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

by George Thomas Clark

In the west wall is a plain, round-headed doorway, of 6 feet opening, and with ashlar ring-stones 2 feet deep. This is the opening of a straight passage through the wall, here 12 feet 9 inches thick. There are in the passage rebates for two doors, opening towards each other. At Rochester, a small door in this position led only into a sort of prison in the base of the forebuilding, and this may have been the case here; but the size of the door, as at Corfe, makes it at least possible that it was a regular entrance, approached through the forebuilding from the common exterior door. In small keeps the basement was often entered from the first floor only, as at Clitheroe, by a trap, or, in the larger keeps, by a well-stair, as at Middleham. Unfortunately, as the forebuilding is almost always more or less injured, it is impossible in most cases where there is a large basement door to say positively whether it was an independent entrance. There is also the further doubt, as at the Tower of London, Guildford, and Malling, whether the doorway in the basement be not a later introduction. The cill of this doorway is about 10 feet above the outer or main entrance of the forebuilding, the floor of which rises to it. Close north of the large doorway is a small one, of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which leads into a garderobe, the seat of which is corbelled out into the interior of the north-west turret. This interior, 10 feet 6 inches square, seems to have been a vast cesspit, receiving the contents of garderobes from each floor and from the battlements. There is no drain below, and the lower part of the pit contained sand, which has recently been removed. There is a somewhat similar pit in the keep at Ludlow, and one at Sherborne which resembles them. Large as this pit is for such a purpose, it is much smaller than the turret, the wall of which to the west, if solid, must be 11 feet thick. Can there be a second and smaller shaft in that part of the turret, not now accessible? There was no way from this floor to either of the southern turrets, both of which, at this level, were filled with earth.

The main or upper floor is 34 feet by 64 feet, and was about 40 feet high. As the span is long for single joists, it is possible that these rested upon a central beam, and this upon posts; or, as no bases have been found, it may be that they were stiffened by struts from the side walls. Some traces in the ashlar of the broken staircase at the north-east corner seem to point to an entrance from the stair through the north wall, similar to that supposed below. In the south wall are three window recesses corresponding to those below, but of 6 feet opening, with segmental heads. They rest on the floor and are 12 feet high. Above one of these openings, on the outside, may be traced the head of one of the original Norman windows, which shows that it was of small size—probably of 2 feet opening. These have been replaced, with small regard for congruity, by late Tudor windows of three lights, divided in the centre by a transom. In the east wall are two similar windows, and over the well-pipe is the well-chamber, 7 feet square, rudely vaulted and groined. Its floor has been relaid, but it is evident that the pipe ascended into this chamber, and that a pulley hung from the centre of the vault for the working of the bucket. In the south-east corner is a locker for a spare rope or tools. The entrance to this chamber was through the jamb of the adjacent window, but a second doorway has been broken direct from the great chamber. Close to this breach a door and bent passage lead into the south-east turret, where is a chamber 12 feet 6 inches by 15 feet. The floor is of earth, with which the turret is filled to this level. Above are traces of an upper chamber, entered probably by a ladder and a trap-door. There is no fireplace, but a loop high up in the south wall has been converted into a window, and a second loop remains in the east wall.

The west wall of the great chamber contains two windows similar to the other side—save that they do not descend to the floor, but begin about 8 feet up, so as not to interfere with the forebuilding outside. North of these windows, in the part of the north-west turret which abutted on the north curtain, is a door of 3 feet opening, and 8 feet or 10 feet high. This is the cross section of a mural passage leading from the great chamber. Close south of it, in the west wall, and above the similar door on the ground floor, a small round-headed door leads into the garderobe turret. The other opening in the west wall is at its south end, and is the main entrance to the keep. It is a plain doorway of 6 feet opening, with a flat, segmental head beneath a full-centred arch of relief. The passage has a segmental barrel vault. It goes direct through the curtain, here 12 feet thick. It has no portcullis. In the south wall of the passage a side door opens into the south-west turret. This also had an original upper chamber, but below the entrance or first-floor level it was filled with earth; this has been removed, and the lower part fitted up, and windows opened in the south wall, and a rude door at the base, but the rough character of the masonry shows that the turret was originally filled up to the first-floor level. Dudley’s alterations converted the interior of this turret into five tier of rooms, the windows of which are seen in the south wall. It is said also to have been fitted up as a staircase.

The great chamber had an open roof, the holes for the joists of which are seen in the southern wall. The pitch was low, almost flat, as is shown by the original weather-moulding in the east and west walls, which has been masqued by a thin interior facing, carrying a moulding for a roof of a rather higher pitch, all which, however, has disappeared under the recent repairs. This is different from Porchester, Rochester, and Bridgenorth, where the original pitch was steep. On the outside, above the windows, but much below the base of the parapet, is seen a row of loops, square-headed, with a plain chamfer, expanded below into a broad fantail. There are three of these in the south wall and two in the east and west, and each turret has besides one on each of its two outer faces. The turret loops are at a higher level, and this shows that the turrets themselves stood clear above the curtains. These apertures are curious. The loop ascended in the wall and opened in the base of the parapet beneath a flat, three-centred arch. The loops are probably original, but the parapet seems to have been rebuilt, either when the pitch of the roof was altered or in Dudley’s time. The walls are covered with ivy and in a dangerous condition, so that even with the aid of long ladders their upper part is not very accessible. There are traces of doorways opening from the rampart walk into the upper parts of the turrets, the floors of which were of timber.

