Chapter 5

Bourn, Lincs.Bramber, Sussex.

Bourn, Lincs.

Bramber, Sussex.

Fig. 10.

Bramber, Sussex (Fig. 10).—Of the manor of Washington, in which Bramber is situated, the Survey says that it formerly paid geld for fifty-nine hides; and in one of these hides sits the castle of Bramber.[295]It must not be imagined that the castleoccupieda whole hide, which according to the latest computations would average about 120 acres. It is evident that there had been some special arrangement between the King and William de Braose, the Norman tenant-in-chief, by which the whole geld of the manor had been remitted. The Domesday scribe waxes almost pathetic over the loss to the fisc of this valuable prey. “It used to be ad firmam for 100l.,” he says. The manor of Washington belonged to Gurth, the brother of Harold, before the Conquest, but it is clear that Bramber was not thecaputof the manor in Saxon times; nor was Washington the centre of a large soke. Bramber Castle was constructed to defend the estuary of the river, now known as the Adur, one of the waterways to Normandy already alluded to.

The castle occupies a natural hill which forms on the top a pear-shaped area of 3 acres. Towards the middle rises an artificial motte about 30 feet high; there is no sign of a special ditch around it, except that the ground sinks slightly at its base. The bailey is surrounded by a very neatly built wall of pebbles and flints, laid herring-bone-wise in places, which does not stand on an earthen bank. The absence of this bank makes it likely, though of course not certain, that this wall was the original work of De Braose; the stones of which it is composed would be almost as easily obtained as theearth for a bank. On the line of the wall, just east of the entrance, stands a tall fragment of an early Norman tower. The workmanship of this tower, which is also of flints laid herring-bone-wise, with quoins of ashlar, so strongly resembles that of the neighbouring church that it seems obvious that both were built at about the same time.[296]The church is dedicated to St Nicholas, who was worshipped in Normandy as early as 1067;[297]it was probably the Normans who introduced his worship into England. Both church and tower are undoubtedly early Norman. The motte shows no sign of masonry.

The value of the manor of Washington had slightly risen since the Conquest.

Bristol.—Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the Empress Matilda’s half-brother and great champion, is always credited with the building of Bristol Castle; but this is one of the many instances in which the man who first rebuilds a castle in stone receives the credit of being the original founder.[298]For it is certain that there was a castle at Bristol long before the days of Earl Robert, as theAnglo-Saxon Chroniclementions it in 1088, when it was held by Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, and Robert Curthose against William II.; and Symeon of Durham, in the same year, speaks of it as a “castrum fortissimum.” Bishop Geoffrey held Bristol at the date ofthe Domesday Survey, and he probably built the castle by William’s orders.[299]It was completely destroyed in 1655 (only a few 13th century arches in a private house now remain), and no trustworthy plan has been preserved, but there is clear evidence that it was a motte-and-bailey castle of the usual Norman type.[300]In Stephen’s reign it was described as standing on a very greatagger.[301]Anaggerdoes not necessarily mean a motte, but it is often used for one, and there is other evidence which shows that this is its meaning here. A Perambulation of the bounds of Bristol in 1373 shows that the south-western part of the castle ditch, which enclosed the site of the keep, was calledle Mot-dich; which should certainly be translated the ditch of the motte, and not, as Seyer translates it, the moat ditch.[302]Finally, the description of the castle in 1642 by Major Wood, says: “The castle stood upon a lofty steep mount, that was not minable, as Lieutenant Clifton informed me, for he said the mount whereon the castle stood was of an earthy substance for a certain depth, but below that a firm strong rock, and that he had searched purposely with an auger and found it so in all parts.”[303]He goes on to describe the wall of the bailey as resting on an earthen rampart, testifying to the wooden stockade of the first castle. The great tower of Earl Robert appears to have been placed on the motte, which must have been of considerable size, as it held not onlythe keep, but a courtyard, a chapel, and the constable’s house, besides several towers on its walls. The whole area of the castle was very nearly 4 acres.[304]

Bristol Castle was no doubt originally a royal castle, though Earl Robert of Gloucester held it in right of his wife, who had inherited it from her father, Robert Fitz Hamon; but the crown did not abdicate its claim upon it, and after the troubles of 1174, Henry II. caused the son of Earl Robert to surrender the keep into his hands.[305]

Seyer very pertinently remarks that Bristol Castle “was erected with a design hostile to the town; for it occupies the peninsula between two rivers, along which was the direct and original communication between the town and the main part of Gloucestershire.”[306]It was outside the city, and was not under its jurisdiction till James I. granted this authority by charter.[307]The value T. R. E. is not given in Domesday Book.

