THE KEEP OF THE NORMAN CASTLE
We have seen that there were two types of early Norman castle in
England. There was the ordinary mount-and-bailey castle, with its
defences of earthwork and timber; and there was the castle founded
on a rocky site, in which there was no mount, and the defences were
of stone. In the first instance, the strongest position, the mount,
was occupied by the donjon or keep. In the second case, as at Ludlow,
the wall was defended by a strong gatehouse and a certain number of
towers; but at first there was, strictly speaking, no keep. During
the first half of the twelfth century, an era of constant rebellion
against the Crown, private owners constructed castles in very large
numbers, for purposes of aggression and self-defence. The second half,
the age of the first Plantagenets, was an era of consolidation, during
which the building of castles was methodised under royal control.
Unlicensed fortresses disappeared, leaving only their earthworks to
mark their place. The permanent castle of stone became the rule; and
to this period, the second age of our medieval military architecture,
belong some of our most formidable and imposing castles. The aim of the
builders, during this epoch, was to strengthen to the best of their
ability that point in the plan which would form a centre of ultimate
resistance to an attack from without. This point was the keep.[134]
[Illustration: CARISBROOKE: steps to keep]
The keep of Norman and early Plantagenet days was virtually a castle
within a castle. In the mount-and-bailey castle, there was generally
only one entrance to the enclosure. If the besiegers forced this and
entered the bailey, a ditch divided them from the mount, the most
formidable part of the defences. Here the defenders could concentrate
themselves for a last struggle, in which the advantage, unless the
siege could be prolonged indefinitely, was distinctly on their side.
Even where the mount was of inconsiderable height, it commanded the
bailey and the ditch at its base. Its sides were too steep to
allow of its being climbed without some artificial means of foothold.
A chance arrow, tipped with burning tow, might reach the palisade
round the summit of the mount, and set it alight in a dry season; but
the defending party had all the advantage of being able to discharge
their missiles downward and into a large portion of the bailey. Their
disadvantage lay in the possibility of a prolonged blockade by a large
force, and in consequent scarcity of ammunition and victuals. The
danger of fire could be minimised by covering the wooden defences with
skins newly flayed or soaked in water; but the work of renewing these
in case of a long siege would be difficult.
The wooden donjon on the mount took the form of a square tower
surrounded, at the edge of the mount, by a palisade, and approached,
as has been described already, by a steep wooden bridge, which crossed
the ditch into the bailey. But it is obvious that the existence of a
castle in any given place as a permanent centre of royal influence must
lead to the abandonment of wooden defences in favour of defences of
more lasting material. The stone curtain first took the place of the
palisade in the defences of the bailey, and was built across the ditch
and up the sides of the mount, ceasing, as can be seen at Berkhampstead
(42) or Tamworth, at the level of the summit. The next step was to
replace the palisade of the mount with a stone wall of circular or
polygonal shape. In some instances where this was done, it is possible
that the old wooden tower was left within the enclosure. Cases in which
a new tower of stone was built upon the mount are rare. Builders would
hesitate to charge the surface of the artificial hillock with the
concentrated weight of a large square tower. The encircling curtain
was much better adapted to the plan of the mount, and distributed
its weight more successfully over the edge of the surface. But, with
the building of a stone wall round the summit, the necessity of a
tower would be removed. Just as, in castles like Exeter and Ludlow,
there was from the first a stone wall without a definite keep, the
enclosure being virtually a keep in itself, so, in the more limited
area of the mount, the encircling wall formed the keep, and, in the
larger examples, sheltered upon its inner side buildings, usually of
timber, which afforded the necessary cover for the defenders, while
their roofs, abutting on the wall below the summit, left room for the
rampart-walk and the wooden galleries which were fitted to the curtain
in time of siege.
[Illustration: Cardiff; Keep]
This was the genesis of the so-called “shell” keep, which converted
the summit of the mount into a strong inner ward, the centre of which
was clear of buildings, and gave more chance of concentration to the
defenders than the narrow passage between the wooden tower and the
palisade, into which the angles of the tower would have projected
awkwardly. One of the best examples of the type which remains is the
keep upon the larger of the two mounts at Lincoln, a polygon of fifteen
faces on the outside, twelve on the inside. The wall has lost its
parapet, but retains its rampart-walk; it is 8 feet thick, and keeps
its height of 20 feet perfect round the whole of the enclosure. The
masonry is ashlar of late twelfth century character, and each of the
external angles is capped by a flat pilaster buttress. The marks on the
inner face of the walls indicate that the enclosure was surrounded by
timber buildings, with which two small mural chambers communicated, in
the thickness of the outer curtain where it joins the keep. The doorway
of the keep is in the north-east face of the wall, which is pierced by
a segmental-headed archway, with a semicircular covering arch on the
outer face. This doorway, defended by a wooden door with a draw-bar,
was approached by a stone stair made in the side of the mount. At the
present day the ditch at the foot has been filled up, and the stairs
are modern, but originally the ditch must have been crossed by a
drawbridge at the foot of the stair, which, when drawn up, would have
left the mount isolated from the bailey. There was a small doorway
in the south-west face of the keep wall, probably intended to be a
postern, through which an exit could be gained in emergencies.[135]
[Illustration: Alnwick; Plan]
The shell of masonry upon the mount, however, was by no means the
universal form taken by the keep. Sometimes, as at York, the timber
defences of the mount survived until a comparatively late period,
when their place was taken by a tower of a form in keeping with the
principles of fortification of the day.[136] At Alnwick (115) the
base of the great mount, with a considerable portion of its ditch,
remains between the two wards of the castle. The present cluster of
towers and connecting buildings upon the mount, surrounding a somewhat
dark and confined courtyard, is in large part a nineteenth century
reconstruction of the fourteenth century house of the Percys which
occupied the site. The outer and inner archways, however, of the
gatehouse through which the keep is entered, are twelfth century work,
and agree very well in date with the large remains of Norman masonry
which can be traced in the curtains of both wards. It is probable that,
about the middle of the twelfth century, Eustace, son of John, who
died in 1157, surrounded the whole of the present enclosure with stone
walls, and, levelling the mount to its present height, built in stone
the earliest domestic buildings of the castle, upon the enlarged site
of the earlier wooden donjon and palisade. The appearance of Eustace’s
buildings must have been very different from that of the mansion of the
Percys; and we may assume that he defended the summit of the levelled
mound by a thick curtain, against which his hall and other domestic
apartments were placed.
[Illustration: Beaugency]
[Illustration: Falaise]
In France and Normandy, the rectangular donjon of stone began
to supersede the wooden tower at an early date. At Langeais
(Indre-et-Loire), Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, built a stone donjon
as early as 992.[137] Three walls of this structure are left: it
was oblong in form and was composed of a basement and upper floor.
