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

by George Thomas Clark

The north-east, the debtors’ or armourers’, tower has a door in the gorge opening on the left upon a well-stair, 8 feet diameter, which ascends to the second floor only, from which the first floor and basement were reached by a trap and ladder. The second floor is seven-sided, those below cylindrical. As in the south-east tower, an independent stair led from the second floor to the ramparts of the curtain, and upon this curved stair is a garderobe, the loop of which is seen at the junction of the tower with the north curtain, and the mouth or vent at the ground level. The roof of this tower, like the other, is reached from the walls by an external stair. These two towers, having no well-stairs to the roof, have no subordinate turrets. That all these four towers had flat roofs is pretty clear from the position of two corbels in each, evidently intended to carry hammer beams or struts to the one main beam which crossed the aperture, and was thus rendered capable of carrying great weight.

The great gatehouse is 80 feet broad and 54 feet deep, besides which it has two half-round projections in the front and two three-quarter projecting stair-turrets 24 feet diameter at the outer angles of the rear, the former flanking the entrance, the latter communicating with each floor and the ramparts. The entrance passage, 54 feet long by 8 feet broad, is much mutilated, but seems to have had an exterior drawbridge, two grates, folding doors, and a grate at the inner front. The entrance portal has within it a “machecoule,” or meurtrière,—that is, an opening from the chamber above—and behind this a portcullis. Then follows a passage 11 feet long, crossed by two ribs, a second portcullis, and a portal arch, upon which rests the west wall of the chapel. Then follows another passage, 20 feet long, entered by gates opening towards the inner ward, and crossed by five broad ribs, with four open spaces. At the end of this is a third portcullis, the groove for which is now closed above at a level too low to allow the grate to be lifted to the height of a cart, while in the arch above is a square cavity or “machecoule.” It would seem that while the wall was rising it was decided not to use these grooves, and that the hole was intended to take the place of the grate as a defence. Beyond this is the inner portal, which, like the outer, has no rebate for a door. In the front division of this long entrance, between the two outer grates, are two loops from the side lodges, which are entered by two doors placed near to the inner end. This passage was covered over with boards, the flooring of the rooms above, and which rested upon the stone ribs. Here, as is often the case, the portcullis groove stops from 1 foot to 18 inches above the door sill, showing that the spikes at the lower end of the grate were of this length. This long entrance passage is further lengthened by the addition of two unequal piers to its internal face. They are blocks of masonry 10 feet thick. That on the south or left had a door whence a narrow staircase of two flights ascended to the front floor. The pier on the right is of less breadth, and was only an abutment to support the arch which connected the two and contained and continued the entrance passage, and on which was the landing at the stair-head.

The basement of the gatehouse is at the ground level. On each side of the passage are two chambers, those in front occupying the half-round projection and looped to the field. They are entered from the chambers in the rear, which are rectangular, having shoulder-headed doors from the passage and into the well-stairs. The northern chamber has a fireplace in the south-east angle. The two southern chambers communicate through a large arch, the northern through a doorway only. There are also two upper floors, divided as these below, and reached by the two large well-stairs. There are spacious and handsome rooms, two on each floor, with large windows of two lights in the western or larger rooms, and in all are fireplaces with stone hoods. The eastern rooms below are half circles in plan; and above, are polygonal. Between the lateral rooms and over the entrance passage are two narrow chambers unequally divided by a cross wall. The eastern is an oratory, with a small, pointed east window over the entrance gate of the castle, and near it, in the south wall, is a piscina, which is in the cill of a small window opening into a small mural chamber, a vestry. There is a similar chamber, but without the window, in the north wall. Both rooms are entered from the oratory. As at York, Chepstow, and elsewhere, this oratory served also as a portcullis chamber, and the floor was of wood, with traps to allow the passage of the grates when lifted. The grates were suspended from the vault above, as is still seen. The other and larger chamber, placed over the western part of the passage, had also a wooden floor. It had a west window of two lights over the inner portal, and north of this a round-headed doorway. The portcullis, if lifted, would have blocked this entrance, and therefore when the door was opened it was stopped. The machecoule is seen in the window seat. The upper chambers are not accessible, but they seem similar to those below, and there is a second oratory above the first, with a smaller east window—a very unusual arrangement. This floor communicates laterally with the ramparts of the curtain, and at the junction on each side is a mural garderobe. On the south side a mural stair descends to two chambers at different levels, both in the curtain wall. On the north side the arrangement is rather different. There, the mural garderobes are supported in part by a projection at the first-floor level, corbelled out in the angle between the gatehouse and the curtain, outside, and the vent was probably between the corbels. Above, at the rampart level, half the thickness of the wall is occupied by a garderobe chamber, of which the side is broken down. Several of the chimney shafts are collected in a central group, each shaft having a bold capital with a plain roll moulding.

The domestic buildings were placed against the curtain on the west side of the inner ward. The kitchen is thought to have been at the north end, including within its limits the basement of the north-west tower. It is, however, more probable that this was the withdrawing room, placed between the hall and the chapel. A gloomy corner, no doubt, but the state rooms were evidently in the gatehouse. The kitchen would scarcely have been designed originally between the hall and the chapel. The cross wall, still standing, but which looks either modern or rebuilt, formed the north end of the hall, and the recesses in the west wall of the curtain carried the hammer beams of its open roof. In this wall are the remains of a large fireplace, of which the hood is gone, and the lower part has recently been rebuilt. On either side are the broken apertures for two windows, and in the wall, near its south end, a segmental-headed door, now walled up, but evidently a postern. There are also near this two small windows, one of which seems to have lighted the gallery and the other the space below it. Of the position of the gallery there can be no doubt, but the wall behind it, forming the south end of the hall, and now removed, had no bond either into the curtain or into the east wall. Most of this east wall, the inner wall of the hall, is gone. The hall was 30 feet broad. The roof seems to have been lofty, and part of the weather moulding of its gutter remains along the west wall. On the floor, in the north-west corner of the hall, has been built a large oven of stone, the lining of which is much burnt. It probably was inserted when the castle was used as a prison.