Buckingham.—The only mention of this castle as existing in the 11th century is in theGesta Herewardi,[308]an undated work which is certainly in great part a romance, but as it is written by some one who evidently had local knowledge, we may probably trust him for the existence of Buckingham Castle at that date; especially as Buckingham was a county town, and one of the boroughs of the Burghal Hidage, the very place which we should expect to find occupied by a Norman castle. This writer speaks of the castle as belonging to Ivo deTaillebois; this is not inconsistent with the fact shown by Domesday Book, that the borough belonged to the king. That it was a motte-and-bailey castle is indicated by Speed’s map of Buckingham in 1611; he speaks of the “high hill,” though he only indicates it slightly in his plan, with a shield-shaped bailey. Brayley states that the present church is “proudly exalted on the summit of an artificial mount, anciently occupied by a castle.”[309]

The castle hill occupies a strong position on the neck of land made by a bend of the river; it extends nearly half-way across it, and commands both town and river. The original earthworks of the castle were destroyed and levelled for the erection of a church in 1777, but the large oval hill remains, having a flat summit about 2 acres in extent, and about 30 feet above the town below. Its sides descend in steep scarps behind the houses on all sides but the north-east. There can be no doubt that the motte has been lowered, and thus enlarged, in order to build the church. The foundations of a stone castle were found in digging a cellar on the slope of the motte.[310]

The value of Buckingham had considerably risen at the date of Domesday.[311]

Caerleon, Monmouthshire (Fig. 11).—Domesday Book speaks of thecastellariaof Caerleon.[312]Acastellariaappears to have meant a district in which the landwas held by the service of castle-guard in a neighbouring castle. The Survey goes on to say that this land was waste in the time of King Edward, and when William de Scohies, the Domesday tenant, received it;nowit is worth 40s.Wasta, Mr Round has remarked, is one of the pitfalls of the Survey. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong if we say that in a general way it means that there was nobody there to pay geld. When this occurs in a town it may point to the devastations committed at the Conquest; but when it occurs in the country, and when it is accompanied by so clear a statement that the land which waswastain King Edward’s time and at the Conquest is now producing revenue, the inference would seem to be clear that the castle of Caerleon was built on uninhabited land. Caerleon, however, had been a great city in Roman times, and had kept up its importance at least till the days of Edgar, when it is twice mentioned in Welsh history.[313]It must therefore have gone downhill very rapidly. Giraldus mentions among the ruins of Roman greatness which were to be seen in his day, a gigantic tower, and this is commonly supposed to have belonged to the castle.[314]It certainly did not, for Giraldus is clearly speaking of a Roman tower, and the motte of the Norman castle not only has no signs of masonry, but has been thrown up over the ruins of a Roman villa which had been burnt.[315]The motte and other remains of the castle are outside the Romancastrum, between it and the river. Thebailey is roughly pentagonal, and covers 4¾ acres. The manor of Caerleon was waste T. R. E. and had risen to 40s. T. R. W.[316]

Caerleon, Monmouth.Carisbrooke.

Caerleon, Monmouth.

Carisbrooke.

Fig. 11.

Cambridge.—Ordericus tells us that William built this castle on his return from his first visit to Yorkshire in 1068,[317]and Domesday Book states that twenty-seven houses were destroyed to make room for the castle.[318]There can hardly be a clearer statement that the castle was entirely new. We have already seen that there is some probability that Cambridge was first fortified by the Danes; for though it has been assumed to be a Roman castrum, no Roman remains have ever been found there, and the names which suggest Roman occupation, Chesterton and Grantchester, are at some distance from Cambridge. The castle, according to Mr St John Hope’s plan,[319]was placed inside this enclosure, and the destruction of the houses to make room for it is thus explained. The motte and a portion of the bank of the bailey are all that now remain of the castle, but the valuable ancient maps republished by Mr Hope show that the motte had its own ditch, and that the bailey was rectangular. There was formerly a round tower on the motte, which, if it had the cross-loop-holes and machicolations represented in the print published in 1575, was certainly not of Norman date. The area of the bailey was 4¼ acres.[320]The castle was a royal one, and likemany royal castles, went early to ruin. Henry IV. gave the materials of the hall to the master and wardens of King’s Hall for building their chapel.

The value of Cambridge T. R. W. is not given in Domesday Book.