The masonry is largely faced with courses of small cubical stones,
following the manner inherited by the Romanesque builders of France
from their Roman predecessors: tiles are introduced in the arched heads
of the windows in the upper stage, which are not mere loops, but have a
considerable outward opening. This keep was obviously intended to be at
once stronghold and dwelling-house. Such a building was a translation
into stone of a wooden construction like the tower-house on the motte
at Ardres. It is built on a promontory above a small stream, and is
defended by a ditch on the landward side. Many of these stone towers
remain in Normandy and the country round the Loire; and, as a rule, are
earlier in date and larger in area than most of the similar buildings
in England. The tower of Beaugency (Loiret) is an oblong on plan,
measuring about 76 feet long by 66 feet broad (116): the present height
is 115 feet. The date indicated by the masonry is about 1100.[138] The
fabrics of the towers of Falaise (Calvados) and Domfront (Orne) may be
attributed to Henry I. In or about 1119 he systematically garrisoned
his fortresses at Rouen and other places, of which Falaise was
one.[139] Domfront, from 1092 onwards, was his favourite castle.[140]
Its strong position gave it an exceptional advantage as a base of
operations; and in 1101, when Henry ceded his Norman possessions to his
brother Robert, he kept Domfront for himself.[141] After the battle of
Tinchebray (1106) Henry was lord of Normandy, and restored order in
the duchy by razing the unlicensed strongholds built under Robert’s
weak rule.[142] The tower of Domfront, however, and possibly that of
Falaise, were not built until 1123.[143] At Domfront the castle is a
large enclosure, occupying the highest point of a long hill which has
a gradual eastward slope, but rises in an abrupt cliff from a narrow
valley on the west, and descends steeply on the north and south. A
deep ditch, through which the modern road from Caen to Angers has been
carried, divided the castle from the town. The great tower lies to the
east of the centre of the castle enclosure, so as to command the ditch
and the town beyond. Only the north-west angle, with a portion of the
adjacent walls, remains perfect. The height slightly exceeds 70 feet.
The area of the whole structure is 85 feet by 70, not counting the
buttresses and plinth. At Falaise (117) the great tower occupies nearly
the whole of the summit of the isolated cliff on which it stands, the
town occupying the hilly but lower ground on the north side. The length
of the tower is a little less than that of Domfront, while the breadth
is slightly greater. The height is about the same.
The tower of Domfront, like that of Beaugency, stood within a walled
castle, where the capture of the bailey would have exposed the tower
directly to the besiegers. It was therefore built with an exclusive
view to strength, and its window openings, even upon the second floor
above the basement, were small and narrow, those on the first floor
being mere loops. On the other hand, the tower of Falaise stands high
above the curtain-wall by which the ascent from the town was protected.
Its outer face is of ashlar throughout, and the window openings of the
two upper stages, far above the reach of stones and arrows, are double,
divided by shafts with carved capitals. Both towers were separated into
three parts by cross-walls; but the two upper stages at Falaise are
now undivided, and at Domfront, above the basement, there remain only
indications of such a division.
Returning to England, we may safely assert that, with very few
exceptions, our rectangular towers belong to a period which bears, from
the historical point of view, a close likeness to the period of Henry
I.’s fortifications in Normandy. Henry II. pursued the same policy of
destroying unlicensed castles and strengthening royal strongholds;
and his building operations took the form of providing his castles
with towers, such as already were a chief feature of the castles of
Normandy and Maine, but were certainly very exceptional in England. The
approximate date of several of these towers can be obtained from the
entries in the Pipe Rolls for the reign of Henry II.[144]
Henry II., like the Conqueror, directed his attention to the defence
of the main water-ways of his kingdom. The castles of the coast and
of the Welsh and Scottish frontiers were also chief objects of his
care. The Pipe Rolls of 1158-9 and 1160-1 contain accounts of large
sums spent on the castle of Wark-on-Tweed, at the extreme north-west
corner of the kingdom.[145] In 1158-9 occur charges for the tower of
Gloucester,[146] at the head of the Severn estuary; and in the same and
following years are many mentions of the castle and tower of the great
littoral stronghold of Scarborough.[147] Berkhampstead, commanding the
approach to London from the north-west, was an object of substantial
expense in 1159-60 and 1161-2.[148] In 1160-1 £215. 18s. 5d. was spent
in the fortification of the city of Chester:[149] work was also done
at Oswestry,[150] and other accounts show that attention was paid to
the victualling of castles on the Welsh border at Clun and Ruthin.[151]
Accounts, beginning in 1164-5, refer to the strengthening of Shrewsbury
castle.[152] Sums were spent on the tower of Bridgnorth, which
commanded the defiles of the Severn between Shrewsbury and Worcester,
in 1168-9 and following years;[153] and mentions of Hereford,[154]
Shrawardine,[155] and Ellesmere,[156] testify to the care with which
the western frontier of the kingdom was protected. Of the coast
castles, apart from Scarborough, Dover has a constant place in these
accounts. For example, in 1168-9, 40s. 6d. was paid for the hire of
ships to bring lime from Gravesend to Dover, and £34. 5s. 4d. was spent
on the work for which this was required.[157] Southampton castle was
repaired in 1161-2,[158] and a well was made there in 1172-3.[159] The
tower of Hastings was in progress in 1171-2.[160] In 1165-6 £256. 4s.
9d. was spent upon the castle of Orford, the great stronghold of the
Suffolk coast, which was an object of large yearly expense down to
1171-2.[161] On the line of the upper Thames, continual sums were spent
on the palace-castle of Windsor: the wall of the castle is referred
to in 1171-2 and 1172-3.[162] Work was done at Oxford and a well made
in 1172-3 and 1173-4.[163] Hertford castle was maintained to guard
the Lea.[164] In addition to Dover, the castles of Rochester,[165]
Chilham,[166] and Canterbury[167] protected the main routes to the
narrowest part of the Channel. The chief fortress of the vale of
Trent was at Nottingham, where large sums were spent in 1171-2 and
1172-3.[168] Of the inland castles of the north, the tower of Newcastle
cost some £385 between 1171-2 and 1174-5[169] This forms a contrast to
the small sum spent on the tower of York—£15. 7s. 3d.—in 1172-3:[170]
it is clear, from the Pipe Rolls of later reigns, that this was merely
a wooden structure.[171]
However, there are earlier instances of towers which are of first-class
importance, and these must be briefly described before we dwell upon
the characteristics of the donjons of the second half of the twelfth
century. We have seen that William the Conqueror, immediately after his
coronation, began the construction of certain strongholds in connection
with the city of London.[172] His first work was probably to enclose
within a palisade the undefended sides of the bailey, the east side of
which was covered by a portion of the Roman city-wall. Before the end
of his reign, the White tower had been begun as a principal feature
of the castle, and was completed in the reign of William Rufus, who
in 1097 built a wall about it.[173] This tower is therefore at least
as early in date as most of the early square towers of Normandy and
the adjacent provinces, and is considerably earlier than the towers
of Falaise and Domfront. A tradition attributes the design to the
direction of Gundulf, bishop of Rochester 1077-1108, who is also said
to have been the builder of the donjon-like tower at Malling in Kent,
originally attached to the church of St Leonard, and of the tower, the
ruins of which remain, on the north side of the quire of Rochester
cathedral.
The White tower is at present 90 feet in height, and is therefore
much lower than the nearly contemporary tower of Beaugency. Its area,
however, is far greater, covering an oblong of 118 feet from east to
west by 107 feet from north to south. It is four stages in height, and
was built of rubble masonry, ashlar work being confined entirely to
the pilaster buttresses and windows, and the plinth. Modern repairs
have made the original appearance of the tower hard to reconstruct.
