masonry, has evidently been preceded by the works in earth, in close
connection with a part of which it has been laid out. These are on
a large scale, and, though much degraded by time and obscured by
buildings and enclosures, are still tolerably apparent. They seem to
have been composed of an oblong space included within a ditch, which
commenced near the bridge foot, and was carried eastwards for about 130
yards, when it turned to the south, and ran for about 270 yards roughly
parallel to the river, towards which it was again returned. This oblong
area was subdivided into two unequal parts, the southern being the
smaller, by a cross ditch, and the latter part was occupied by a large
flat-topped conical mound, known as Boley Hill. The northern part
contains the castle. Along the east or cathedral side, this ditch is in
part a bold natural depression. Along the west side it is superseded by
the river, here very broad, deep, and rapid. The area thus included is
about 7¼ acres. The mound is of large size, though reduced by modern
operations. It is in part natural, in part formed from the adjacent
ditches. Like the mounds at York, Wallingford, and Wareham, and those
formerly existing at Hereford, Buckingham, Worcester, Hertford,
Nottingham, and Stamford, it is so placed as to watch the river, which
must always have been an open and dangerous highway.
These lines of earthwork, though the principal and most evident now
to be traced, are by no means the earliest among the defences of
Rochester. Though the discovered Roman remains are not indicative of
a large town, the Watling Street here crossed the Medway, and there
was certainly a fortified post on the site of the mediæval city.
Its rectangular form, about one-third longer than its breadth, the
cruciform arrangement of its main streets, its four gates opposite
to each other, and the termination of its name, all point to a Roman
origin, and the Roman defences are thought to have been composed of a
wall and ditch, represented by the line of the later wall, only that
they are supposed to have passed from the south gate towards the river,
about 45 yards west of the site of present keep.
The area measured about 470 yards by 160 yards, and therefore covered
about 15½ acres, and of the gates Childegate stood to the north,
and to the south was a gate removed only in 1770, the road between
them passing close to the west end of the cathedral. Roman coins and
sepulchres have been found in the castle area, and that Rochester was
the Roman Durobrivis seems generally admitted.
The Roman lines were in part adopted by the later inhabitants, and
fortified in the English manner. The position of the new city laid it
open to frequent and severe attacks by both land and water, and its
works suffered much from the inroads of the Danes, especially towards
the close of the ninth century, and to that people, though perhaps on
insufficient grounds, has been attributed the mound.
The earthwork fell into the hands of the Normans at the Conquest,
and it became necessary to fortify the position according to the
improved manner. The usual custom with the Normans, when dealing with
an English stronghold, was to erect a shell keep upon the mound, or,
where there was no mound, a rectangular tower, and to surround it
with a strong curtain wall built upon the bank within the scarp of
the existing ditch. Probably, in this case, the older area would have
required too large a garrison for its defence, and the mound was at a
rather inconvenient distance from the bridge or its preceding ferry.
The mound, therefore, was excluded from the new _enceinte_, as it was
at first from the area of the city. Probably it was occupied as an
outwork, or it may have been reduced to a rather lower level. The new
curtain was built on the scarp of the ditch of the northern division of
the earthwork on the three landward sides. On the fourth it was placed
upon the crest of a low cliff, about 40 feet above the river, and
rather less above the quay, which has been widened in modern times, and
in part added to the shore.
The Norman _enceinte_, the general substance of which is probably of
the eleventh century, is roughly four-sided, about 130 yards east and
west by 160 north and south, and includes about 4¼ acres. The eastern
front is opposite to, and about 60 yards from, the cathedral. The south
front faces the old mound of Boley Hill, and the north front, of rather
greater length and set obliquely, points towards the bridge. It is
probable that the ditch outside the south wall represents that of the
Roman work. The gatehouse stood at the north-east angle, and the steep
causeway leading up to it, and which has superseded the drawbridge, is
known as the “Vennell.” The gatehouse is gone. At the north-west angle
are the remains of a bastion tower, standing in 1735, and containing
a postern. In it was a shaft for lifting stores from the river, an
arrangement seen in another form above the Wye at Chepstow. This tower
commanded the bridge. The south-east angle is still capped by a bold
drum tower, of 30 feet diameter and three-quarters projection. It has
a ground and upper floor, each pierced by an arcade with loops in
narrow lancet recesses. The floor was of timber. The gorge is broken
down, but may have been always open. This tower does not rise above
the curtain, and seems to be an insertion in the early English period.
