placed is 8 feet thick, and from 30 feet to 40 feet high, the contained
area being at a level 6 feet to 10 feet above that outside, and no
doubt raised artificially. The four angle towers were cylindrical,
11 feet internal diameter, and with walls 8 feet thick. They have no
internal projection, but the angle at each is crossed and filled up by
a gorge wall, 7 feet long. Both towers and curtain have an exterior
base about 12 feet high, battering below to a thickness of 10 feet, but
without a cordon. Each tower is entered from the gorge by a door of 3
feet opening, and its basement is elevated about 4 feet or 5 feet above
the inner court. Each has three loops in recesses 4 feet 5 inches deep,
and 5 feet 8 inches broad. There are no staircases, though there seem
to have been two upper stories, the highest rising above the curtain.
The floors were of timber. The arches vary; some are round-headed,
others lancet, others drop-pointed. The loops are square-headed. The
south-west tower has been taken down, and the present entrance to the
place is through the gap.
In the south front, 60 feet from the west end, is a half-round buttress
tower, with no internal projection. The breaches in its interior and
exterior faces show it to be solid. Opposite to this tower, in the
north wall of the court, is a doorway of about 6 feet opening, the
pointed arch of which is seen just at the level of the court. As the
sill of this doorway must be at about the level of the Munnow, it was
probably connected with a short canal for the admission of a boat, like
what is seen at Tonbridge and Leeds Castles, and at Caerphilly. In this
same wall, but close to the north-east tower, is a small, flat-sided
recess, either a door or a window, and 6 feet above the court level. If
a door, it must have been for the lifting of stores from a boat upon
the mill-leat which flows below it.
There is no trace of a regular gatehouse to this court, but a part of
the centre of the west wall has been rebuilt in an inferior manner, and
probably represents the entrance. This entrance was likely to have been
by a mere doorway in the curtain without a regular gatehouse, like the
lesser gateway at White Castle. From this point a slightly-elevated
causeway, crossing the court, leads direct to the central tower.
The walls are tolerably perfect, but the battlements have been removed,
and the upper stages of the towers are in ruin. It is remarkable
that the mural towers are without staircases, and there are no
visible mural chambers or garderobes, or, with one doubtful exception,
fireplaces, in the castle. The material is the old red sandstone of the
district, as was the ashlar. The workmanship is ordinary but pretty
good rubble, and the mortar coarsely mixed and freely used. The mill
leat, and the Munnow immediately beyond it, form the defences on the
north front. Along the other three fronts was a broad and deep ditch
fed from the river, and now filled up. As the ground within the walls
is 6 feet to 10 feet higher than that immediately outside, they are to
that extent revetments. It is pretty clear from the appearance that the
original fortress was a raised platform, in its centre a mound, and
around it a wet ditch, the whole, no doubt, strongly palisaded.
[Illustration: SKENFRITH CASTLE.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]
There is nothing of a Norman character in either the plan or details
of the structure. The singular form of the area may be but an
accommodation in right lines to an irregular earthwork. Had it been
Roman, the platform would scarcely have been raised. The keep tower is
clearly early English of the time of King John, or early in that of
Henry III. The surrounding walls and towers are of the same date.
The history of Skenfrith is obscure, but it is evident that it was
built simply to contain a small garrison, and not at all as a private
residence. The area contains no trace of hall, chapel, or kitchen. No
lines of foundation are visible, and whatever lodgings were erected
were probably of timber, with roofs resting against the wall.
Skenfrith is said, at the entrance of the Normans into the district,
to have been held by Bach, a son of Cadivor ap Gwaethvoed, which
Gwaethvoed is the reputed ancestor of several families in Monmouthshire
and East Glamorgan, and who, or his father, was likely enough to
have obtained possession of it during the victorious campaign of
Caradoc-ap-Griffith in 1065. The Pipe Roll of the first year of John
shows the castles of Skenfrith, Llanteilo or White Castle, Kinton,
and Ledbury, to have belonged to the king; and in 1205 (5 John) he
granted Skenfrith, Llanteilo, and Grosmount to William de Breos, to
hold them as they had been held by Hubert de Burgh, and Geoffrey,
Earl of Essex, was allowed 20 marcs which he had paid to De Burgh for
fortifying them. This probably was the date of the present masonry.