The entrance was upon the first floor, and was never covered by a
fore-building: this entrance seems to have been in the western part
of the south wall. A well-stair or vice, in a round turret at the
north-east corner, was the chief means of communication between all the
floors; but vices were also made from the second floor to the roof in
the square turrets of the north-west and south-west angles. There is
also a square turret above the place which would ordinarily be occupied
by the south-east angle; but the south wall, throughout its height, is
continued into an apsidal projection, which is curved round to meet the
east wall. The two upper stages of this projection form the apse of
St John’s chapel, with its encircling gallery. The faces of the tower
and the apse are strengthened by flat buttresses at regular intervals,
which are gathered in at a string on the level of the floor of the
uppermost stage, and again at the level of the roof. There are no
window openings in the basement, which was originally used for stores.
The window openings of the first and second floors were originally
narrow loops, with wide internal splays, but have been considerably
enlarged, with some damage to the appearance of strength which the
tower once possessed. The openings in the aisle of the chapel on the
second floor, however, were wider than the rest. The third floor, being
out of the range of ordinary missiles, had wide window openings: the
two openings in the south wall of the larger room on this floor are
double. The greatest thickness of the walls of the basement is 15 feet:
the walls of the uppermost stage are from 10 to 11 feet thick.
[Illustration: White Tower; Plan of Second Floor]
[Illustration: White Tower; St John’s Chapel]
The tower is divided internally into two parts by a longitudinal wall,
east of the centre, 10 feet thick.[174] Thus in the basement there
is a large western chamber, 91 by 35 feet, and on every floor above
there is a corresponding room, the dimensions of which increase with
the thinning of the outer walls to a maximum of 95 by 40 feet. The
eastern chamber, however, is divided into two parts by a cross-wall,
considerably to the south of the centre. There is thus in the basement
and each floor an oblong north-eastern chamber, into which access is
obtained from the main well-stair. In the basement there is a doorway
in the longitudinal wall between this and the western chamber; but,
on each of the upper floors, the communication is maintained by five
openings in the wall. Apart from the recesses of the loops, and the
mural lobbies which lead to the vices in the turrets, there are only
two mural passages, one in the first and one in the second stage,
communicating with garde-robes; but the wall of the third floor is
pierced all round by a gallery, with a barrel vault, in the thickness
of the wall, which communicates at either end with the broad gallery
above the aisles of St John’s chapel.
[Illustration: Tower of London; St John’s Chapel
[Illustration: Christchurch]
The south-eastern quarter of the tower contains, in the basement, the
sub-crypt of the chapel, known in later days as “Little Ease.” On the
first floor is the upper crypt, which, as well as the sub-crypt, has a
barrel vault, and ends in an apse. The second floor is the ground-floor
of the chapel and its aisle or ambulatory, which is divided from the
nave by plain round-headed arches springing from cylindrical columns
with capitals, those of the eastern columns famous for the Tau-shaped
plaques left uncarved between their volutes, those of the western
columns scalloped (122). The nave of the chapel rises through the
third floor to the barrel vault. The aisles have groined cross-vaults:
the gallery above them on the third floor is covered by a half barrel
vault. This gallery, as before mentioned, is connected in its north
and west walls with the mural gallery of the main chambers. The ground
floor of the chapel communicated with the north-eastern chamber through
a doorway in the cross-wall; but the main entrance was through a short
mural lobby from the western chamber, which led into the west end of
the south aisle. At a late date a vice was made in the thickness of the
wall from this lobby to a doorway in the basement, by which access was
obtained to the chapel from the later domestic buildings adjoining the
south side of the tower.
The well of the tower, a most necessary feature in case of siege,
was in the floor of the western chamber of the basement, near its
south-western angle, and was cased with ashlar. Only three fireplaces
remain, all in the east wall, two on the first, and one on the second
floor: the smoke escaped through holes in the adjacent wall. The use of
the rooms on the various floors is uncertain, and it is possible that
they may have been separated by wooden partitions into smaller rooms.
The basement chambers, however, were obviously store-rooms; and the
great western chamber on the third floor was used by many of our kings
as a council-chamber. The first-floor rooms may have been intended for
the use of the garrison, while the larger room on the second floor was
probably the great hall of the tower, and the smaller room the king’s
great chamber. The upper room, next the council-chamber, may have been
for the use of the queen and her household. Accommodation, suited to
the scanty needs of the times, was thus provided for a large number
of persons; and the great size of the chapel alone indicates that the
tower was intended as an occasional residence for the royal family.
The palace hall at Westminster, however, was in building, when Rufus
made his wall round the Tower; and it is clear that the cold and dark
interior of the fortress was planned mainly with a view to defence, and
with little respect for comfort.
The great tower of Colchester castle (47), which is of the same date as
the White tower, covers an even larger area. The internal measurements
of the ground-floor, excluding the projections at the angles, are 152
feet north and south by 111 feet east and west. This, the greatest of
all Norman keeps, has unfortunately lost its two upper stages, and,
with them, the chapel, which, like that in the White Tower, was built
with an apsidal projection covering the junction of south and east
walls. The crypt and sub-vault of the chapel, however, remain. In this
respect, and in the division of the floors into larger and smaller
chambers by a cross-wall running north and south, the likeness between
these two great towers is very marked. The rectangular projections,
on the other hand, which cap three of the angles of the tower at
Colchester, are far more prominent than those of the Tower of London,
and form small towers in themselves; and, even at the angle where the
apse of the chapel is extended eastward, the south wall has been built
of a thickness to correspond with the projections at the north-east
and north-west angles. That at the south-west angle differs in plan
from the rest, being longer from east to west and wider on its western
face than the others. Its south face also is recessed from the level
of the south wall of the tower, but projects in a large rectangular
buttress at the point where it joins the main wall. This south-west
tower contained the main staircase. The entrance was on the ground
floor, immediately east of the buttress just mentioned, and not, as in
most rectangular keeps, upon the first floor. The ashlar with which
the exterior of the tower was cased has been stripped off, and the
rubble core of the walls, with its bonding courses of Roman tiles, is
now exposed. Below the ground floor the walls spread considerably:
this can be seen upon the north and west sides, where the hill drops
towards the river, and the upper part of the solid foundation is above
ground. Between the angle towers the walls are broken, on the east and
west sides, by two rectangular buttresses of slight projection: on the
north side there is only one, and on the south side none. The ground
floor and first floor were lighted by narrow loops, splayed inwardly
through about half the thickness of the wall. In each of the east,
north, and west walls of the ground floor there are three of these.
The south wall has only two: one lights the well chamber on the east
of the entry, while the other, at the opposite extremity of the wall,
lights the sub-vault of the chapel. The wall between the two, being on
the side of the tower most open to attack, is of great solidity, and
is unbroken by opening or buttress. In each face of the first floor,
exclusive of the angle towers and apse of the chapel, there were four
loops. The window openings of the upper stages were probably larger.
One of the most striking features of this tower is the plentiful use of
Roman tiles among the masonry, especially in the cross-wall, where they
are arranged in a very regular and beautiful series of “herring-bone”
courses (101). This employment of Roman material gave rise to a
tradition, not yet wholly extinct, that the tower was a Roman building.
It need hardly be said that nothing would be more natural than for the
Norman masons to adopt the economical principle of applying to their
own use material which lay ready to hand among the ruins of the Roman
station.