Canterbury.—Domesday Book only mentions this castle incidentally in connection with an exchange of land: “The archbishop has seven houses and the abbot of St Augustine fourteen for the exchange of the castle.”[321]It has been too hastily assumed that it was a pre-Conquest castle which was thus exchanged for twenty-one houses; but anyone who knows the kind of relations which existed chronically between the archbishop of Canterbury and the abbot of St Augustine’s will perceive that it was an impossibility that these two potentates should have held a castle in common. It was the land for the castle, not the castle itself, which the king got from these ecclesiastics. This is rendered clear by a passage in the Chartulary of St Augustine’s, which tells us that the king, who was mesne lord of the city of Canterbury, had lost the rent of thirty-two houses through the exchange of the castle: seven having gone to the archbishop, fourteen to the abbot, and eleven having been destroyed in making the ditch of the castle.[322]There can scarcely be any doubt that the hillock now known by the ridiculous name of Dane John is the motte of this original castle of the Conqueror. Its proper name, the Dungeon Hill, which it bore till the 16th andeven the 18th century,[323]shows what its origin was; it was the hill on which stood the dungeon or donjon of a Norman castle.[324]The name Dane John is not so much a corruption as a deliberate perversion introduced by the antiquary Somner about 1640, under the idea that the Danes threw up the hill—an idea for which there is not the slightest historical evidence.[325]We have seen that there is no reason to think that the Danes ever constructed fortifications of this kind, and their connection with this earthwork is due to one of those guesses, too common in English archæology, which have no scientific basis whatever.

Somner makes the important statement that this earthwork was originally outside the city walls. His words are:—

“I am persuaded (and so may easily, I think, anyone be that well observes the place) that the works both within and without the present wall of the city were not counterworks one against the other, as the vulgar opinion goes, but were sometimes all one entire plot containing about 3 acres of ground, of a triangular form (the outwork) with a mount or hill entrenched round within it; and that when first made or cast up it lay wholly without the city wall; and hath been (the hill or mount, and most part also of the outwork), for the city’s more security, taken in and walled since; that side of the trench encompassing the mound now lying without and under the wall fitly meeting with the rest of the city ditch, after either side of the earthwork was cut through to make way for it, at the time of the city’s inditching.”[326]

It is not often we are so fortunate as to have so clear a description of an earthwork which has almost entirely disappeared; but the description is confirmed by Stukeley and Hasted, and down to the making of the Chatham and Dover railway in 1860 the earthworks ofthe part of the bailey which was left outside the city wall were still to be seen, and were noticed by Mr G. T. Clark.[327]It is clear that Somner’s description corresponds exactly, even in the detail of size, to the type of a motte-and-bailey castle.

There are certain facts, which have not been put together before, which enable us to make a very probable guess as to the date at which this ancient castle was cut through by the newer city bank. The walls of Canterbury have never yet received so careful an examination as those of Rochester have had from the Rev. Greville Livett;[328]but the researches of Mr Pilbrow about thirty years ago showed that the original Roman walls included a very small area, which would leave both the motte and the Plantagenet castle outside.[329]Certain entries in theClose Rollsshow that the fortification of the town ofCanterbury was going on in the years 1215-1225.[330]But it is too often forgotten that where a wall stands on an earthen bank it is a clear proof that before the wall was built there was a wooden stockade in its place. Now the portion of the city wall which encloses the Dane John stands on an earthen bank; so, indeed, does the whole wall from the Northgate to the castle. It is clear that this piece of bank cannot have been made till the first Norman castle, represented by the earthwork, was abandoned; and fortunately we have some evidence which suggests a date for the change. In thePipe Rollsof Henry II.’s reign there are yearly entries, beginning in 1168, of 5s. paid to Adeliza Fitzsimon “for the exchange of her land which is in the castle of Canterbury.” There can be little doubt that this land was purchased to build the great Plantagenet castle whose splendid keep was once one of the finest in England.[331]The portion of the castle wall which can still be seen does not stand on an earthen bank, an indication (though not a proof) that the castle was on a new site. Henry II. was a great builder of stone keeps, but he seldom placed them on artificial mottes. It is no uncommon thing to find an old motte-and-bailey castle abandoned for a better or larger site close at hand.[332]

The bailey of the second castle, according to Hasted, extended almost to the Dane John, which is about 800 feet from the present keep. The part of the older castle which lay outside the new city bank was possessed by a family of the name of Chiche from the time of Henry II. to that of Edward IV., while theDungeon Hill itself remained royal property.[333]That the new bank was Henry II.’s work we may conjecture from the passages in thePipe Rolls, which show that between the years 1166 and 1173 he spent about £30 in enclosing the city of Canterbury and making a gate. We are therefore not without grounds for concluding that Henry II. was the first to enlarge the city by taking in the Dane John, cutting through the ancient bailey, and at the same time enclosing a piece of land for a new stone castle.[334]The very small sum paid for the city gate (11s., equal to about £11 of our money) suggests that the gate put up by Henry II. was a wooden gateway in the new stockaded bank. The stone walls and towers which were afterwards placed on the bank are of much later date than his reign.[335]

