shallow for boats, and too deep for land operations. On this face the
curtain is especially high, reaching 40 feet, and at the base of its
parapet is a row of small holes, as though to carry a timber gallery or
_brétasche_, no doubt a post-Norman addition. Between the south face
and the sea there intervenes a triangular strip of flat land, at its
widest end 60 yards broad. To command this, and protect the foot of
the wall, a berm or platform of earth has been thrown up against the
wall, about 6 feet high and 24 feet broad, in front of which is a light
ditch, prolonged westward to the advanced ditch to check any approach
round the angle of the place. The curtain here is about 30 feet high.
On the north front the margin of land is much broader, and is cut
off by a deep and broad ditch communicating with the sea, and which
turns the north-west angle, and extends along the west or main front
nearly as far as the great gate; it would seem that originally this
ditch covered the whole front, and extended onward to the sea, but the
drawbridge of the gate has been replaced by a causeway, and the further
traces of the ditch are but faint, as it has been filled up south of
the causeway with some care.
In addition to these special defences the whole work is covered by
a deep ditch with a high interior bank of earth, which has been cut
from sea to sea right across the tongue on which the castle stands.
This is about 300 yards in length, and from 50 yards to 100 yards to
the west of or in advance of the west front, forming a broken curve
with its salient near the centre. In outline it is rude, and as it
bears no trace of masonry was probably stockaded. The notch for the
entrance is placed considerably to the north of the main gate, so that
the approach was oblique and exposed to be enfiladed from the castle.
This work looks rather like an English addition before the arrival of
the Normans. There is no trace of any rectangular camp or earthwork of
earlier date than the walls. They are built upon the natural ground,
and there is little or no difference between the interior and exterior
level. In what condition the Romans left, or their successors found,
the works which have thus been described, is not known. So convenient
an enclosure, so well posted, could scarcely have been neglected by
any people. In Domesday, “Porcestre” is a manor, and is the subject
of a long and rather detailed entry. Mention is made of a “halla,” or
mansion-house, or hall, but none of the castle. It had possibly been
disused as a fortress, though probably then and long before a parish,
with a church within its girth.
The Normans were for a time content with the existing wall; for it was
not till about 1133 that Henry I. here founded a priory for Augustine
canons, and built the small and plain, but very complete, Church of
St. Mary, which was also the parish church, and most of which remains
uninjured. Probably a little before this, judging from the internal
evidence of the buildings, he proceeded to convert the Roman into a
Norman fortress. This was effected by placing a rectangular keep at
the north-west angle, about 10 feet in advance of the line of wall,
removing for this purpose about 60 feet of the adjacent curtain on
each face, and the capping bastion of the angle. The projection of the
keep is mainly inwards. It seems to rest upon the natural soil, at
that corner slightly elevated. It has been thought to stand upon an
artificial knoll, but more probably its base has been banked round by
the earth removed from the ditch, which is here both deep and broad.
The keep required defence from the large interior court, as well as
from the field. To afford this, and also to divide the castle from the
church, Henry further enclosed a base-court, of about 67 yards east
and west, by 47 yards north and south, or about one-fourteenth of the
whole area, in which detached space the keep stood, and of which the
great curtain formed the north and west sides. The entrance was in the
south face, near the south-east angle, and this inner wall was covered
by a wet ditch, fed by a culvert in the north curtain from the exterior
tidal ditch, and which completed the isolation of the inner from the
outer ward.
The church was placed in the south-east corner of the outer ward,
diagonally opposite to the new ward, to which its enclosure
corresponded. The conventual buildings stood against the church on
the south side, and extended to the Roman curtain, which bears marks
of Norman alteration. At Caister, in Norfolk, where the parish church
stands within a similar enclosure, it occupies the south-west angle.
The wall which, it is probable, cut off the monastery from the rest of
the outer ward, is gone. The western or landward gatehouse of the outer
ward was remodelled after the Norman fashion, but the eastern or water
gate was left unaltered.