South of the hall is a considerable space extending to the gorge wall of Bronwen Tower, and in the east wall of this space are remains of a door and two windows. It is probable that the kitchen was here, in the rear of the gallery, and that a row of corbels outside the east wall carried a lean-to building attached to it and near this; against the south wall is a rectangular pit, the underground storey of some building now removed. If the kitchen was at this end, the hall fireplace was a little below the dais, a very probable position.

The chapel, a later building, was placed against the north wall. Its east wall and pointed window remain. The south wall is gone. In the centre of the north curtain is a segmental-arched doorway, evidently a postern, and nearly opposite to that of the middle ward. It is much mutilated, and does not seem to have had a portcullis. The wall east of it is pierced by three loops, 4 feet above the ground level. There was at least one loop westward of the postern. The well was in the north-east angle of the court. It has recently been opened a few feet down.

The Middle Ward contains little of interest. On the north side it is 15 feet broad, and hence, between its two roundels, 10 feet apart, opened the postern, 8 feet wide, now walled up. On the west front, the ward is 27 feet broad and forms a noble terrace overlooking the sea and commanding the approach from the water-gate. The hall had windows looking this way, and upon it opened the hall postern. Towards the south end a few steps descended about 10 feet into the south-west bastion. Probably there was a cross wall here with a doorway. Turning the south-west corner, the ground again rises to a door in a wall which crosses the south terrace near its west end. This side of the wall has a central half-round bastion, the broken parapet of which shows traces of a loop and of a garderobe. On the remaining or eastern side is the great entrance. Here the gateway, which crowns a low salient, is flanked by two roundels. The portal is broken down, and it does not now appear how this was connected with the inner gatehouse. Probably the short distance between the two was arched over and had lateral doorways into the middle ward. From the inner gate, twenty steps descended to the bridge, so that no horse or carriage could have entered this way.

The defences beyond the middle ward are the ditch, the outer ward, and the water-gates and passage. The ditch covers only the east and south, the two landward sides. It is quarried in the rock, and is about 60 feet broad and was 20 feet deep, with vertical sides. Its scarp is the revetment wall of the middle ward, and the counterscarp, where the rock was broken, is also lined with masonry. The ditch runs out at either end upon the shelving face of the rock. Across it, to the main entrance, led a bridge upon which it is said there were two openings with drawbridges. The whole is now a solid causeway.

Although the castle stands upon a promontory of rock, there is a broken shelving space between its wall and an actual cliff in which the rock terminates below, and it is this space, which lies to the west and north, which has been enclosed as the outer ward, the containing wall of which crowns the cliff and where necessary is supported by a revetment. This outer wall begins below the north-east bastion of the middle ward, whence a door with steps seems to have led down about 10 feet to its ramparts. It is at that point a very stout wall, about 14 feet high, with a parapet on the western face, thus defending the ditch and main bridge from an enemy who might be in possession of the outer ward and be disposed to turn the eastern flank. It is probable, however, that the wall had a double parapet, for lower down, where the wall faces the north, the parapet is on that face. Near the bastion there seems to have been a door in this wall, giving a passage from the outer ward to the ditch. Lower down, where the wall stands on the cliff, it is thinner, and in parts much broken away. Still lower it is more perfect and much stronger, and where it turns the north-west corner of the rock, opposite the railway station, it is of great thickness, and has a rampart wall and parapet towards the sea, above the level of which it is about 30 feet; near this point is the lower water-gate, a regular postern, in a small rectangular shoulder in the wall. A roadway of about 5 yards or 6 yards long, cut in the rock, rises from the marsh 10 feet or 12 feet, and upon it, in front of the portal, was a drawbridge with a pit 12 feet deep, and within the portal a short shoulder-headed passage closed apparently by a door, but without any portcullis. Beyond this a flight of open stairs niched in the curtain ascended to an embattled platform over the gate. From the lower gate, the road leads up a rather steep passage formed partly by taking advantage of a shelf and partly by quarrying the rock, the outer side being protected by a wall 8 to 10 feet high and from 2 to 3 feet thick, and looped at about every 20 feet. As the inner side of the roadway is the irregular face of the cliff, it varies much in breadth, from 6 to 12 feet or more. This road, continually ascending, thus covers the whole seaward face of the castle rock, and at about 70 feet or 80 feet in height it terminates in the middle gate, which is about 20 feet below the base of the south-western bastion of the middle ward. Here, a shoulder in the rock is occupied by a second gatehouse, fortified as the first, with a drawbridge and a deep pit, which below has two arches, one for the discharge of water from the pit and the other, which may be merely to support the side wall of the gatehouse, but which may also be a sewer from the castle. Outside this gate is a platform which rakes the face of the wall of the passage below, while above and within the gate is a broad bastion, whence commences the second traverse. At this point, the end of the main ditch lies just below the bastion wall, and was reached from it by a small door and some steps, now gone.

The road now makes a complete turn, and commences a new traverse which rises much more gently than that below. When abreast of the mid-front of the castle it is supported by a retaining wall and two small square buttresses or buttress turrets, traces of which are seen upon a ledge of rock. Passing these, where the road comes opposite to the north-west bastion of the middle ward, it was crossed by a wall and doorway, of which traces remain, which divided the outer ward into two parts. Above this, the way turned eastward and ascended to the centre of the north front, where it reached the postern of the middle ward and there ended.