels for struts to stiffen the joists and give support to the ceiling.
The north chamber was entered by a sort of lobby, 5 feet 6 inches square, and groined, into which the staircase opened. The recesses of the east and west windows each have mural garderobes opening from the southern jambs. The two recesses in the north wall have no side openings. Between them is the fireplace, similar to that below, but with a handsome chevron architrave. Over the great entrance is a doorway of 7 feet opening, leading to the chapel. In it is the chase for working the grate, and beyond this is a rebate reducing the passage to 3 feet to form the chapel door. In the north-west angle is a small chamber.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE.