Upon the east wall are two rectangular towers, one of 35 feet breadth
and 25 feet length, wholly of exterior projection, and the other 30
feet by 25 feet, and partly within the wall. These seem insertions of
the Perpendicular period. The curtain is much broken down, and part
altogether removed; 40 feet of it remain next the south-east angle, on
the south front. This portion is 7 feet thick, 30 feet high, and seems
decided Norman. On its outer face are traces of two flat pilasters. It
is pierced by three loops with splayed round-headed recesses, 3 feet
broad and 8 feet from the ground, inside. There must, therefore, have
been a platform against the wall. From the same angle, along the east
face, the curtain is tolerably perfect all along. Near the rectangular
tower it is seen to be built upon arches, intended to be covered up,
as in the walls of York and of Southampton Castle. The top of one
arch is seen inside the wall, and the whole of two arches outside.
A long piece of the north wall remains, and is a good example of
early masonry, probably Norman. It is very thick, and built of layers
of rough undressed stone laid in very thick beds of mortar. As at
Cardiff, there is no foundation, the wall being laid on the surface of
the ground, as was not uncommon with very, thick walls. About 260 feet
of the river front remains. At its south end was formerly to be seen
some herring-bone work, and in other parts of it is shown a tendency to
this mode of building. It is about 40 feet high. Upon its inner face
are seen the outlines of two pointed arches, as though two vaults had
abutted on the wall, only the arch stones do not project for toothing.
There was an upper floor, and in the wall, but outside, are seen the
outlines of two rather large round-headed arches. It is in this wall
that Roman masonry has been suspected. Much of it seems late Norman.
There was a cross wall, now removed, which ran close north of the
keep—and divided the Norman castle into a north and south ward.
How the castle was connected with the defences of the city does not
appear. The city wall is said to have been built about 1225, on the
Roman site, as far as the south gate, from which it seems to have left
the Roman line, and to have included the subsequent earthwork of Boley
Hill. When this was done the old ditch was widened in some places to 85
feet and made deeper. Part of this wall is said to stand upon arches,
like that of the castle; if so, there was probably an earlier wall, of
Norman date. The city wall is so blocked in, that little is visible to
an ordinary visitor. There is thought to be a trace of Roman masonry in
the east wall, and there is a small door of Henry III.’s time, near the
east end of the cathedral, where the wall is 4 feet thick and 30 feet
high, and a tower of that date at the north-east angle, said originally
to have been upon the town wall. This tower is a very fine work, 30
feet diameter, outside a cylinder and within an octagon, with three
loops, and a door in the gorge, from which pass two mural galleries,
one leading to a well-stair and the other to a garderobe. The upper
floor is at the level of the top of the curtain. The line of the south
side of the city wall was altered by the monks in 1290, by permission
from the king. They were to rebuild it 5 perches and 5 feet to the
south or outside of the old line, and it was to be 16 feet high and
embattled. Moreover, the old ditch was to be filled up to the length
of 54 perches 14½ feet, and in width 5 perches and 5 feet. As this
involved prolonging the east wall, they turned an arch over the old
ditch. This expansion of the old area lay to the east of the south gate
of the city, a little east of which was the gate of the priory. The old
wall is thought to have included Boley Hill.
The Keep, for which Rochester Castle is justly celebrated, is placed
within, and very near to the south-east angle of the castle area, and
upon the highest ground within it, about 60 feet above the river: a
point probably specially selected because it is opposed to Boley Hill.
It does not, like Porchester, form a part of the _enceinte_, but, like
Carlisle, stands just within it, being from 16 feet to 33 feet from the
eastern, and from 10 feet to 15 feet from the southern wall. Though not
one of the largest, Rochester is one of the loftiest Norman Keeps in
England, and one of the most worthy of note for its history, position,
the boldness of its decorations, and its substantially perfect
condition. Of additions, with the exception of the early rebuilding of
its south-east angle, it shows no trace, and its dilapidations are not
greater than may be attributed to seven centuries of age, of which the
three latter have been periods of neglect.