John de Monmouth, a powerful local baron, had some claim upon these
castles, which was admitted by the king; but nevertheless, in 1219, De
Burgh was ordered to have seizin of the three castles forfeited by the
defection of William de Breos. William’s heir was Reginald de Breos,
who was in ill-health; he demurred to the decision of the king’s court.
In 1220 they were held by De Burgh. In 1223 the king had occasion to
send a messenger to Skenfrith, and in 1224 the Sheriff of Hereford was
directed to send thither to De Burgh 2,000 quarrels (heads of cross-bow
bolts), and all through the troubled reign of Henry III. these castles
continued to be of great military importance. At the settlement of
Wales by his son they probably were allowed to fall to ruin. With
most of the surrounding property Skenfrith finally fell to the Duchy
of Lancaster. As early as the time of James I. it was presented by the
local jury as “ruinous and decayed, time out of the memory of man.”
The parish church, containing some fragments of early English or early
Decorated date, stands a few yards west of the castle. It contains an
altar tomb, bearing the effigies in a sort of trick of John Morgan,
who died 2nd September, 1557, and Ann, his wife, who died 4th January,
1564. On the side of the tomb are figures in relief. The armorial
bearings are,—quarterly, 1 and 4, Barry of 9, on six escutcheons, 3,
2, 1, as many lioncels rampant, 2 and 3, three towers, in the nombril
point a roundel. Evidently these are the arms of Cecil, and point to
the connexion claimed by that family with Wales. Another shield bears
on a chevron three sprigs, between three spear-heads; crest, an arm
embowed grasping a ——. John Morgan is said to have been of Wayne, in
this parish.
THE ANCIENT DEFENCES OF SOUTHAMPTON.
At the head of the inlet known as Southampton Water, between its two
principal tributaries of the Test or Anton and the Itchen, intervenes a
considerable neck or tongue of gravel, which is thus bounded on three
sides by water, and is a position of considerable natural strength,
and the more valuable that it overlooks a fine roadstead, having the
Isle of Wight for its breakwater. By whom this spot was first occupied
is unknown. Bittern, an unquestionable Roman station, under the name
of Clausentum, is nearly two miles farther up the Itchen, and upon the
opposite bank. Even the origin of the present name of the town is a
subject of dispute. The Anton presents a tempting source, but it seems
most probable that the name means simply “the town of the southern
dwelling,” as opposed to Northam, a place close to the Roman station.
Certainly the name has no reference to Northampton.
“Hamtunscire” is mentioned in the “Saxon Chronicle” in A.D. 755, and
the town was a Saxon place of some mark, coining money in the reign of
Athelstane, and occasionally plundered by the Danes. Canute held it,
and his experiment upon the advancing tide is said to have been tried
in Southampton Water.
Southampton is named in Domesday, and the Normans found it a convenient
port both for military and commercial purposes. It was visited and
maintained by the Plantagenet monarchs, who here mustered and embarked
their troops for Normandy. Hence the town was fortified from an early
period, both after the Saxon and the Norman fashion.
The walls enclosed a roughly rectangular space, averaging about 370
yards east and west, by 770 yards north and south, but in actual
circuit about 2,200 yards, or 1¼ mile. This area is divided lengthways
by the main street, but the western is the larger moiety, partly
because it contains the older castle, and partly because of an
irregular projection upon what is called the “tin shore.” The north
and south gates were upon the main street. There was an east and a
west gate, but not at all opposite to each other, nor were the roads
cruciform. There is no reason for attributing to the moderately
rectangular plan a Roman origin. It was probably dictated by the
general figure of the ground.
The surface of the area varies from 15 feet to 35 feet above the
adjacent sea level. The northern half is higher than the southern, the
western than the eastern. The highest ground, therefore, is in the
north-west quarter, where was the castle.
In consequence of this, the wall of this quarter, towards the west, is
built against a scarped bank, and is a revetment 30 feet high, whereas
elsewhere the wall is built upon ground nearly level, or at best
not above 3 feet or 4 feet higher on the inner than the outer side.