[Illustration: Dover]
[Illustration: Clun]
The towers of London and Colchester are exceptional in their date and
in the hugeness of their proportions. Although the towers of the later
part of the twelfth century have many features in common with them—the
division by means of cross-walls, the well-stairs in one or more of the
angles, the pilaster buttresses projecting from the outer walls, and
the mural galleries and chambers—no tower was subsequently attempted
upon their scale. The tower of Rochester (frontispiece), which appears
to have been begun somewhat earlier than 1140, and is therefore
intermediate in date between these two exceptional examples and the
later towers, is 113 feet high to the top of the parapet, and is 70
feet square (exterior measurement) at its base. The tower of Dover
(126), built in the early part of the reign of Henry II., measures
98 by 96 feet at the base. The walls, however, have the exceptional
thickness of 24 to 21 feet, so that the internal measurements are
considerably reduced, while the height to the top of the parapet is
only 83 feet. The towers of London and Colchester are also exceptional
in the importance given to the chapel in their plans. The great
prominence of the angle turrets at Colchester is an unique feature,
while the position of the main entrance upon the ground floor,
although not unique, is very unusual.
The later towers differ from those of London and Colchester in the
fact that they were additions to enclosures already existing, instead
of being the nucleus of a castle founded for the first time. Although
they have a general family likeness, neither their position on the
plan, which was necessarily dictated by the nature of the site, nor
the details of their arrangements, are uniform. Most of the castles in
which they occur are divided by a wall, built across the enclosure from
curtain to curtain, into an outer and inner ward or bailey. The tower,
standing at the highest point of the inner ward, was placed so as to
command both these divisions of the castle. If the outer ward were
entered, the besiegers were confronted by a second line of defence, the
wall of the inner ward, in conjunction with which the great tower, with
its superior height, could be used by the defenders. Finally, if the
inner ward were taken, the tower still remained as a formidable refuge
for the garrison.
[Illustration: Guildford]
Where a new tower keep was added to castles of the usual type, whose
main defences consisted of an earthen mount and banks, it was often
raised, as at Canterbury and Hastings, on a new site, independent
of the mount, which was probably avoided as affording insufficient
foundation. Thus, at Rochester, the old mount of the eleventh century
castle, now known as Boley Hill, remains at some distance from the
later enclosure. But there were cases, and possibly more than are
generally recognised, in which the mount was utilised for a tower. At
Christchurch the comparatively small keep was built entirely upon the
artificial mount. The keeps of Norwich and Hedingham (135), two of the
grandest of their class, were built upon mounts, which, if in great
part natural hills, had been scarped and heightened by art. The mounts
at Guildford and Clun (127) are artificial. In both these last cases
the summit of the mount was converted into a shell keep, surrounded
by a wall; but on the eastern side of this enclosure a tower, of
respectable if not large dimensions, was made. The tower at Clun was
built against the east slope of the mount, the basement being entirely
below the level of the summit of the earthwork. This is also partly the
case at Guildford (128), where the tower is placed across the eastern
edge of the mount. The inclusion at Kenilworth of artificial soil
within the basement of the keep has led to the suspicion that the mount
of the castle was reduced in height, and the tower built round the
lower portion (132).
[Illustration: Scarborough; Plan]
At Guildford and Clun the combination of a shell of masonry with a
tower keep produced the effect of a small inner ward—which is virtually
what a shell keep is—with a tower upon its _enceinte_. Frequently,
as at Scarborough (129) and Bamburgh the tower keep stood upon the
line of the curtain between the two wards. At Scarborough it actually
stands athwart that line, but its greater projection is towards the
inner ward, from which, of course, it was entered. The towers at
Norham (157) and Kenilworth fill up a corner of the inner ward, but
have no noticeable projection beyond the curtain. This is also the
case at Porchester (131), where the north-west angle, in which the
keep stands, is also the north-west angle of the Roman station.[175]
Some, however, of the finest of these towers, Rochester, Dover, and
Newcastle, stood wholly detached within the inner ward, although, as
at Rochester, near enough to the curtain to enable the defenders to
command the outer approaches from the upper stages.
[Illustration: Map of Rectangular Keeps]
[Illustration: Porchester]
From the point of view of dimensions the towers may be divided into two
classes. There are the towers proper, such as Clun, Corfe, Guildford,
Hedingham, Helmsley, Newcastle, Porchester, Richmond, Rochester, and
Scarborough, in which the height is greater than the length or breadth.
Such towers are approximately square; and to them must be added Dover,
in which, however, owing to the immense thickness of the walls, the
height is less than the length or breadth. In one case, Porchester
(131), the measurement from north to south exceeds that from east to
west by 13 feet, and at first was also in excess of the height; but
the tower was raised to nearly twice its height not long after the
completion of the original design. The second class is composed of
keeps, of which one or both of the dimensions of the ground-plan exceed
the height, without the exceptional circumstances which governed the
proportions of Dover. Such keeps are noticeably oblong in shape. At
Castle Rising and the tower of Bowes in Yorkshire the height is less
than either the length or breadth. At Kenilworth (132) the length from
east to west exceeds the breadth by nearly 30, and the height by 7
feet. Middleham, from north to south, measures approximately 100 feet
by 80 from east to west: its height is only 55 feet, which, though it
surpasses the 50 feet of Bowes and Castle Rising, is much less than
the 80 feet of Kenilworth. Its length and breadth, however, make up an
area far surpassing the 87 by 58 feet of Kenilworth, the 82 by 60 feet
of Bowes, and the 75 by 54 feet of Castle Rising. The foundations of
another keep of this class remain at Duffield in Derbyshire. Bamburgh,
69 by 61 feet, but only 55 feet high, is another member of the class.
Another great Northumbrian keep, Norham, although its height is 90
feet, is oblong in plan; and its measurement from east to west comes
within 4 feet of the height, so that it stands on the border between
the second and the first class.
[Illustration: Kenilworth]
The internal divisions of the keeps are not uniformly the same, and
do not always correspond to the height. The usual arrangement in the
loftier keeps, as at Hedingham, Porchester, Rochester, and Scarborough,
is a basement with three upper floors; but at Corfe, which is 80 feet
high, as at Guildford, which is only 63 feet high, there are only two
upper floors. At Dover, 83 feet high, and Newcastle, 75 feet high,
the second floor was surrounded by a mural gallery, high above the
floor-level, so that the second and third floors were combined into
one lofty room.[176] At Norham, however, there were four upper floors.
Kenilworth, only 10 feet lower, had a lofty basement with only one
floor above it. At Bowes there were two floors. At Middleham and Castle
Rising, there was one main floor; but, by the subdivision of the rooms
on this stage, a second floor was made in portions of the building.
As a rule, the walls grow thinner as they rise: this was achieved by
rebating the inner face at each floor to provide a ledge for the floor
timbers. In exceptional cases, there is an off-set on the exterior of
the tower; and at Rochester the walls are thinned from 12 feet at the
base to 10 feet at the top by a slight exterior batter. At Porchester
the walls are 11 feet thick at the base: this is reduced to 7 feet at
the first floor, and, by an off-set at the level of the original roof,
to 6 feet in the upper stage. The thickest walls, next to those at
Dover, appear to be at Newcastle, where their thickness at the first
floor is 14 feet.