The forebuilding covering the entrance forms almost as remarkable a feature here as at Rochester or Middleham, though it has suffered much from alterations. It was a rectangular tower built against the west wall of the keep, and projecting 38 feet. Its walls are 6 feet thick, bonded into and of the date of the keep. The west wall has been in part removed down to the plinth, but the two other walls are tolerably perfect. It was of two stages and about 40 feet high. The door was in the south wall, opening from the inner ward. It may be traced, but has been in part replaced by an entrance of Perpendicular date, now also broken away. Above the old door, 12 feet from the ground, is a plain Norman string. From the door a straight stair, reversed with a second flight, must have risen 25 feet to reach the first floor. At that level, over the entrance, was a chamber, of which part of the Norman wall remains, but which was rebuilt by Dudley, and has been nearly all destroyed. Here was possibly a chapel, as at Middleham. The entrance to the first floor of the keep opens from this level, in the curtain, close to the south-west turret. The doorway, like that within, is quite plain, and has a flat, segmental head under an arch of relief, also segmental, but less flat. It looks as though the lower arch had been inserted to carry the joists of the roof, but it is really original. The pitch of the roof of the forebuilding has been thrice altered, as is shown by the grooves cut in the wall of the turret. The flattest is the latest. The roofs seem to have been of the lean-to character. Whether there was a chamber below the stair, or whether there was a way at the base of the stair into the lower floor of the keep, as has been already pointed out, cannot now be ascertained.

It would seem that in the Perpendicular period this forebuilding was much altered, its entrance a little shifted, and in it were placed several piers, 3 feet square, supporting full-centred arches, of 9 feet span, on which the timbers of the floor above were laid. A plain doorway of 6 feet opening was cut in the curtain forming the north end, and in the exterior of the wall an alcove was formed of 13 feet span by 6 feet deep, having a segmental arch, and supported by three plain ribs with a hollow chamfer. This alcove opened upon a terrace, which overlooked the northern part of the outer ward, and formed a sort of landing and staircase, giving a descent of four or five steps from the door to the terrace. The object seems to have been to form a handsome way from the inner ward to the garden north of the keep. The piers and arches might be of the date of Elizabeth or James, but their mouldings and parts of the adjacent walls are clearly earlier, and no doubt the work of the Lancastrian owners, who in that case must have indulged in a garden. Dudley made further alterations, and a part of the south front of the forebuilding still bears the date of 1575, and has Italian ornaments.

There is to be remarked in this keep, the absence of a cross wall, the basement filled up with earth, the unusual projection of the four turrets, the probably distinct entrances from the forebuilding to the ground and first floor, and the well-stair, nearly as large as that of the Tower of London. Also, there is no portcullis, and there are but few mural chambers or galleries. This is the more remarkable as the walls are unusually thick and the material excellent. Further, there are no fireplaces in the three remaining walls, and there is no ornamentation of any kind, inside or outside. The keep is the only distinctly Norman building remaining in the inner ward, although much of the curtain is Norman, and more rests upon the Norman lines.

It has been stated that the keep forms the north-eastern angle of the inner ward. The curtain abutting upon it on either face is of its own date. At the north-west corner the curtain forms the north wall of the forebuilding, and for some yards is original. At the south-east corner of the keep are the remains of the entrance into the inner ward. This, as at Bridgenorth, was a doorway in the east curtain, close to the keep, and, as at Bridgenorth, although the curtain has been removed, a part of the doorway remains. The curtain was here 11 feet thick and 21 feet high to the rampart wall, above which were a parapet and rear wall of about 5 feet more. One whole jamb and the springing-stones of the portal remain. There was no gatehouse, only an opening in the wall, as at Ogmore, and probably at Ludlow. The defences were:—First, a portal 3 feet deep, and in it a square portcullis groove; then a rebate for a door opening inwards; and, finally, an arched passage 3 feet higher than the portal and 6 feet deep. The entrance appears to have been a foot-gate only, so that carriages could not enter the inner ward.

What are called Lancaster’s buildings occupy most of the inner ward. They commence at the forebuilding, and extend along the rest of the north side, the whole of the west, and much of the south side. They evidently replaced similar buildings of the Norman period, and were built towards the end of the fourteenth century. Next west of the forebuilding are the remains of the kitchen and buttery, now a mass of ruin, much of which is covered up with earth. An immense fireplace has been inserted into the wall of the forebuilding, having two very perfect ovens lined with thin bricks; another fireplace is formed in the adjoining curtain; the fire-backs are also of thin brick, set herring-bone fashion. Further on, a curious triangular buttress outside the curtain contains a garderobe shaft, the drain from which is a squared-headed opening in the rock below, about 6 feet high and 4 feet broad. There is a second drain, which traversed the kitchen, and the mouth of which, fitted with a groove for a sluice, is seen in the inner ward, near the hall door. Probably if the rubbish was removed, the plan of these buildings would be visible. Beyond them, the north-western angle of the ward is capped by the strong tower, quadrangular, 50 feet by 40 feet, with octagonal turrets at the two western angles, and between them a rather remarkable triangular buttress. The tower is of three stages, all vaulted and groined, each vault of four bays springing from a central pier. It is of the date of the hall and kitchens, from the foundations. This tower probably derived its name of the “Strong Tower” from its use as a prison, though evidently for persons of consequence. The windows are plain, flat-topped openings. In the sides of one of the splayed recesses, looking towards the west, are some coats-of-arms scratched in the stone. Those that have been made out are four.

1. Six cross-croslets flory, on a bend three pheons bend-wise, points depressed to the sinister.