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

by George Thomas Clark

The keep stands on the eastern and highest part of the platform, and commands the rest of the castle, as the castle commands the town; and here are what appear to be the remains of the English residence. At the foot of the steep, a mound, wholly artificial, but resting upon an inclined natural base, has been thrown up, composed of chalk, in form conical, truncated, and with a level summit, no doubt originally circular, and still nearly so, and about 90 feet diameter. The base is about 200 feet. Between the mound and the adjacent steep hill-side is the main, and perhaps a trace of a second and outer, ditch. This inner ditch, about 60 feet broad and 12 to 20 feet deep, sweeps round the foot of the mound on the east, north, and south sides, the ends dying out on reaching the platform on the west below. The ditch, always dry, has long been cultivated as a garden, and was no doubt once considerably deeper. Its north limb is partially built upon by the houses in Castle Street, and is, in consequence, nearly obliterated. It is traversed at the north-east quarter by a narrow causeway of earth, which, no doubt, represents an older causeway of stone, provided with a drawbridge, and forming a direct entrance for foot passengers and perhaps horses, to the keep. Beyond this, the east and south-east, in the extra-parochial plot called the “Bowling Green,” are very slight traces of what may have been a second and outer ditch, a not unlikely security to have been provided by the inhabitants of the mound against an attack on this the weakest, because the commanded, side.

The mound on the eastern face, measured from the scarp of the ditch, is about 30 feet high, but on the western side, where it rises from a lower level, it is about 50 feet, or 92 feet above the river. The mound and the ditch evidently supported and protected the dwelling of the English lord, and it is probable that upon the platform below, where the Norman king afterwards placed his hall and offices, were lodged the serfs and dependents of the earlier household. Judging from the close analogy of Leicester, Tamworth, Tutbury, and other earthworks of known date, the earthworks of Guildford may, with great probability, be referred to the earlier part of the tenth century.

The keep, a rectangular structure, covers the eastern slope of the mound, but is placed a little to the south of its central line, so as to allow of a gateway (now gone) at its north-east angle, and a passage up the mound outside the north wall. The east or lower wall rests on the undisturbed ground, a little above the level of the scarp of the ditch, and the west or upper wall upon the edge of the level summit of the mound, nearly the whole of which thus extends undisturbed to the west and north-west of the building. The difference in level of the base of the two faces of the keep is about 15 feet. It is exceedingly rare to find a rectangular keep placed upon an artificial mound. Guildford, Christchurch, and Clun are the only recorded examples.

The keep stands nearly by the points of the compass, measuring 46 feet north and south, by 52 feet east and west. The wall is perfect to the base of the parapet, a height on the west front of about 63 feet. The masonry of the lower side contains more ashlar, and is of better quality than the rest, to prevent the structure from slipping. Of the depth of the foundations nothing is known, but the thickness of the wall—at least 11 feet at the visible base—would serve to distribute the load, and chalk, even when made ground, does not make a bad foundation. There was, no doubt, a risk in placing so heavy a building upon an artificial hill, even though a couple of centuries old, but the result has justified the means employed, for there is not a crack or mark of settlement in the whole edifice. Grose represents some half-buried arches on the south side, not now visible, but which, if they ever existed, which is more than doubtful, might indicate that parts of the building rested on piers, carried down to the solid ground. However, enough of the wall is bared to show that this is not the case. What Grose took for an arch was probably a low course of inclined or half-herring-bone masonry. Others have described an opening on this side supposed to lead to a sub-basement vault which there is no reason for supposing to exist. The machicolations cited in evidence as defending this fabulous doorway are the vents of a garderobe in the upper story.