The keep is a square of 70 feet at its base, and the walls are 12
feet thick, reduced at the summit to 10 feet, so that its exterior
dimensions are there 66 feet. This reduction is made by a very slight
exterior batter, not perceptible to the eye. There is no set-off or
string-course, outside, and no regular shelf for the floors inside.
This uncommon thickness is intended to allow, as at Dover and
Hedingham, of an unusual number of mural chambers and galleries. The
height is 113 feet from the ground to the coping of the parapet, and
the turrets rise 12 feet higher. The two western angles are flanked
by broad flat pilasters, with hollow angles or nooks of 8 inches.
They rise from a common plinth, and each is carried up clear of the
parapet to form the outer face of a square turret, the height of which
adds much to the commanding aspect of the building. The north-east
angle is capped in a similar way, save that the pilasters are rather
bolder, have no plinth, and the angles are solid until clear of the
forebuilding. The south-east angle has neither plinth nor pilaster,
but is capped by a rounded projection, which, though early, is not
original. This also terminates in a turret, which is rounded towards
the field, but flat on its two inner faces. On each face of the keep,
near its centre, is a single pilaster of moderate width and projection.
These also rise from the plinth and ascend to the parapet, two of
them actually to its coping. On the north face is a second narrower
pilaster, formed by continuing the wall of the forebuilding upward.
The keep has many openings, mostly of small size. A tier of
round-headed loops marks the basement, and of square-headed ones, a
trifle larger, the first floor. Next a line of small round-headed
windows shows the level of the second or main floor, and one of larger
windows the gallery of the same. Above all, a line of rather larger
windows, also round-headed, indicates the uppermost floor. The two
upper lines were ornamented, and had Norman half-piers and mouldings,
and in some of the openings the windows were coupled, but the ashlar
dressing has been much broken away. There are besides several loops
placed near the angles, indicating garderobes, mural chambers, and
staircases, and each turret has a window on each of its outer faces.
Internally, the keep is divided into two nearly equal chambers by a
cross wall, east and west, 5 feet 6 inches thick throughout, and rising
to the roof, where it carried the main gutter. Thus each floor was
composed of a north and south chamber, one 21 feet and one 20 feet
broad, and each 46 feet long. In the cross wall, near its centre,
thickened by a pilaster strip on each face, is the well, said to be
60 feet deep from the ground level, and to contain usually 10 feet
of water. It has an ashlar pipe, 2 feet 9 inches diameter, which
seems to have been carried up to the roof, and was accessible by four
small round-headed doors, one on each floor. It is unusual to see the
well-pipe carried higher than the first floor: at Dover it reaches the
second. To the north face of the Keep is appended the forebuilding
covering the main entrance, which, as usual, was at the first-floor
level.
The basement is reached only by a well-stair in the north-east angle,
which stair, as in the Tower of London, ascends from the base to the
summit. This staircase is 11 feet diameter, and contains 133 steps.
It communicates with each floor, with several galleries and mural
chambers, with the chapel, and with the roof of the forebuilding. The
basement is at the average level of the ground outside, and there is no
underground chamber.
The north chamber is entered at the north-east angle by the well-stair
from above, and aired rather than lighted by three round-headed loops
placed in its east, west, and north sides. These are of 4 inch opening,
set in splayed recesses, and these again in flat-sided recesses, 6 feet
broad and 3 feet deep, all round-headed, and the larger descending to
the floor. The north loop, which opened into the bridge-pit of the
main entrance, has been converted into a rude doorway, but the head
of the loop remains. In this wall are two narrow doors, of which one
descends 8 feet by nine steps into the basement of the forebuilding,
and the other ascends by a slight slope into the first floor of the
same. Besides these, near the west end of this wall, is a recess, 6
feet wide and 6 feet 9 inches deep. This recess, the depth of which
seriously weakens the wall, can here produce no bad effect, the wall
having been supported outside by the solid steps and lower gate of
the forebuilding. In the west wall, besides the loop, is a broken
doorway opening into a mural chamber, 4 feet 6 inches by 10 feet, which
occupies the north-west angle of the building. In the cross wall,
besides the opening to the well, are two doorways of 4 feet 7 inches
and 5 feet opening.