Besides the castle there is no considerable earthwork, and no reason,
therefore, for attributing the defences of the town proper to a period
earlier than the incoming of the Normans.
The earthworks of the castle are, however, considerable. The naturally
high ground was scarped and pared and somewhat raised, and near the
centre of the area the highest point was surrounded by a circular
ditch, the contents of which, thrown inward, converted the raised
platform into an artificial mound. This, beyond doubt, was the Saxon
fortress.
The rectangular area was also well defended. It had the sea for its
ditch nearly at the foot of the wall along the west and south fronts.
Along the east a broad and deep ditch, wholly artificial, and in part,
at least, admitting the sea, ran along the foot of the wall, and
divided the town from a strip of lower land, which slopes towards the
Itchen, and is now covered by an important suburb. Along the north
front a ditch, also artificial, was cut across the ridge; it is said,
to a depth allowing it to be filled from the sea. As this would involve
a depth of about 40 feet, with a corresponding breadth, the tradition
is probably an exaggeration.
The north and east walls, least affected by any irregularities of
ground, and nearly straight, are in length about 318 and 790 yards.
The south and west fronts are curved and broken to suit the ground,
and measure about 320 and 650 yards. The south-west angle is largely
rounded off. Of recorded gates, there were the north or Bargate, still
standing; the east gate, removed; the spur gate, remaining; the south,
or water gate, removed; the west gate and the postern, preserved;
Biddles, or Bridle Gate, gone; and the castle water gate, closed up.
The mural towers were chiefly drum, or half round. The north front is
flanked by two drum towers, and west of the Bar is one, and east of
it two, half-round. Upon the east wall, north of the east gate, was
one; and, south of it, six, of which one remains, half-round, and one
rectangular. At the south-east angle, the south wall was prolonged
eastwards as a spur-tower, covering the ditch; this remains. Upon the
south wall there were six towers, including the south flank of the spur
gatehouse, and, on the opposite flank, the Bugle Tower. All but one are
half-round. The west wall had many buttresses, and few towers. There
was one where the south wall of the castle joined the town wall; and
near the north end is a fine half round tower,—an addition.
Passing to the details, the north gate, called the Bar, is a large,
handsome structure, about 60 feet broad by 60 feet deep in the centre.
It is of two stages, pierced below by a central and two lateral
passages, and contains above a chamber, 52 feet long by 21 feet broad,
used for public purposes. In each wing is a staircase. That to the
east is old, that on the west may have been so. The side passages
are modern. They communicate with the central roadway by two cross
arches on each side, of which the two next the north are original, and
probably led into the flanking towers. An examination of the central
passage shows the original gate to have been late Norman; at least a
round-headed portal there placed is probably in that style, though
it has rather a Decorated aspect. Then in the early Decorated time
two bold half-round flanking towers were added, and still remain.
At this time the rear was probably refaced, and four windows and a
centre niche inserted, and the council-chamber enlarged, and probably
the east staircase added. The Norman gatehouse had an upper room, of
which a round-headed door, with a foliated head, remains. Next, in the
Perpendicular period, a bold projection, three sides of an octagon, was
added to the front. The gateway, thus advanced, is flanked by two bold,
narrow buttresses, which run up to a very bold corbel table, having six
machicolations in the central face, and three in each of the oblique
lateral ones. The battlements are good Perpendicular, and carried round
the rear towards the town; one embrasure is occupied by an alarm-bell.
This gate has been much injured by restorations. The openings to the
rear, archways and windows, have been refaced; but they preserve much
of their old type, and have a Decorated aspect. The main passage has
been cut away and widened, and the portcullis grooves are gone. When
the ditch in front was filled up, a century ago, all trace of the
drawbridge was lost. It appears that this bar was formerly a prison,
and the curious cross arches were part of the arrangement for that
purpose.
West of the Bar much of the wall remains, but is so blocked in by
houses as to be invisible. Forty-six yards from the gate is the site of
a half-round tower, beyond which the wall extends in a straight line to
Arundel Tower, so called from Sir John Arundel, an early governor. This
is a drum, 22 feet in diameter, which caps the north-east angle of the
town. This tower is 50 feet to 60 feet high, and seems to rise out of a
rectangular mass of masonry, possibly added to strengthen it. Here the
internal level is 30 feet, or more, above the external, being a part,
no doubt, of the old earthworks.
