- The Keep.
- The Main Ward.
- Site of the Hall.
- Offices.
- Entrance; below which is its section.
- Place of the Barbican.
Ground Plan, from a Survey made by Mr. James Harrison, of Chester, in 1857.
Returning to the well-stair, the upper part of which is broken away, at twenty-nine steps from the base is a small lancet-headed door. It opens into a mural passage, 2 feet 6 inches broad, and 7 feet high, which makes two turns at right angles. At one, on the left, is a recess, 3 feet deep by 1 foot 9 inches broad, a garderobe, the back part of which, probably bratticed off, carried a shaft from a similar recess on the ramparts. At its second turn the passage descends seven steps to the nearest window recess in the main chamber, crossing which an opposite doorway leads into the mural gallery. The ascent and descent in the narrow passage is rendered necessary by the level of the steps of the well-stair.
The mural gallery, at the main chamber level, is continued within the substance of the wall, to the recess next the chapel. It is in plan a polygon parallel with the inner faces of the wall. It is 10 feet high and 3 feet 9 inches wide, having a flagged roof resting on a double tier of corbels, and in it are three large recesses, each opening to the field by a long loop, swallow-tailed at each end. These recesses and loops are not seen from the main chamber. The doors and window frames, where original, are executed in straw-coloured sandstone. The chapel doorway and piscina and the side doors of the window recesses seem of later Decorated work than the rest, and may be insertions, though this does not look probable.
The keep, as at Tamworth, Durham, Berkhampstead, Warwick, and Cardiff, stands in the enceinte line of the main ward, and forms part of it, about two thirds of its circumference being outside, and one third, including the doorway, inside the curtain. This curtain was about 460 feet in length, and encircles the main ward, abutting against the keep at two points: one 24 feet south and one 18 feet north of the entrance. On each side it is carried down the slope, and, meeting below, thus encloses a somewhat fan-shaped area, about 170 feet north-east and south-west by 142 feet north-west and south-east, within which were the principal buildings of the fortress. The southern part of this curtain can be traced, but in its foundation only; that to the north is tolerably perfect. It is 7 feet thick, and has been about 25 feet high. It does not, as at Tamworth, so ascend the mound that its ramparts terminate at the level of the base of the keep, but it abuts against the keep at a height of 12 feet or 14 feet, and is so continued down the slope. Up the mound, the rampart of the curtain, as at Windsor, was a flight of steps, but as the ramparts only abutted against, and had no doorway into, the keep, the steps were merely to enable the defenders to man that part of the wall. On the north side, besides these steps, there was a second flight, laid on the surface of the mound, behind and at the foot of the curtain, and probably covered over, as traces remain of a second wall. These led to the entrance to the keep, and were the communication between it and the main ward.
At the junction of this curtain with the keep is a postern, a small, shouldered doorway with a door barred within, where an enemy who had reached the foot of the keep could be attacked. About 90 feet lower down are traces of a similar doorway, whence the base of the mound could be reached. Of the south curtain a fragment remains attached to the keep; it had no postern, and probably no steps behind it.
The Main Ward (B in the plan) is divided into two parts: the one a level platform, in which stood the hall and other buildings, round a court about 125 feet by 92 feet, and into which was the main entrance; and the other, and much smaller part is the steep slope of the mound, about 50 feet broad, and which was probably left rugged and waste as we now see it. At the foot of this slope are the remains of four rooms, about 18 feet deep from the face, probably for stores, each with a doorway to the court; in the wall of one is a sort of rude drain as from a sink or trough. This range was evidently continued along the south end of the court, being built against the curtain and carried on to the hall. Of these extensions only the excavated ground-floor, some low walls, and the base of a well-stair remain. From the character of the stair, it looks as though it had been of some consequence, and it shows that there was an upper floor, probably of rooms communicating with the hall, and perhaps connecting it with the keep.
At the opposite, or north end of the store-room range is the doorway at the foot of the stairs leading to the keep, and beyond this, in the curtain wall, a door which seems to have led into a well-stair which gave access to the stepped rampart. Again, a few feet beyond this, at an angle of the enclosure, are the fragments of the great gateway, beyond which, for about 100 feet round the north angle of the court, the curtain is of full height and very perfect, having angle-quoins of the same yellow ashlar used in the keep.
The Hall (C) was placed on the east face of the ward, at its south end, and occupied above one half of that face. The curtain formed its outer wall, and was pierced by its windows, and strengthened at its south-east angle by a solid, half-round buttress, 22 feet diameter, probably an addition. The hall was on the first floor, the low basement being probably a cellar, and entered by a vaulted passage at its south end. The hall was about 30 feet high from its timber floor to its wall plate. Two lofty windows remain, and traces of a third, and between them are the plain chamfered corbels whence sprung the open roof. The window recesses have a low-pointed arch and a bold bead moulding. The windows are of one light, trefoiled, with the cusp lights worked. There is no label. Within the recess are lateral seats.
North of, and connected with the hall is a rectangular projection (D), 36 feet deep by 60 feet in front, the lower floors of which are laid on the scarp of the ditch, considerably below the level of the ward. These were doubtless offices, but as nothing but the lower walls remain little can be discovered of their detail. There remains, however, in the curtain the jamb of a large doorway, whence descends a flight of steps about 20 feet, probably to a postern, of which, however, there are no traces, on the edge of the ditch. These steps led into one of two apartments, at one end of each of which is what was probably a fireplace, though they more resemble the vent of a garderobe shaft, which, however, they cannot well be, since the chambers were certainly not cesspools. The walls of this projection are substantial, and certainly carried an upper storey, probably occupied by withdrawing-rooms and private apartments attached to the hall. No well has been discovered, nor oven, nor any signs of a garrison chapel, all which were probably placed in this ward.