Many of these towers, such as Rochester and Dover, are built of
rag-stone or coursed rubble, with dressings of ashlar. The masonry
at Guildford (128) is extremely rough, and “herring-bone” coursing
is extensively used: the date of the tower, however, to judge by its
internal details, is not earlier than the third quarter of the twelfth
century.[177] On the other hand, not a few have their walls cased with
ashlar. Hedingham and Porchester are noble examples from the east and
south of England; Bridgnorth and Kenilworth from the midlands. Of the
towers of Yorkshire, Bowes, Richmond, and Scarborough have ashlar
casing; Middleham is of rubble with ashlar dressings. Ashlar facing
is used throughout at Bamburgh, Newcastle, and Norham: at Norham the
ashlar is of two distinct kinds, small cubical stones being used in one
part, and larger stones in another.[178] As at Colchester, Dover, and
Kenilworth, the foundations of the larger towers spread considerably,
and rise above ground in a battering plinth, into which the
buttresses at the angles and on the face of the walls die off without
interruption. At Newcastle there is a roll string-course above the
plinth, and at Bamburgh (91) the plinth is moulded with a very imposing
effect. Where the tower is built on an uneven site, as at Middleham
or Scarborough, the plinth appears only on the faces where the ground
falls away from the tower.
The angles of the tower were always strengthened by rectangular
pilaster buttresses of the ordinary twelfth century type, formed by
thickening the two adjacent walls. In most cases these meet, forming
a solid exterior angle. Occasionally, as at Guildford, Hedingham,
and Rochester, a hollow angle is left between them, which, at Castle
Rising and Scarborough, is filled by a shaft or bead. Above the line
of the parapet the angle buttresses are continued into square turrets.
Within one or more of these angles, there was a vice. At Newcastle
(139) the angle buttresses are of such breadth and projection as to
form distinct towers: this is even more noticeable at Kenilworth, where
there are angle towers not unlike those at Colchester. On the faces of
the tower between these angles there were usually one or more pilaster
buttresses of slight projection. These varied in number according to
the plan and site of the tower. At Dover there is one on each face,
with the exception of the side which is covered by the forebuilding.
At Kenilworth there are four on one face, three on another, two on a
third: the remaining wall has disappeared. At Porchester there is one
on each of the west and north faces, none on the east or south: when
the tower was heightened, neither angle nor intermediate buttresses
were continued upwards. It is worthy of note that one of the angle
towers at Newcastle is polygonal, not rectangular, in shape. This
points to a transition in methods of fortification, of which more will
be said hereafter. The south-east angle at Rochester is rounded; but
this is the result of a repair of the tower which took place in the
thirteenth century.
[Illustration: HEDINGHAM: great tower]
As the main object of these towers was defensive, their external
architectural features were generally confined to their excellent
masonry. A moulded plinth, as at Bamburgh, is of very rare occurrence.
At Norwich and Castle Rising a wall is arcaded or recessed: this,
however, is quite contrary to the usual practice. String-courses,
where they were used, were generally confined to the buttresses, as
at Kenilworth; although in a few cases, as at Richmond, they were
continued along the wall. The necessary window openings were few and
small. Here, however, a distinction must be made. It has been remarked
already that the donjon of a castle sometimes formed the residence of
its lord as well as a strong tower in time of war. The towers of London
and Colchester were certainly planned upon their liberal scale with
this double end in view; and, destitute of comfort as they seem
to us to-day, the upper floors of the White Tower were at any rate
well lighted. Similarly, at Rochester, there was a large provision
of single-light windows in the floors above the basement. And, as
a rule, while the basement was lighted by a very few narrow loops,
set high in the wall, and the first floor, which was not above the
range of missiles, was lighted sparingly by narrow loops with wide
internal splays, the second floor, which formed the main apartment, had
much larger windows. These, as in the Tower of London, or at Dover,
Hedingham, and Scarborough, were sometimes of two lights, divided by
an intervening shaft or piece of wall. At Newcastle, where the second
floor, owing to the thickness of the walls, in which separate chambers
are contrived, is very dark, there is a wide single opening in the
intermediate buttress of the east face, which externally has a moulded
arch and jamb-shafts (139). At Richmond, a tower the single object
of which seems to have been defence, the window openings, with one
exception, are narrow loops with internal splays; and, of all twelfth
century towers, this was probably the darkest and least comfortable
(93).[179]
The main entrance of the tower was usually on the first floor,
although sometimes, as at Dover, Newcastle, and Norwich, it was on
the second floor, and led directly into the main apartment. It was
obviously unsafe to make an entrance in the basement, where the doors
could be easily forced or burned. At the same time, there is, as we
have noticed, a basement entrance at Colchester, where the approach
was protected by a strong ditch. The rocks on which Bamburgh and
Scarborough stand made the position almost impregnable, and in both
cases the main doorway of the tower is on a level with the soil of the
ward in which it stands.[180] When the outer opening of the original
gateway at Richmond was removed to make way for the new tower, the
inner opening was left, forming a direct communication between the
interior of the castle and the basement: this also was permitted by the
natural strength of the site; but the main entrance to the tower was
in the south-east corner of the first floor, from the rampart-walk.
At Ludlow, both openings of the gateway were walled up (94), and a
stair was made to the first floor against part of the west wall of the
tower.[181] Even in the tower on the mount at Guildford, the main
entrance was on the first floor (128). Where the doorway led into
the chief apartment of the tower, it received special architectural
treatment. That at Newcastle is a wide opening with a semicircular
arch of three orders and shafts in the jambs: it has been rebuilt, but
probably follows the original design closely. On the other hand, the
first-floor entrance at Kenilworth, which led into the main room, is
exceedingly plain, with a segmental arch, and a semicircular relieving
arch in the wall above.
[Illustration: NEWCASTLE: great tower]
Entrances on upper floors were necessarily approached by stairs,
which were habitually placed against the wall, at right angles to
the entrance, and sometimes, as at Dover, Newcastle, and Rochester,
turned the angle of the wall in their descent. These were usually
covered by a structure known as the fore-building, which provided a
formidable covered approach to the main entrance. The fore-building
formed a substantial annexe to the tower, and has some variety of plan.
Indications of it are found in its simplest form at Scarborough, where
it was of two stages. The lower stage was a vaulted passage against
the south wall, from the end of which the basement doorway was entered
at right angles; the upper stage was entered by a doorway from the
first floor of the tower. The entrance passage was closed by wooden
doors; if these were forced, an attacking party would still have some
difficulty and danger in breaking into the tower, while missiles,
hurled upon them through a hole in the floor of the upper stage, would
make retreat from the passage a delicate matter. The fore-building at
Kenilworth was also of two stages, enclosing an entrance stair, which
led to the doorway on the first floor. The arrangement at Rochester was
more complicated. Here the stair began against the north-west angle
buttress, where it was covered by a small tower of two stages, the
lower containing the doorway, the upper communicating with a vaulted
chamber in the angle of the first floor of the tower. The stair then
turned the angle, and, protected by an outer wall some 6 feet high,
rose along the north wall of the tower to a drawbridge, with a deep
pit below. At the further side of the drawbridge, the east part of
the north wall was covered by a building in three stages. The middle
stage, entered from the drawbridge, contained a chamber, in which was
the main entrance to the first floor of the keep. The lowest stage was
a vault, which communicated with the basement of the tower; the upper
stage, entered from the second floor of the tower, contained a room,
which may have been a chapel. At Dover and Newcastle the fore-buildings
were even more elaborate, including a lower tower which protected
the entrance and right-angled turn of the stair, a middle tower which
covered the stair half-way up, and an upper tower at the head of the
stair, beyond the platform from which the second floor was entered.