The south chamber has single loops to the east and west, and two in the
south wall in recesses, all of the pattern already described. There is
also a mural chamber 3 feet 10 inches by 10 feet, in the south-west
angle, entered by a door in the south wall, and near the east end of
the same wall is a recess, 6 feet broad and 3 feet deep, but without a
loop. The masonry shows this angle to have been rebuilt. Besides these
cavities there are two, one in the west wall, 2 feet 10 inches by 3
feet 7 inches, entered by a rugged opening, 2 feet 7 inches broad,
and the other in the south wall, 2 feet 10 inches by 4 feet 3 inches,
with an opening much broken away. These cavities are shafts, which
ascend vertically in the wall, and above are divided, showing that they
are the vents of the garderobes in the first and second floors. The
openings into them are not original, and probably the shafts were sunk
a few feet below the floor, and ended either in cesspools or a drain.
As there are other garderobes in the upper floors, there are, no doubt,
other shafts, not broken into. There must be at least two, one at each
end of the cross wall in the north chamber. It is curious that these
vents, which in Norman buildings often open, as at Ludlow, upon the
outer face of the wall, should have vertical shafts, while the turrets
of the fire-flues vent in the face of the wall. At Coningsborough the
arrangement is the reverse; the flues are vertical, the garderobe vents
horizontal. The basement was evidently a store-room. It was about 15
feet high, and from it 20 steps led to the first floor.
[Illustration: KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]
The first floor, also of two chambers, was lofty, gloomy, and perfectly
plain. It was probably the soldiers’ lodging during a siege.
The North Chamber. In the north wall, near the east end, is the main
entrance, 15 feet from the ground, and opening from the vestibule of
the forebuilding. This is a bold, full-centred arch, of 6 feet 2 inches
opening, with flat sides, in a wall here 10 feet 6 inches thick. The
outer face is flanked by nook shafts, and the architrave has a bold
chevron moulding. The inner architrave has a similar but rather plainer
moulding, but the jambs are broken away. Just within the outer face
is a square portcullis groove, and behind it a rebate for a door,
expanding the passage to 7 feet. Near the inner face, in each side, is
a small round-headed recess, 2 feet 6 inches broad by 1 foot 4 inches
deep, probably to hold the keys or a lamp. The door was secured by a
stout bar, and the grate, which seems to have been of iron, was worked
from a mural passage above. This portal led direct into the north
chamber, about 7 feet from the well-stair door. In the north-west angle
is a mural chamber, called “Gundulph’s room,” vaulted and groined, 10
feet 3 inches by 11 feet 7 inches, entered by a door in the west wall,
and lighted by two loops to the west. In its rounded north-west corner
is a fireplace with a small Norman hood of 2 feet 6 inches projection,
having a segmental arch. The tunnel is conical, and ends in a couple
of openings in the hollow angle of the south end of the adjacent
pilaster, in the face of the wall, above 12 feet above the hearth. Near
the north-east angle of this chamber is a small blocked-up doorway,
which, as at Middleham, opened upon the roof of the outer gate of the
forebuilding. The ashlar rings of the loop recesses, and the hood of
the fireplace, are of excellent workmanship. Besides these openings
there are in the north chamber four windows, one at each end, and two
in the north side. These are set each in a recess, 5 feet 6 inches
opening, and 9 feet 6 inches deep, 15 feet high, and round-headed, the
loops being square-headed, about 1 foot 6 inches high by 12 inches
broad. These recesses, from their great height, produce a good effect,
but were probably found to weaken the wall, for they have been partly
built up and reduced at their lower 6 feet to a depth of 3 feet. The
blocking is of inferior masonry, executed in haste. Between the two
northern loops is a fireplace of 5 feet 6 inches opening, round-headed,
having no hood, and with a round back. It is strengthened by a pilaster
of 9 inches projection and 10 feet breadth, from the inner wall. The
tunnel from the fireplace is conical, and has a lateral vent about 15
feet up. In the east wall, near the entrance from the well-stair, is a
recess, which, besides the loop, contains a postern and a garderobe.