The keep answers to the usual conditions of such structures. It
measures at its exterior base 65 feet north and south, by 52 feet
east and west; and was, as originally built, about 55 feet, and as
completed, 100 feet high. On its west front three broad pilaster
strips, of slight projection, rise from the ground, independently of
the plinth, to rather above half the present height of the tower. On
the north front the arrangement is the same, save that the lower half
of the pilaster to the east is united with the wall of the forebuilding
that covered the entrance to the keep, on the east face. The south
face has only two pilasters, that in the centre being omitted. The
east face is again different; here the basement is covered by the
forebuilding, and there is but one pilaster, at the north end. These
pilasters in the north, west, and south faces, rise plain to the
second-floor level, where both wall and pilasters are reduced by a
set-off. The wall is not again reduced, but the pilasters have two or
three rapid sets-off before they die into the wall. Near that was the
base level of the original parapet. The angles are solid,—that is,
without nooks. The two pilasters covering the south-west angle have a
slightly bolder projection than the rest, and contain a well-stair,
the head of which opens in a low turret. There are no turrets nor
trace of them at the other three angles. They were the natural finish
of the pilasters covering the angles, and as these are not carried to
the summit it is possible that the usual turrets were also omitted.
The present battlement is probably in substance of Decorated date. The
north and south parapets are horizontal, but those to the east and
west rise to the centre so as to form a very low-pitched gable, a very
unusual outline in such a building, and for which there is nothing in
the arrangement of the roof to account. The exterior of the keep is
very free from ornament. The only exception is a string-course about
12 feet above the base on the west wall, which has on its under side
a billet moulding of great delicacy. This string is confined to this
face, and to the wall, being stopped by the pilasters.
The material of the keep, inside and out, is chiefly of Caen stone
ashlar for facing, with hearting of chalk flints. The stones are from
4 inches to 6 inches square on the face; high up they are perhaps a
little larger, but there is little difference between the original work
and the additions. The stones of the parapet are still larger, and
seem, from the accounts, to have come from the Isle of Wight.
The walls at the base average about 11 feet thick, and at the first
floor about 7 feet. At the summit they are about 6 feet, the reduction
in thickness being thus unusually small. The interior is divided
throughout by a cross wall running east and west, from 5 feet to 3
feet 6 inches thick. It has a basement and four floors. The entrance
was in the first floor, and a spiral stair, the only one, occupied the
south-west angle and rose from the first floor, and it may be from the
base, to the battlements, communicating with, probably, each floor,
by doors, of which all but one are walled up. In the south-east angle
was the pipe of the well, with similar communications. The floors
throughout were of timber, the beams resting in holes in the wall. The
interior sets-off, reducing the thickness of the wall, are irregular.
The two basement chambers are not quite equal, the southern being
the larger. They are about 12 feet high, each has a loop in its west
end and two in the north and south walls, six in all; these are of 6
inches opening, round-headed, and placed in splays of an hour-glass
section, having recesses inside and out of 2 feet opening. The door to
the well-pipe is visible, though blocked, but that to the stair seems
to have been closed and obliterated. Each of these chambers is vaulted
with a low-pointed barrel, running east and west, and stiffened by six
very deep slender ribs, with hollow chamfers. These have been cut away
from the vault, but the gable ribs remain attached to the wall, and
sections of the others are seen at their springings. This work looks
early Perpendicular, or, perhaps, a little earlier. It is excellent,
and much too good for a cellar, though no doubt intended specially
for the custody of the royal prisage wines, which formed a part of
the revenue, and were often stored here. There is a door between the
vaults, near the west end of the cross-wall, and an outer door in the
east wall of the south vault, which latter was probably opened when the
vaults were turned, and the spiral stair closed. This, however, may be
an original door opening from the basement into a dungeon in the base
of the forebuilding, or it may have been connected with an outer door
in the forebuilding itself. It is difficult to be sure on this point.