The basement of the fore-building at Newcastle was the castle chapel;
the lower tower was, as at Rochester, simply a gate-tower; the middle
tower formed a covering to a second gateway on the stair; and the
upper tower contained a vaulted guard-room commanding the platform of
entrance. At Dover, the upper tower, solid at the base, had vaulted
chambers on the first and second floors; the middle tower enclosed a
well, the mouth of which was contained in a chamber entered from the
platform in front of the main doorway of the keep; while the lower
tower formed a large projection at the south-west angle of the keep,
containing upon its first floor a covered landing for the stair, from
which opened to the east a room, probably an oratory, and to the west
a porter’s lodge. Upon the second floor was the chapel of the keep,
entered from the main apartments. A vault in the basement of the lower
tower of the fore-building communicates with the basement of the keep
through another vault, which is common to the keep and fore-building.
Similarly, the vault at the first-floor level of the upper tower
communicates with the main first floor through another common vaulted
chamber. The Dover fore-building is thus an integral portion of the
keep.
Of all existing fore-buildings, that at Castle Rising (143) is in the
best state of preservation. Here the main entrance to the keep is on
the east face of the building, near its north end. The stair, which
had a timber roof, ascends by the side of the east wall, straight from
the ground. There is a gateway at its foot, and another gateway at a
landing half-way up. The upper flight of stairs, which was also roofed
with timber, passes through a third gateway into the upper floor of
a tower, which, as at Rochester and Norwich, covers the main doorway
of the keep, and is not placed, as at Dover and Newcastle, beyond the
doorway. Each of the doorways of the fore-building has a rounded arch
with an edge-roll, and shafts with cushion capitals in the jambs. The
main doorway of the keep has five orders, the four outer orders being
shafted, and the arch having rich late Norman mouldings. The chamber
at the head of the stair is vaulted in two bays, but originally had a
timber roof. There is a vaulted chamber beneath it.
There is an exceptional arrangement at Porchester (131), where the
stair, instead of being covered by the fore-building, is set outside
it, against its eastern face. From the landing at the head there is a
straight passage, between the first-floor rooms of the fore-building,
to the main entrance of the tower; while, from the same landing,
another flight of stairs leads to the northern rampart-walk of the
castle. Another exceptional fore-building is found at Berkeley
(142). Here, however, the exception consists in the fact that it is
a fore-building, not to a tower, but to a shell-keep of peculiar
construction. The mount of the early Norman castle was reduced in
height, and its base, forming a platform some 20 feet above the ground,
was enclosed within a wall, 8 feet thick, which is strengthened by
pilaster buttresses and rises to a height of 60 feet. Against the
south-east face of this wall is a narrow fore-building. The stair,
which was covered by a timber roof, passes through the lower stage of
a gateway-tower, and ascends to a platform, from which, after another
gateway has been passed, the interior of the shell is entered. The room
upon the first floor of the gateway-tower is entered from the platform
by a narrow ledge above the stair.
[Illustration: Berkeley]
[Illustration: CASTLE RISING: stair of forebuilding]
[Illustration: Rochester; internal cross-wall]
As the main doorway of a tower-keep was set in the outer face of a
thick wall, a narrow passage had to be traversed before the interior
of the tower was reached. At Castle Rising, the wall is comparatively
thin, and the doorway is recessed deeply, so that the tower is
entered directly. In most cases, the keep was divided internally into
two parts by a cross-wall, which reached from the basement to the
summit.[182] This wall was often central, as at Porchester, Rochester,
and Scarborough; but in towers which are oblong in plan, as at Castle
Rising and Middleham, it divided the keep into two unequal rectangles.
At Bowes, as also in the Norman keep of Domfront, it was so far from
being central that it cut off only a narrow oblong from the interior,
the large main room on the first floor of Bowes being left nearly
square. In a square keep, the cross-wall was frequently opposite the
main entrance, and parallel with the fore-building. At Hedingham,
Lancaster, Porchester, and Scarborough, it is at right angles to the
fore-building, so that the main entrance is, as in the oblong keep
of Castle Rising, in an end, and not in a side of one of the rooms.
The cross-wall at Scarborough was not continued to the second floor;
and, on the first floor, a transverse arch took its place, throwing
the two main rooms into one. A great transverse arch, perhaps the
finest architectural feature in any of our tower-keeps, also spans the
second floor at Hedingham, in place of the cross-wall (147). On the
second floor at Rochester, the cross-wall is represented by two pairs
of rounded arches, divided by a central block of wall containing the
well-shaft (145). But a cross-wall was not an universal feature of a
tower-keep. Neither Clun nor Guildford, towers of moderate size, have
one; and, of the greater keeps, Newcastle, Richmond, and Kenilworth
have undivided interiors. This is remarkable in a keep of the area of
Kenilworth: at Newcastle and Richmond the walls are so solid that the
interior space is comparatively small, while at Newcastle additional
room was supplied by unusually spacious mural chambers. At Castle
Rising, in addition to the main cross-wall, each of the divisions
of the keep has a smaller cross-wall at its extremity, cutting off
additional apartments from the main rooms, and allowing in one place
the insertion of an upper floor.
Of the divisions of the tower, whether divided by a cross-wall or not,
the basement was probably used for the storage of arms and provisions.