Continuing along the west wall, at 763 yards is a bold, half-round
tower, 20 feet diameter, and 30 feet high, of excellent rough ashlar,
with bold machicolations at the level of the adjacent curtain. This
is Catchcold Tower. Built against the bank it looks solid, or like
a bastion, but it is said to be hollow, though how entered does not
appear. This tower, with the adjacent wall for some feet, is apparently
a Perpendicular addition to what seems to be a Decorated wall. Beyond
the tower is a flight of steps, modern, ascending 30 feet to the summit
of the wall, which is there common to both town and castle. The wall
then runs forward obliquely, probably to allow of the inclusion of the
earthworks of the castle. It seems in substance Norman. The salient is
capped by a rectangular buttress, the hollow angles of which on each
side are crossed by low, pointed arches, pierced as garderobes, as at
Porchester. This buttress tower is of Decorated date.
Then follows about 134 yards of straight wall, probably Norman, about
38 feet high, and backed to the summit with earth. Upon it a small
rectangular buttress marks the junction of the north wall of the castle
with the town-wall. Further on are five rectangular buttresses of
various dimensions. The three first are evidently additions upon the
Norman wall, the rest seem original. Part of the wall here is divided
into two stages by a bold horizontal bead. Below are two narrow windows
of about 18 inches opening, resembling large loops, and which seem to
have had square heads. Above are traces of two windows, apparently
round-topped. There must have been an interior chamber, now closed.
The central buttress is broad and flat, and here are traces of the old
water-gate of the castle, which must have been reached by steps, the
ground behind being above 30 feet high. Close north of this water-gate
is a large vaulted chamber, built against the town wall, and now
closed. This part of the wall now ends in a rectangular projection,
probably the root of a tower, and marked the junction of the castle
south wall with the town wall.
From hence the wall is low and thin for about 33 yards, marking the
end of the castle ditch, and out of the regular line, having, no
doubt, been rebuilt in modern times. On the rising ground of the
castle counterscarp is the root of another square tower, marking the
recommencement of the regular town wall, which then turns inwards so as
to protect Biddles or Bridle Gate.
This gate, now removed, opened into a steep and rather narrow ascent
called Simnell-street, out of which, on the north side, opens
Castle-lane, thought to represent an old entrance to the castle.
At Biddles Gate commences a very curious part of the wall, which, as
far south as a little beyond Blue Anchor postern, is unlike anything
known in England. The original wall, here about 30 feet high and 4
feet thick, with the soil nearly level within and without, seems to
have served not only for the town wall, but for the wall of several
dwelling-houses within it, the doors and windows of which are visible
in the wall, though now closed up. These openings show the wall to have
been Norman, and of a moderately early period. This wall was not found
sufficiently strong for the purpose of defence, and a second wall, also
4 feet thick, was built against it on the outside. But this second wall
was built like an aqueduct, as an arcade, upon tall and slender piers,
about 2 feet 2 inches broad, from which, at 10 feet 6 inches high,
spring arches mostly semicircular, but some pointed, and two very flat
and probably much later, above which was the parapet. The arches are
about 12 feet span. The result was to increase the rampart to a walk
of 5 feet, with a parapet of 2 feet, and probably a rear wall of 1
foot. Of course, an arcade so placed afforded great shelter for those
attacking the wall from without; but to obviate this, while the piers
touched the wall, a space like that for a portcullis, a chase about 2
feet broad, was left between the arch and the wall, by means of which
any one standing at the base of the wall could effectually be molested
with missiles or a long pike. Eighteen arches of this arcade remain.
The arrangement is a very curious one, and supposed to be singular.
This masque or outer wall may be of late Norman date, but is possibly
early English. The piers interfere much with the earlier doors and
windows. The wall, where double, is 35 feet high. There are traces of
some kind of building outside a part of the wall.