The latter is a mural chamber, 5 feet 10 inches by 13 feet, which opens
from the southern jamb of the recess: the postern, 2 feet 6 inches
broad, is cut obliquely through the wall, and opens in the face of the
keep, 15 feet above the ground, and about 30 feet from the rampart of
the curtain, with which it must have communicated by a light plank
bridge. There is such a door in the Norman keep at Adare, and in the
later Wakefield tower in London, to which a stone bridge has recently
been fitted. In the cross wall, besides the well opening, are two doors
corresponding to those below.
The south chamber has a loop at each end, and three in the south wall,
all in recesses similar to those in the north chamber, and these also
have been partially blocked up to strengthen the wall. There is a
fireplace in the south wall corresponding to that described above,
and in the south-west angle a door leads into a well-stair, 11 feet
diameter, which commences at this level, and communicates with the
floors above, and with the battlements. There are four mural recesses
in this chamber. One, a garderobe, opens in the south jamb of the
recess of the west window, and another in the east jamb of the central
window in the south wall. The shafts from these recesses descend into
the wall of the lower chamber, as described. The other galleries open
right and left from the window recess in the east end. That to the
north is a passage, 3 feet 6 inches by 8 feet, with a garderobe in
the end of it. That to the south is a gallery, 20 feet long by 3 feet
broad, which ends in the south-east angle, where it has two windows
to the south and east. This is in the rebuilt angle. This floor
rested upon timber joists. From it forty steps lead up the north-east
staircase 30 feet to the main floor, and at thirty-six steps branched
off a narrow stair to the chancel of the chapel.
The main, state, or second floor, 32 feet high, rested on each side
upon eighteen joists, whole timbers. It contains two tiers of windows,
the lower opening directly from the chamber, the upper with the
intervention of a mural gallery. Between the two is a plain string of
Norman pattern. The roof was flat, being the joists and planks of the
upper floor. The window recesses of the lower tier range from 3 feet
2 inches to 5 feet 10 inches opening, and those of the gallery tier
nearly correspond to them. All are flanked with nook shafts, but the
lower architraves have a bold roll and hollow moulding, those above
have the chevron pattern. The ashlar of the windows is mostly gone. The
lower seem to have been plain and small, the upper richer and rather
larger, but none at all large. The projections in front of the well,
the fireplaces, and the two staircases, are beaded at the angles. There
are no marks of corbels for struts to stiffen the joists and give
support to the ceiling.
The north chamber was entered by a sort of lobby, 5 feet 6 inches
square, and groined, into which the staircase opened. The recesses
of the east and west windows each have mural garderobes opening
from the southern jambs. The two recesses in the north wall have no
side openings. Between them is the fireplace, similar to that below,
but with a handsome chevron architrave. Over the great entrance is a
doorway of 7 feet opening, leading to the chapel. In it is the chase
for working the grate, and beyond this is a rebate reducing the passage
to 3 feet to form the chapel door. In the north-west angle is a small
chamber.
[Illustration: KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]
[Illustration]
The south chamber has three windows in the south wall, a fireplace, and
a door opening into the south-west well-stair. In each end is a loop.
In the recess of that to the west, on its north side, is a passage to a
garderobe, and there is probably a corresponding place in the opposite,
or east window, but the window recesses are inaccessible.
The cross wall, instead of two doors, is pierced by four arches of
unequal size, two on each side of the well pier, which has its small
and rather ornate door. Between each pair of arches is a heavy Norman
pier, a plain cylinder with fluted capital, and opposite to which are
two half-piers, or responds. The arch has been ribbed and worked in
bold roll and hollow, varied with the chevron pattern, but the central
rib has fallen away. The capitals of this arcade range with the general
string-course, and the arches rise into the upper division of the
apartment. There is rather more ornament on the north than on the south
face. The arcade was filled up with a stone screen, about 10 feet high,
of which one division remains and a part of its doorway. The screen is
original, and has been rather richly worked, but it had no bond into
the piers, being merely built against them.
From this floor twenty steps led up 17 feet to the gallery. This
threads the whole wall, passing all round the building. It is from 3
feet to 3 feet 6 inches broad, barrel-vaulted, from 8 feet to 9 feet
high, and is placed 4 feet from the inner face of the wall, and 5
feet from the outer. It is generally level, save that it rises at the
south-west angle to accommodate itself to the staircase, and in the
centre of the east front to clear the vaults of the garderobes below,
and possibly to meet the thrust of the arch in the cross wall.