It sometimes contained the opening of the well of the keep.[183] The
first floor, where there was no other, contained the main apartment or
hall. In the loftier type of keep, this was on the second floor, and,
as we have just seen, the substitution of an arch or arcade for the
cross-wall sometimes converted this floor into one large apartment. At
Dover and Porchester, as in the Tower of London, the division into two
apartments was maintained, and there is only a small doorway through
the cross-wall. The second room, in these instances, probably formed
the “great chamber” or private apartment of the lord of the castle when
in residence. Where the hall was on the second floor the first floor
was probably set apart for the garrison in time of siege and for the
servants. The provision for private bedrooms was, in those days of
publicity, extremely small; but where, as at Dover and Newcastle, the
thickness of the wall allowed of several large mural chambers, some of
them may have been devoted to this purpose; and in some keeps, as at
Hedingham, an upper floor above the main apartments was provided, which
doubtless served this end.[184]
[Illustration: HEDINGHAM: doorway of great tower]
[Illustration: HEDINGHAM: second floor of great tower]
For the purpose of communication between the floors, the example of
the towers of London and Colchester was followed. A well-stair was
constructed in one of the angles from the basement to the summit of
the tower, and had an entrance to each floor through a short passage
in the thickness of the wall, or sometimes in the embrasure of one of
the windows. This single stair was the only means of approach to the
basement. At Dover there are two such stairs; and, in a few instances,
there are small outer doorways to the basement, which may be
original, like the postern, high above the ground at Newcastle, or may
have been cut at a later date, like the entrance to the basement from
the fore-building at Kenilworth. The two stairs at Dover are diagonally
opposite to one another. At Rochester a second stair, also diagonal to
the other, begins at the first floor and ascends to the roof. The main
stair at Guildford starts in an angle of the first floor: the basement
was probably entered by a trap-door and ladder, but later, probably in
the thirteenth century, a doorway was cut through the wall into the
basement below the main entrance. At Scarborough, although the main
entrance was at the basement level, it merely opened on a stair leading
to the first floor: the stair to the basement, if there was one, seems
to have been in one of the angles which has been destroyed. In the
keeps of Richmond and Ludlow, owing to the preservation of the older
gatehouses in whole or in part, the arrangements are exceptional. The
basement at Richmond (93) had, as we have seen, its own entrance from
the interior of the castle; but there was also an inserted stair, now
blocked, in one of its angles from the first floor. The main stair of
the tower, however, started to the left of the main entrance on the
first floor, and continued upwards straight through the south wall to
the level of the second floor, where it stopped. The stair from the
second floor to the roof started from a point above the first floor
entrance, and also ran through the whole thickness of the south wall
above the lower stair, opening on the rampart at a point above the
entrance to the second floor.[185] At Ludlow, as a consequence of the
transformation of the gatehouse, the original straight stair from the
basement to the floor above, in the thickness of the east wall, was
blocked up, and the basement was entered only by a trap-door in the
first floor.[186]
The various floors of the tower-keep were of timber, and vaulted
chambers, even in the basement, were an exception. The basement at
Newcastle has an original vaulted roof, on eight ribs springing from
a central column: the vaulting of the basement at Richmond, also from
a central column, is an insertion. At Norham the basement is divided
by the cross-wall into two parts, one of which has a cross-wall of
its own, dividing it into two chambers, both barrel-vaulted: the
other division has four bays of groined vaulting, divided by plain
transverse arches. The basement at Bamburgh was also vaulted in three
chambers, the largest of which had a central arcade of three arches,
from which ribs were struck to the outer wall and cross-wall. The two
chambers of the basement at Middleham were also vaulted, one from a
central arcade of five bays. But these northern examples are quite
exceptional; and, even at Castle Rising, where the architectural
treatment of the various portions of the building is unusually
elaborate, and the larger chamber of the basement is divided by a row
of columns, vaulting was confined to the small subdivisions which
support the lesser first-floor chambers already mentioned.
[Illustration: NEWCASTLE: chapel]
Mural chambers, made in the thickness of the wall, were necessarily
vaulted, the usual form employed being the barrel-vault, which sprang
from the wall without any dividing string-course. Otherwise, the only
apartment which had a stone roof was the chapel, frequently found in
connection with the tower-keep. It must be added, however, that the
chapel hardly ever occupies any part of a main floor in the keep, and
that at Castle Rising, where it is in an angle of the first floor,
the chancel alone is vaulted, and is constructed in the thickness of
the wall. Chapels on the scale of those of London and Colchester were
never again attempted in a keep. According to the usual theory, chapels
in castles and houses were planned so that no room used for secular
purposes should be above them; and their position in a keep was usually
upon the upper floor of a tower in the fore-building, communicating
with the adjacent floor of the main structure. The altar was always
placed against an east wall, and the distinction between nave and
chancel was usually kept. Thus at Rochester, where all three stages of
the tower of the fore-building are vaulted, the top floor was probably
a chapel, the nave of which was entered directly from the second floor
of the keep through a mural passage, while the chancel communicated
through a small vaulted lobby and a short stair with the main stair of
the keep.[187] At Dover the chapel, with ribbed vaulting, and a chancel
arch of two orders with chevron moulding and jamb-shafts, occupies
the upper floor of the lower tower of the fore-building. The walls of
chancel and nave are arcaded, which is a very usual feature in a castle
chapel, but does not appear at Rochester. The entrance from the second
floor of the keep at Dover was through a mural chamber and a passage
along the west wall of the chapel, which led to the chapel doorway on
the left hand, and a small vaulted room, possibly a vestry, on the
right. At Porchester, again, the south chamber on the first floor of
the fore-building was the chapel, approached from the passage which led
through the fore-building to the main doorway. The chapel at Newcastle
(152) is in an unusual position, in the basement of the fore-building,
and is entered through a passage from the foot of the main stair. It
also had originally an outer doorway, which communicated directly with
the outer stair of the fore-building near its foot—another unusual
feature. The ribbed vaulting, wall-arcading, and chancel arch, are of
remarkably excellent workmanship, and the “water-leaf” ornament of the
capitals of the wall-arcade bears a close resemblance to that of the
capitals of the contemporary Galilee of Durham. As the fore-building
at Newcastle is against the east wall of the keep, the longer axis of
the nave of the chapel runs north and south, and is at right angles
to that of the chancel. The chapel is thus =T=-shaped: the altar was
placed on one side of the chancel, against the east wall, and was
practically invisible from the nave. It is probable that the constable
of the castle and his family or friends occupied the western part of
the chancel, facing the altar, while the nave was used by the garrison
and servants.[188]
Roomy chapels, like those at Newcastle and Old Sarum, were not merely
the chapel of the great tower, but of the whole castle. On the other
hand, the ordinary chapel of a tower-keep provided less accommodation,
and seems to have been intended for the lord of the castle or his
deputy and their immediate household. At Guildford the chapel of the
keep is a mere oratory, formed by two mural chambers at right angles
to one another, in the south-west angle of the first floor. The main
body of the chapel, covered with a barrel-vault, is in the west wall;
the space for the altar, arranged so that the priest faced eastwards,
is in the south wall, and is covered by a half-barrel-vault set at
right angles to the longer axis. The nave, which is thus quite out of
sight of the altar-chamber, has a wall-arcade of late twelfth-century
character, supplying a valuable clue to the real date of this rudely
built and archaic-looking keep. Although a chapel or oratory in the
keep was not uncommon, it was on the whole a luxury. At Richmond and
Ludlow no provision was made for one; the chapels of the castles, which
remain in both cases, were of earlier date than the conversion of the
gatehouse into a tower. It is not unlikely that the name of chapel may
have been given in later days to rooms in keeps and fore-buildings
which were intended for quite other purposes.[189]
Although, in time of siege, cooking in the keep itself would sometimes
be necessary, no special part of the tower was set aside as a kitchen.
Castle Rising is an exception, where the room cut off at the north-west
angle of the first floor seems to have served this purpose, and a
circular chimney-shaft was hollowed out in the angle itself.[190]
Fireplaces are found in most tower-keeps, though not on all floors.
Rochester and Dover were well provided in this way, while, on the
other hand, the tower of Porchester was without any apparent means
of artificial warmth. The fireplaces at Dover in the cross-wall are
of great size; those at Rochester are numerous, but small, and have
arches decorated with the thick and roughly-cut chevron ornament which
also appears in the arcade of the cross-wall on the second floor. The
original fireplaces at Newcastle are in the large mural chambers on the
first and second floors. The main apartment here was probably warmed by
a brazier on the floor; and this may have been a common method, as it
was in the halls of private houses. A vent for the smoke must have been
made in the roof.
Water, in view of the straitened circumstances of a siege, was a
necessity in a keep, and, where there are no remains of a well, it
is safe to assume that one has been filled up. In a mount-keep like
Guildford, the well may have been inside the shell which walls in the
front part of the mount. The wells of the Tower of London and Castle
Rising were in the basements. At Colchester there is a well-chamber in
the south wall of the basement, to the right of the entrance-passage.