The four faces of the keep are generally alike. Each is flanked by two pilasters of 4 feet 6 inches wide, by 9 feet projection, so placed as not to cap the angle, but to convert it into a hollow or re-entering one. This hollow was left open, not filled up, as at Scarborough and elsewhere, by a bold bead or engaged column. In the centre of each face is a third and similar pilaster, but 5 feet wide. Probably these rested below upon a plinth common to the whole building; but if so, this is gone. Each pilaster is of equal breadth and projection throughout, having no sets-off. The central pilasters run up to the base of the parapet, now gone. Those at the angles were continued to form the usual square turrets, of which some slight though clear remains still rise above the curtain.

The material employed for the exterior is chiefly Bargate stone, from the bed representing the chalk marl immediately beneath the chalk. This is worked up as rubble, interspersed irregularly with courses of the same stone laid herring-bone fashion, for which the larger and flatter stones have been selected. The work is very rough. The herring-bone courses are laid at all heights and distances; some broken, some mere single inclined stones, and here and there, especially near the top, are occasional courses of flints, some of which look like insertions. The angles, salient and re-entering, of the pilasters, are of the same stone, cut as ashlar and well jointed; but between these quoins the pilasters are usually of rubble, sometimes herring-boned. Above the parapets the angle turrets seem to have been of ashlar. There is no string-course, shelf, or set-off upon the face of the wall. The west-central pilaster, being pierced by the entrance, is mainly of ashlar, as are the pilaster and adjacent wall, about the north-east angle of the building, where the gate of the ward seems, from traces in the masonry, to have abutted. Here, too, the joints being very wide are made good with single or double rows of thin ordinary bright-red roofing tiles. The base of the east face was repaired about forty years ago, and now has a modern ashlar plinth of about 15 feet high. The ashlar within reach on the other faces has been pillaged, and the base of the wall generally is very hollow and ragged. The hearting of the walls throughout seems composed of chalk and Bargate stone, very roughly laid and grouted.

The walls are everywhere pierced with putlog holes, about 4 inches square, indications of the method of construction, and probably originally but loosely stopped to allow the work to dry and for the convenience of future repairs. There are no large holes above, and no signs of a bretasche having been employed. Four double windows on the upper floor and one on the east face of the middle floor, though original, have been fitted up with cut brick mullions and arches of perhaps two hundred years ago, the work, no doubt, of the first purchaser. All earlier alterations seem to have been effected in stone.

Having thus disposed of the general exterior of the keep, the next step is to describe its interior details. Allowing for the removed plinth or casing, three of the faces are about 11 feet thick and the fourth or east about 14, so that the interior dimensions are 24 feet north and south, by 27 feet east and west. The building is composed of a basement and two upper stories, and the floors and roof were of timber. There is no evidence of any subterranean chamber, and no reason for supposing one.

The basement on the level of the top of the mound is about 12 feet high. The walls are pierced in the centre of the north and south faces with a round-headed recess 5 feet wide and about the same height to the springing. The sides and roof converge to an exterior loop, and the base is stepped up to it. The work is good plain rubble. The east and west walls were originally solid, and the only entrance to this floor must have been by a ladder and trap from the floor above. It was of course a store or cellar, as usual.

At a later date, a doorway, 4 feet 6 inches broad and 8 feet to the springing, has been cut through the west wall near the north end. This has a slightly pointed arch. Its masonry is of small weak rubble without any dressings; and this, and the absence of bond with the older work, show it to be an insertion. In the north-east corner, the wall has been rudely cut away to some depth to form a fireplace and an oven. The bricks composing these have been removed, and a recent pier of masonry supports the wall above. The chimney shaft of this and a fireplace in the floor above have been formed by cutting away the inner face of the wall, which has been rudely restored. No doubt all this is the work of the purchaser, who seems to have lived in the keep and converted the basement into a kitchen. In the south-west corner is a small platform of stone, said to have carried a wooden stair communicating with the floor above, and of the date of the kitchen. This is probable enough. One of the stones is a late Norman capital, brought from some other part of the castle. The whole interior of this basement is rubble. It contained neither fireplace nor garderobe. The two loops, its only light, are about 18 inches high, and were probably 4 inches broad, though now increased by weather to 6 inches.