The first floor is also of two chambers, 43 feet long, and 21 feet
and 18 feet 6 inches broad. These floors contain the two state-rooms,
which, to the timber ceiling, were 24 feet high. In the north and south
walls are, in each two windows, round-headed, of 2 feet opening, of
hour-glass section, with splays of 3 feet opening outside, and 5 feet
inside. The sill of the recess is 4 feet above the floor, and the
recess 12 feet high. Its angles are occupied by a bold bead or engaged
shaft, with bases and foliated caps, whence the bead is carried round
the head. Besides these four windows, in each west end is another, of
the same character, but with recesses 20 feet high, and without beaded
angles. The two south windows were probably walled up when the exterior
smaller hall was added, and light ceased to be an object in the keep.
In the north chamber the west window is also closed. The doors to the
well-shaft and the stair have been closed in modern times. In the cross
wall is a large modern breach. The old door was near the west end;
also, in the south-west angle of the north room, a door opened into a
small garderobe in the west wall. This is partially bricked up, but the
loop is seen in the central pilaster, outside. The main entrance of
the castle is on this floor, in the east wall of the south chamber. It
is round-headed, of 4 feet 6 inches opening, perfectly plain, without
chamfer or rebate, which, no doubt, has been cut off. It is evidently
original. There are two doors in the east wall of the north chamber,
but they are modern openings.
The second floor, 13 feet high, was the attic of the original building,
and a mere series of lofts. The roof was very singular. Over the
cross wall was a central ridge, and over the middle of each chamber a
valley or gutter, from which the roofs rose to the outer walls. As a
lean-to, there was, therefore, in the cross section, a central triangle
divided by the cross wall, and on each side a half-triangle, formed
by the outer wall; and in each of the four half gables thus formed
in the east and west walls was a small round-headed window, eight in
all. The windows remain, as does the stone weather-table, by which the
section of the early roof is indicated. The roofs were steep, and,
therefore, no use could be made of them as a platform for machines of
defence or for storing missiles. In the cross wall, here 3 feet thick,
is a tall, very plain, round-headed door, of 2 feet 6 inches opening,
communicating between the halves of the division of the central roof.
The south loft was reached by the well-stair, but how the three
northern lofts were reached does not appear. In the north chamber,
under the southernmost of the two east windows, are traces of a door,
which no doubt led to the battlements of the forebuilding, covering
the main door, as seen at Scarborough and Richmond, and elsewhere. The
arrangement of the original roof resembles that of Helmsley, a very
late keep, which also has been raised.
Soon after the completion of this roof, and within the Norman period,
it was decided to raise the keep two stages, by which means the roof
attics were converted into a regular second floor. Something of this
kind was done at Richmond and at Bridgenorth.
The third floor, then built, is 18 feet high. It is quite plain,
without an opening in the cross wall, and with one small window in each
west wall. How the north chamber was entered is not known. The present
floor is from 3 feet to 4 feet above the original one. The next is the
fourth or upper floor, about 15 feet high, with a cross wall 3 feet 6
inches thick, of rough rubble, while the outer walls are of ashlar on
both faces. The south chamber has four windows; those in the south wall
of two lights, flat-headed, but under a full-centred arch of relief
outside, and within placed in a recess, also full-centred, of 5 feet 6
inches opening. All these are quite plain. There is a similar window
in the east end. The west end window is of similar pattern, but with
a single light; and of the north chamber, two windows in the north
side and one in each end are also of one light. In the east wall of
this chamber a small door opens by an L-shaped mural passage turning
the north-east angle into a garderobe, having a loop in the east wall,
and a vent opening directly outwards on the face of the north wall. At
Brougham is a similar arrangement for an oratory. In the south jamb
of the west window of the south room a small oven has been excavated.
As this could not be reached from the old floor level, it is probably
very modern. Whether the well-pipe is brought up through the new work
does not appear, nor is there any trace of an original opening from
the turnpike stair, though probably there was one. The door in the
cross-wall, of 4 feet 6 inches opening and full-centred, is placed near
the west end. This has a rebate, so that the door opened into the north
chamber, and was bolted on that side.