But in the later keeps the pipe of the well, a cylinder lined with
ashlar, was often carried up through the thickness of a wall to the
upper floors, which thus received their supply of water directly,
without the necessity of a journey to the basement. At Kenilworth it
was in the south wall, close to the south-west angle, with an opening
on the basement and first floor. It is in the east wall at Newcastle,
near the north-east angle: it has only one opening, at the well-head
on the second floor, and is reached by a mural passage from the main
apartment. There are two wells at Dover, one in the middle tower of
the fore-building, with an opening at the level of the second floor,
the other in the south wall of the keep, with its only opening on the
second floor, in a mural chamber to the left of the main entrance. The
pipe at Rochester is in the centre of the cross-wall, and was carried
up to the third floor, with an opening in the north chamber of each
stage.
Mural chambers have been noticed incidentally. Some keeps, even of the
largest size, have their walls unpierced, save for window openings:
this is the case with Corfe. Porchester, in spite of its great size,
contains only two, which were used for the common and necessary purpose
of garde-robes or latrines. On the other hand, the exceptionally
massive walls of Dover contain a large number of such chambers, most
of which are of considerable size: the position of the garde-robes
here is not easy to determine. At Newcastle advantage was taken of
the thickness of the walls to construct large chambers in connection
with the first and second floors: that in the south wall of the second
floor, known as the “king’s chamber,” has an original fireplace, and
is well lighted. A doorway at its north-west corner leads into a
garde-robe in the west wall. The number of mural chambers at Newcastle
is small compared with that at Dover, but the walls were freely pierced
with passages and galleries. A stair, made through the upper part of
the south and west walls to the ramparts, seems to have been abandoned
during the progress of the work: the notion that it was deliberately
intended to lead a body of the enemy, who might have entered the tower,
into a _cul-de-sac_, is fanciful, but it certainly might have had
this unintentional effect. At Dover, Hedingham, Newcastle, Norwich,
and Rochester, where the hall or apartments on the second floor were
of unusual height, galleries were made in the walls round the upper
part of the stage. The gallery at Dover was not continued round the
north-west angle of the tower, but a passage, now blocked, was made
through the cross-wall from north to south, so that the east room on
this floor was completely surrounded by a gallery. The gallery at
Rochester surrounds the whole tower, communicating with the vices in
the south-west and north-east angles, and opening upon the interior of
the tower in no less than fourteen places, each of which corresponds to
a loop in the outer wall. Where the arcade which, on the second floor,
takes the place of the cross-wall, joins the east and west walls, the
floor of the gallery is raised by a few steps, to provide the adjacent
arch with a solid abutment. The arrangement of the mural galleries at
Bamburgh, which, owing to the modern alterations of the interior of the
tower, is rather obscure, seems to have been very like that at Dover,
with a passage through the cross-wall between two divided rooms upon
the second floor. The gallery at Hedingham, like that at Rochester, is
complete, and this floor, which is still roofed, is admirably lighted
(147). In cases where a mural chamber served as a garde-robe, as at
Guildford, Porchester, and the tower of the Peak, the outer wall, in
which the seat was contained, was slightly thickened and corbelled
out at this level, and a vent made below the seat. At Kenilworth the
north-west turret seems to have been used entirely as a garde-robe,
the lower part of the basement forming a pit for the refuse.[191] The
garde-robes at Castle Rising are contained in a vaulted chamber in the
west wall of the first floor, the vents opening upon the recesses by
which the outer face of the wall is broken up.
[Illustration: NORHAM: great tower]
[Illustration: NEWARK CASTLE]
The roof of the tower-keep was of timber with an outer covering of
lead, and was some feet below the level of the encircling rampart-walk
on the top of the outer walls. The rampart-walk had a parapet upon its
outer face, which at regular intervals was lowered to form embrasures.
The solid portions of the parapet were of much greater breadth than
the embrasures: the familiar type of battlemented parapet, in which
the embrasures are of equal width with the solid “cops” or _merlons_
between them, belongs to a later date. From the rampart-walk stairs
led into the summits of the angle turrets, which were some feet above
the level of the parapet. The original arrangement of the roof can be
gathered only from the marks left against the inside of the walls. In
towers with a cross-wall, like Rochester, each of the divisions was
covered, as a general rule, by a roof of more or less high pitch. A
central gutter ran along the top of the cross-wall, and side gutters
along each of the lateral walls, which were drained through spout-holes
made in the outer walls, which carried the rampart-walk. At Porchester,
where, as already noted, the tower was heightened, there was originally
a high-pitched central roof, with lean-to roofs against each of the
lateral walls, and gutters above the centre of each of the two interior
chambers. This curious arrangement seems to suggest that the cross-wall
itself was added when the tower was heightened, and that the gutters
originally were supported by timber struts in the second or attic stage
of the tower. When the tower was raised, a flat roof was planned and
possibly laid, and, by a curious and unique device, for which it is
hard to find an adequate reason, the parapets of the east and west
walls were slightly gabled. The present roof, however, is formed in
the usual way, with two gables and central and side gutters. In towers
without a cross-wall, like Ludlow, Newcastle, and Richmond, the
covering was a single high-pitched roof. In any case, the roof was
below the level of the rampart-walk, and was not intended to form a
free field for the defence of the tower: the occupation of the roof of
the tower for purposes of defence was not contemplated until a somewhat
later period than that at which the rectangular tower-keep was in
general fashion. At Rochester, and probably in many other instances,
the inner side of the rampart-walk was protected by a rear-wall, lower
than the parapet. The parapet at Rochester was 2 feet broad and 8 feet
high: the rear-wall had a breadth of 3 feet, and the rampart-walk of 4
feet. A foot of wall was left for the springing of the roofs and for
their side-gutters. The roof at Newcastle was re-laid in 1240; but here
and at Dover the insertion of comparatively modern vaults makes the
original arrangement difficult to trace. The present roof of Richmond
is modern, with a skylight to give light and air to the dark room on
the second floor: the height of the outer walls above the roof suggests
that the original roof was of unusually high pitch or rose above an
intermediate attic. The angle turrets formed elevated platforms,
approached from the rampart-walk by stone stairs. Their elevation
afforded a greater command of the proceedings of the enemy at the foot
of the tower; and their solid construction may sometimes have allowed
the defenders to employ them for stone-throwing engines, without
interference with the operations of the soldiers on the somewhat narrow
rampart-walk.
It has already been shown that, if the main object of these towers
was defensive, many of them seem to have been planned with a degree
of comfort which indicates that their builders had an eye to their
permanent use as the principal residence within the enclosure of the
castle, and that, in the towers built during the reign of Henry II., a
compromise between their military and domestic character was effected.
It is clear, however, that, in the cases of Richmond and Ludlow, the
converted gatehouse-towers were planned simply as military strongholds.
Their position, in both these instances, was exposed to direct attack,
while the early domestic buildings occupied a more sheltered position
on the further side of the inner ward. The tower-keep can never have
formed a convenient residence, even where, as at Hedingham, it was
well lighted, or, as at Dover, was unusually roomy. New methods of
fortification led to its general disuse, and although, in certain
parts of England, the type persisted upon a small scale until the end
of the middle ages, the period during which the fashion of building
rectangular tower-keeps was pursued was comparatively short.