In the civil wars, the castle was held for the king. It then fell to the Parliament; was retaken by the king in 1645, and finally yielded to the Parliament after Naseby. In the struggles the south gate was probably reduced to its present ruined condition.
In 1781, Mr. Rogers Ruding had a lease of the premises from the duchy, which specifies the south gate evidently that remaining towards the Newark, the castle house, several tenements, the mount, and the appendages to the castle, and stipulates for the holding of sessions in the great hall.
The castle stands at the south-western angle of the town, upon ground close to, and about 20 feet above, the right bank of the Soar, the three channels of which unite below the castle. The nearest of these streams is the artificial leat which supplied the castle mill, and does still supply its modern representative. From the line of the castle wall the ground slopes rapidly, and terminates in a strip of level land that forms the margin of the mill leat, therein closely resembling the river front of Taunton Castle on the Tone.
The castle seems to have been composed of a mound on its south-west quarter; a hall and other buildings on the west or river front; the church of St. Mary de Castro opposite to the hall; and on the east side a gatehouse between the church and the mound; another gatehouse close north of the church, and a wall which runs east of the church, and forms a part of the eastern boundary of its churchyard. There is also the mill which, though modern, covers the ancient site.
The area within which these remains are included is known as “The Castle View.” This evidently represents the precinct of the Norman, and probably of the Saxon castle, and has been preserved as a distinct and, in part, extra-parochial district, vested in the duchy of Lancaster. The Castle View is nearly square, and may include four or possibly five acres. In 1861 it was returned as “The Liberty of the Castle View,” and contained 29 houses and 131 persons. The boundaries are the line of the ancient circumscribing ditch, or nearly so. On the south they divide the castle from the Newark, just including the mound. On the east they take the line from the present south gatehouse, by the old wall, and thence by the edge of the road down to the mill, including the house and garden attached to the Sessions House. The ditch is everywhere filled up, but in the garden north of the Hall the line of the wall is marked by a step of from 8 to 10 feet.
This line includes St. Mary’s, which was once the collegiate church or chapel of the castle. If it be that the castle was enlarged by Robert Bossu, it is probable that the older defence just excluded the church, and took the line of the present upper gatehouse, cutting off the churchyard and church, and placing the latter “juxta et infra” the castle wall. St. Mary’s was made parochial in 1400, the rest of the View remaining extra parochial, and it is not impossible that this was a restoration to the church of its ecclesiastical position before it was included within the Norman military precinct.
The mound, though broad, is at present less lofty than is usual in the more important Saxon castles, having been lowered 40 years ago by 12 or 15 feet. It is now about 30 feet high and 100 feet diameter upon its circular top, which is quite flat, without a trace of old building upon it. It has now no ditch, and is connected with no ancient wall; but, though probably within the ancient enceinte, it may, as at Warwick and Tamworth, have actually formed a part of it. The original well still remains in the mound and is in use.
The present hall was a part of the castle proper. It is an oblong structure, like Oakham and Winchester, composed of a nave and two narrow aisles. The nave lies north and south, and is about 60 feet by 25 feet, having gables at either end, and an open high-pitched roof. Since 1633, and perhaps earlier, it has been used for judicial purposes, and divided into three parts,—a civil and criminal court, and between them an entrance lobby, and above it a grand-jury room. To enlarge the courts, the old oaken posts or piers, with carved Norman caps, have been removed, the east aisle rebuilt or cased, and the west aisle walled off for retiring-room and passages. Its older parts also are concealed by panelling and partition-walls. The original south wall of the nave remains. In it are two round-headed windows, resting upon a string-course, or set-off in the wall, with a plain chamfered moulding. The windows are small and plain, and the recesses have but little splay. These are flanked by two slender detached octagonal shafts, possibly replacing cylindrical ones, with Norman capitals, and the head of each recess is surrounded by a single bold band of chevron moulding. There is a third and small window above, near the apex of the gable, with a recess of about 2 feet opening, all quite plain. Below is a small Norman door, but apparently a very recent insertion. It may, however, represent a way into the kitchen, which was at this end.
The opposite or north end wall, forming the side of the civil court, appears also to be old, but is so plastered and pointed as to be inscrutable from the inside. It contains a large round-headed window, probably a modern insertion. From the outside the base of the wall seems original, and there is the jamb of a window in end of the east aisle.
The wall of the west aisle, towards the river, is original, and is flanked at each end by a buttress, probably of Decorated date. In drawings of the last century this building is shown as an aisle, but it has been raised, and now forms a judge’s retiring-room behind each court, and a staircase between them. In the basement are offices. This aisle contains one original window near the south end, flat pointed, with plain jambs, and a head adorned by a single chevron band. The jambs have been renewed in brick.