The original roof of the Norman addition was flat, as shown by a bold
weather-table carried round the walls; but the actual present roof is
exactly the reverse of that described below, there being a central
and two side gutters, and a ridge over the centre of each chamber,
an equally impracticable roof for a defensive platform. The flat or
nearly flat roof much resembled that now upon the White Tower, London.
The parapet can be examined from the top. The embrasures are at long
intervals, and 4 feet 6 inches deep by 2 feet 3 inches opening. No
traces of angle turrets are seen save at the stair-head, and that is
but a small affair. No fireplace has been discovered in the keep, and
only two mural chambers, both very small, for garderobes. The absence
of ornament or of any very well marked state room with mural closets,
is probably due to the construction at the same time with the keep of
more convenient domestic buildings in the inner ward.
The forebuilding was part of the original design of the keep, of the
lower part of which it is a prolongation, of the same breadth, and 25
feet deep, eastward. Its walls, as thick as those of the keep, also
contained two chambers, divided by a cross wall, east and west. The
northern chamber is now filled up, and possibly always was so. The
southern chamber seems originally to have had no outlet, and if used as
a dungeon or cellar, it was probably reached by a trap in the timber
floor.
The first floor of this structure, at the level of the same floor of
the keep, was divided also into two chambers, between which was a
passage, which led from an outer stair to the door of the keep. The
north chamber has been defiled by use as a dust-house and garderobe
for modern prisoners in the keep; but an elegant oriel window in the
late Perpendicular style inserted into its north wall shows that it has
been a room of some pretension. The south chamber was the chapel of the
keep. In its west wall, the wall of the keep, is a large full-centred
recess, about 11 feet broad and 2 feet deep, for a seat, and in the
south wall remains half a Norman window, which originally opened into
the inner ward.
The original roof of the forebuilding had rather a high pitch, of
which, over the chapel, the weather-table remains. This was superseded
by a higher roof, but at a very low pitch, suitable for lead. The top
of both roofs reached nearly to the level of the floor of the second
story of the keep. The battlements of this accessory tower were 15 feet
to 20 feet below those of the original keep. The approach to the first
floor of the forebuilding was by an exterior staircase of twenty-six
steps, placed against its east wall, so as to reach the outer door
about the centre of the building, and leading on also to the north
curtain. The present staircase is modern, but a careful examination
will show Norman remains about its base. It would seem that when the
keep was raised it was decided to make a door in the south wall of the
forebuilding into the space below the chapel. When this was done the
wall was thickened on the outside. The door still remains, but opens no
longer into the open court, but into the basement of a later building.
Part of the added facing has fallen off, and the old wall is seen,
with a billeted string corresponding to that upon the keep. In later
times a Perpendicular window has been opened in the chapel wall above,
and a second Perpendicular door into the space below. This is the door
which has over it the arms of Queen Elizabeth in stone, and which was
probably made by some earlier monarch to admit the wine-tuns into the
vaults of the keep.
The inner ward is still bounded to the east and south by the original
Norman wall of Caen stone, 6 feet thick. The original domestic
buildings were ranged along the south side to the west of the entrance,
as traces of the original walling still show. At the south-eastern
angle was a large rectangular tower, of 23 feet breadth by 25 feet
projection, placed diagonally,—not a usual Norman arrangement. The
walls are 6 feet thick, and the gorge is open. It was of two stages,
the basement being one, had timber floors, and was, no doubt, like the
middle gatehouse of the Tower of London, boarded in the rear. The two
exterior angles are hollow, or nooked, though without shafts. The upper
floor was lighted by three narrow, round-headed loops.