A hole broken through the wall into Blue Anchor-yard shows the rear
of the wall, and a little further south is Blue Anchor Postern, an
original archway in the wall, much cut about and enlarged, but of which
the portcullis chase, worked from the battlements, as at Fishergate,
York, still remains. From the postern a very steep, winding narrow lane
leads up into the town, between lines of ancient houses, of which two,
one on each side, next the gate, are Norman. Both are curious, but that
on the south side especially so. It is the shell of a Norman house,
of the age of the older part of the wall. It is called, locally, King
John’s Palace, but is, in truth, an ordinary Norman private house,
and a fairly perfect one. The principal room was on the first floor.
The roof is gone, but the door and windows remain. These are coupled,
small, round-headed, and divided by a short column, with a slightly
sculptured capital. The space within the walls is 43 feet by 45 feet.
There is a good Norman fireplace, with hood and flanking columns. In
the south and part of the east wall is a mural gallery. The house
on the northern side of the lane is 44 feet by 15 feet. There is a
good view of the town wall, and a plan of the two houses, in Parker’s
“Domestic Architecture of the Twelfth Century,” p. 34.
South of the postern the wall ceases to be double, and is all of one
date, and about 6 feet thick. In this part is a flattish rectangular
mural buttress tower, much blocked in with houses, but having its
south hollow angle crossed by a squinch arch carrying a garderobe. Near
this is a high pointed doorway, evidently an insertion, of 24 feet
opening, leading into Collis-court, and about 60 feet further is the
west gatehouse.
This is a perfect and plain rectangular gatehouse, 30 feet deep by 24
feet broad, without buttresses, flush with the wall outside, and of
bold projection within. It is pierced by a high pointed vault, of 12
feet opening. The passage has been a good deal mutilated with a view to
widening it. Near the centre was a good recessed doorway, the profile
of the head of which is still traceable where it has been roughly
cut from the wall. Between this and the inner face are two square
portcullis grooves, and just within the inner entrance is a chase, 18
inches broad, over the head of the arch. In the vault, in front of the
central door-case, are nine holes, about 4 inches square, three in the
crown line, and three along each haunch. These latter converge towards
the central line.
The gatehouse has a portcullis chamber on the first floor, and a second
floor above this. An open stair against the south side leads to the
battlement, from which a door, an insertion, opens into the portcullis
chamber. These upper rooms are plastered and papered, and nothing can
be seen in them.
South of this gate the wall continues in a fairly perfect state for 80
yards, and finally has been pulled down and removed. It may be traced
as far as the site of a half-round tower, and some remains of an arch.
Beyond this, also, the line of the wall may be traced as far as the
site of Bugle Tower, 180 yards from the west gate, and which caps the
south-west angle of the town.
The south wall is almost wholly destroyed, and the foundation either
removed or covered up by the broad and handsome quay which now
intervenes between the base of the wall and the sea. This front was
more or less convex, or rather polygonal, the angles being capped with
drum towers. There are some traces of the south gatehouse. In the rear
of this part of the wall are the site of St. Mary Magdalene’s Hospital,
and in Porter Lane what was called Canute’s Palace. A representation of
the south gate before 1784 is preserved by Grose. It had a low, broad
Edwardian arch, with bold machicolations above, and toward the east it
was protected by a long flanking wall, parallel to its approach. It was
removed 1830–40.
Forty yards from the south gate was another half-round tower, and
thence the wall ran straight east for 83 yards, when it reached the
south-east angle of the town. In the rear of this part of the wall, in
Winkle-street, is “God’s House,” a Norman church, now restored very
badly, and converted into a French Protestant place of worship.
At the south-east angle of the town, in the end of the east wall, is
a gate, called God’s House Gate, or South Gate, but which should be
called Spur Gate, as it opens upon a work of that class. This gatehouse
is rectangular, quite plain, and without buttresses, having two upper
floors. Its dimensions are 28 feet broad by 23 feet deep, and the south
end projects as a low salient of two faces, upon the south wall, now
removed. The passage is vaulted with a high pointed arch 12 feet broad.
Like the west gate, it had a central recessed doorway, now much cut
away, and two portcullis grooves. The vault in front of the door is
supported by two, and in rear of it by three, cross-ribs. Altogether,
in substance, this gatehouse resembles that of the west gate, and is
of early Decorated date. Its front may have been rebuilt when the spur
tower was added.