Chapter VI: The Keep of the Norman Castle (2)

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.

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.

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.