Whatever may have been, in Norman times, the extent of the offices, at
present these buildings cover three sides of the court, that to the
north being open. Near the centre of the court was a well, and in the
north wall, close to the steps of the keep, a small postern; at the
north-east angle, partly on the two curtains, is a rectangular tower
of great strength, about 26 feet by 30 feet, with walls 6 feet thick.
Its basement seems to have been used as the great kitchen, though not
originally constructed for that purpose. The upper floor is on the
level of, and entered from, the north curtain; its north and east walls
are pierced by a mural gallery, 3 feet broad, with two loops to the
north and three to the east. There is also on that side a door opening
on the main curtain. From this floor a well-stair, near the north-west
corner, ascends to the battlements. The base of this tower seems
Norman, but the upper floor and battlements are early Perpendicular.
Of the domestic buildings there is built against the keep and the
west curtain the smaller hall, 18 feet broad by 30 feet long, one end
abutting on the keep, the other on a retiring-room common to it with
the great hall. It is of two floors, the lower on the ground level,
having a handsome door and windows. The hall, with a timber floor and
roof, occupies the upper floor. The fireplace is in the middle of the
west side, let into the Roman curtain, which has been raised. In the
east side are four windows looking into the ward, each of two lights
divided by a transom, with cinquefoil heads.
Set against the keep, and also abutting on this hall, is a building
of two floors, the uppermost of which seems to have been a chapel,
superseding that of the keep with which it communicated. It has an east
window flanked by two diagonal buttresses. Opposite to this, against
the curtain, is the great hall. This is 67 feet long by 28 feet broad,
also of two floors, the basement having been probably a cellar. In
its north wall are arches as for a buttery, and some remains of the
original Norman walling, probably of an earlier hall. In the north side
are four windows, three to the west and one to the east of the great
door, in front of which is a handsome Perpendicular porch with vaulted
roof, and steps leading up to the hall. From the porch a well-stair and
short gallery led to the music-gallery at the east end of the hall,
and at this end also, in the south wall, is the great fireplace. If
this was the daïs end, the gallery must have been above it,—not a usual
arrangement. The hall had a wooden floor and a low-pitched roof. The
porch seems later than the hall. East of the hall are other smaller
rooms, abutting against the wall which flanks the entrance-gate. Beyond
this gateway the remainder of the south wall, and the whole of the
east wall to the kitchen tower, are occupied by buildings of Tudor
date,—mere shells, probably servants’ lodgings, butteries, and rooms
connected with the kitchen department. It is said there were buildings
against the north curtain, but of such there is now no trace.
How the ramparts of the west, south, and east walls of this ward were
reached is uncertain. There is no way to them from the keep or from the
kitchen tower. The north curtain is reached by a short stair from the
forebuilding. This curtain is here 10 feet thick, and has a rampart
walk 6 feet high, with a high parapet and rere-wall. One of the old
Roman bastions occurs on this part of the curtain. It is solid below,
and has been raised to contain a small chamber, the floor of which is a
little below the rampart level, from which a door opens into it. There
is also a good west window of two lights, cinquefoiled, opening on the
rampart walk, and a small fireplace; altogether far too comfortable a
post for any officer on duty. East of this bastion the hollow angle
between it and the curtain is crossed by an oblique arch or squinch, of
two rings of _voussoirs_ of excellent Decorated work, which supports a
small garderobe, such as is seen on Southampton walls and at Ludlow.
There remains to be described the gatehouse, or entrance to this
inner ward,—a very curious structure, of unusual length, and of three
periods. First, approaching from the outside are two parallel walls,
5 feet thick and 9 feet apart, from within the ends of which hung the
drawbridge, apparently without any special arch or gateway. In one
wall is a squint loop, commanding the approach from the great gateway
of the outer ward. From the drawbridge a passage, at first of 9 feet,
and then of 10 feet in width, and 15 feet long, ends in a portcullis
and gateway, the whole 2 feet deep and 9 feet of opening. Beyond this
the passage continues 10 feet broad for 17 feet. So far, the road was
either open or roofed with timber, and all is of Perpendicular date.