In February, 1322, the castle was besieged for three weeks by Thomas of Lancaster, and this siege was one of the charges brought against him on his trial:—“Et misit homines suos ... ad obsidendum castrum domini Regis de Tikhull; et quædam ingenia, ad projiciendum petras grossas super castrum prædictum, et homines in eodem castro ex parte domini Regis existentes; qui quidem proditores castrum illud, per tres septimanus continuè insultando et debellando, obsederunt, et quosdem homines Regis ibidem interfecerunt.” The castle was defended gallantly by Sir William de Anne, and relieved by the king in person. Tickhill was again settled upon a queen in the person of Philippa, who died in 1369. In 1362, Edward exchanged Tickhill with John of Gaunt, against the honour of Richmond, and it descended with the other estates of the duchy of Lancaster. In the Parliamentary struggle it was held for the king, but surrendered after Marston Moor, and was dismantled. When thus held, its outer defences were the moat and the palisades on the counterscarp. The foundation of the chapel was dissolved, 1 Edward VI. The castle now belongs to the Earl of Scarborough.
Tickhill Castle is an excellent example of a pre-Norman or English earthwork, composed of mound, fosse, and lower ward, converted into a Norman castle. It exemplifies exactly the manner in which the Norman engineers treated earthworks of this description, and how such works gave rise to one of the two great types of a Norman castle, that with the shell-keep. Tickhill is Laughton on a larger scale, the only difference being that the ditch of the mound is not carried wholly round it, but is wanting towards the attached area. Either it was never formed, or, what is not improbable, was filled up when the Norman works were constructed, or, as at Cardiff, at a much later period. Something analogous to this seems to have taken place at Kenilworth.
In the original construction of this fortress advantage was taken of a knoll of soft sandstone rock to form the base of the mound. This was scarped, and the ditch dug, and the material employed in forming the upper two-thirds of the mound. A modern cave in the side shows this natural base. The castle is composed of the mound, and a court or ward appended to its western side, the whole included within a ditch. The mound is conical, about 60 feet diameter at its table-top, and about 60 feet high, above the ward. The ward is a rounded and more or less circular area, save where it touches the mound, and includes about one quarter of its circumference. The exterior ditch follows the figure of this ward, and of the uncovered three-quarters of the mound: hence in plan it resembles somewhat a figure of 8, and it is this notch in the outline that makes it probable that the mound ditch was once complete, and the two parts of the fortress were, as at Barwick, distinct. The domestic buildings stood in the lower ward, on its western edge, opposite to the mound upon which was the keep. The gatehouse stands on the southern edge of the ward, between the domestic buildings and the keep. The curtain is broken down to the east, but elsewhere tolerably perfect. The ditch is filled up on the same side, and its place occupied as a kitchen-garden and by stables.
Upon the summit of the mound are seen the foundations of the keep, a decagon, the sides of which average 16 feet 11 inches, of which each angle was covered by a flat pilaster of 4 feet broad, and very slight projection. The door seems to have been towards the south-west, of 4 feet 6 inches opening. It lay between two sides of the exceptional length of 20 feet. The wall seems to have been, at the top of the plinth, 10 feet thick. The shell was apparently faced with ashlar. The whole building has been taken down with some care to the top of the plinth, a mere plain chamfer, formerly about 6 inches above the ground, and now covered to its level. Thus the actual dimensions of the plan are preserved, and the position and breadth of the entrance. It is said there is a well within the area, a few feet inside the place of the door. If so, it is at present effectually concealed.
The keep at this time is ascended by seventy-five stone steps in a straight line on the western face. Possibly this was the original approach. If so, the path from the head of the stair must, as at Tamworth, have passed for 20 feet round the outside of the keep. The steps terminate below under the shelter of the curtain. The two ends of the curtain ascend the mound about two-thirds of its height. Probably they were continued to the summit, but no foundations are now seen at the keep level, and the plinth of the keep shows there was no bond. The curtains which thus ascended these mounds were rarely bonded into the keep, and do not seem ever to have risen to its full height. On the contrary, they seem to have only risen to the level of the top of the mound or to the base of those of the keep, the parapet probably being continued so as to stop the passage round the exterior. This seems to have been the case at Tunbridge, Berkhampstead, and Tamworth. At Hawarden the curtain abuts against the keep about 10 feet high, but with no original bond, and with a doorway in it opening outside the base of the keep.
The curtain which enclosed the lower ward is here from 10 feet to 13 feet thick, and 20 feet to 30 feet high, with a plinth at its interior base. It rises out of a bank which forms a ramp or terrace 15 feet broad, on both outer and inner sides. Inside, this ramp is about 8 feet above the court level. Outside, it forms a walk all round the fortress, being carried by a bridge over the gateway, and in a step or notch round the slope of the mound. The curtain is entire from the mound to the dwelling-house, about 240 feet, along the north front, but to the west it is concealed by the house which represents the domestic buildings of the castle. It also remains from the house to the gatehouse, and about 50 feet or 60 feet beyond it along the south front. Towards the south-east about 300 feet are gone, but the last 78 feet, where it again ascends the mound, are tolerably perfect.
Where the outer wall skirts the mound it forms a revetment 6 feet high, and which may have been higher, and crested with a parapet to defend this front.
The exterior ditch is broad and deep, and in part contains water. Formerly it was fed from an adjacent stream, which flowed all round it. Beyond the ditch was a bank of earth, of which traces and portions remain, especially towards the north. It is difficult to say whether there was a second ditch, owing to the encroachments of roads and buildings.
The gatehouse deserves special notice, as an original and early Norman structure. It is 36 feet square, with walls 7 feet 6 inches thick, and has a round-headed gateway at each end, of 12 feet opening, with a plain rebate for doors, but no portcullis or chamfer. The inner space was covered with timber, and there was an upper story. This may have been partially rebuilt; it contains in the wall over the inner door a large Tudor window, probably an insertion.
There is no staircase. The structure much resembles Porchester before the alterations. It is placed upon the curtain, with a bold exterior, and still bolder interior projection. The outer front of the first floor is ornamented with four stiff rude pediments, each a right-angled triangle, with a rude figure at the apex of each and in the hollow angle or gutter, joining each pair. The tympana are filled with small square blocks, each carved with an undeveloped dog-tooth ornament. A plain string marks the division of the two stages, and so far all is Norman.