Under the Norman sovereigns there was neither painting, statuary, nor
poetry worthy of mention. The spirit that creats these arts found
expression in architecture introduced from the Continent. The castle,
cathedral, and minster, with here and there an exceptional structure
like the Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Great Hall at
Westminster, built by William Rufus, were some well-known Norman
buildings which mark the time. All were of stone, a material which
the Normans generally preferred to any other. Aside from Westminster
Abbey, which, although the work of Edward the Confessor, was really
Norman, a fortress or two, like Coningsborough in Yorkshire, and a few
churches, like that at Bradford-on-Avon, the Saxons had erected little
of note.
The characteristics of the Norman style of architecture was its
massive grandeur. The churches were built in the form of a cross,
with a square, central tower, the main entrance being at the west.
The interior was divided into a nave, or central portion, with an
aisle on each side for the passage of religious processions. The
windows were narrow, and rounded at the top. The roof rested on round
arches supported by heavy columns. The cathedrals of Peterborough,
Ely, Durham, Norwich, the church of St. Bartholomew, London, and
St. John's Chapel in the Tower of London are fine examples of Norman
work.
The castles consisted of a square keep, or citadel, with walls of
immense thickness, having a few slitlike windows in the lower story
and somewhat larger ones above. In these buildings everything was
made subordinate to strength and security. They were surrounded by a
high stone wall and deep ditch, generally filled with water. The
entrance to them was over a drawbridge through an archway protected by
an iron grating, or portcullis, which could be raised and lowered at
pleasure. The Tower of London, Rochester Castle, Norwich Castle,
Castle Rising, Richmond Castle, Carisbrooke Keep, New Castle on the
Tyne, and Tintagel Hold were built by William or his Norman
successors.
The so-called Jews' houses at Lincoln and St. Edmundsbury are rare and
excellent examples of Norman domestic architecture. Although in many
cases the Norman castles are in ruins, yet these ruins bid fair to
stand as long as the Pyramids. They were mostly the work of
churchmen, who were the best architects of the day, and knew how to
plan a fortress as well as to build a minster.