The Dungeon Hill appears to have been used for the last time as a fortification in 1643, when ordnance was placed upon it, and it was ordered to be guarded by the householders.[336]In 1790 it was converted into a pleasure-ground for the city; the wide and deep ditch which had surrounded it was filled up, and serpentine walks cut to lead up to the summit. Brayley says that “the ancient and venerable character of this eminence was wholly destroyed by incongruous additions.” Still, enough remains to show that it was once a very fine motte, such as we might expect the Conqueror to raise to hold in check one of the most important cities of his new realm.

The value of Canterbury had increased from 51l.to 54l.since the days of King Edward.[337]

Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight (Fig. 11).—There can be no doubt that this is the castle spoken of in Domesday Book under the manor of Alwinestone. Carisbrooke is in the immediate neighbourhood of Alvington. The language in which the Survey speaks of this manor is worthy of note. “The king holds Alwinestone: Donnus held it. It then paid geld as two and a half hides: now as two hides, because the castle sits in one virgate.”[338]Certain entries similar to this in other places seem to indicate that there was some remission of geld granted on the building of a castle;[339]but as here the king was himself the owner, the remission must have been granted to his tenants.

The original castle of Carisbrooke consists of a high motte, ditched round, placed at the corner of a parallelogram with rounded corners. This bailey, covering 2¾ acres, is surrounded by high banks, which testify to the former presence of a wooden stockade. There is another bailey on the eastern side, called the Tilt-yard. The excellent little local guide-book compiled by Mr Stone calls this a British camp, but there is no reason to believe that it was anything else than what it appears to be—a second bailey added as the castle grew in importance. On the motte is a shell of polygonal form, of rubble masonry, but having quoins of well-dressed ashlar. It is believed to be of the time of Henry I., since the author of theGesta Stephanistates that Baldwin de Redvers, son of Richard de Redvers, to whom Henry granted the lordship of the Isle of Wight, had a castle there splendidly built of stone, defended by a strong fortification.[340]This would indicate that, besides the stone keep, stone walls were added to the earthworks of the Domesday castle. The keep is of peculiar interest, as it still retains the remains of the old arrangements in keeps of this style, though of much later date. The motte was opened in 1893, and was found to be composed of alternate layers of large and small chalk rubble.[341]Little attention has hitherto been paid to the construction of these Norman mottes, but other instances have been noted which show that they were often built with great care. The whole castle, including the Tilt-yard, was surrounded with an elaborate polygonal fortification in Elizabeth’s reign, when the Spanish invasion was expected.

The value of the manor of Alvington had increased at the time of the Survey, though the number of ploughs employed had actually decreased. This increase must have been owing to the erection of the castle, which provided security for trade and agriculture. Alvington was not the centre of a large soke in the Confessor’s time, so it is unlikely that there was any fortification there in Saxon days.[342]

Carlisle, Cumberland (Fig.12).—This castle was built by William Rufus in 1092, when for the first time Cumberland was brought under Norman sway. TheAnglo-Saxon Chroniclesays, “he repaired theburh, and reared the castle,” a passage which is sufficient of itself to show thatburhand castle were two quite different things. Carlisle of course was a Roman fortress, and needed only the repairing of its walls. The castle was a new thing, and was placed outside the city. Its plan, which is roughly a triangle, with the apex formed into a small court by a ditch which (formerly) separated it from the bailey, looks very suggestive of a previous motte and bailey, such as we might expect the Norman king to have thrown up. The keep is known to have been built by David, king of Scotland, in Stephen’s reign,[343]and it is possible that he may have removed the motte. The castle appears to have had a woodenpelumorpaliciumon its outer banks as late as 1319.[344]The whole area covers 4 acres.

Castle Acre, Norfolk (Fig. 12).—There can be no doubt that this castle existed in the 11th century, as William de Warenne mentions it in the charter of foundation of Lewes Priory, one of the most interesting and human of monastic charters.[345]The earthworks still remaining of this castle are perhaps the finest castle earthworks in England; the banks enclosing the bailey are vast. The large and high motte carries a wall of flint rubble, built outside and thus revetting the earthen bank which formed its first defence. In the small court thus enclosed (about 100 feet in diameter) the foundations of an oblong keep can be discerned. A very wide ditch surrounds the motte, and below it is a horse-shoe bailey, about 2 acres in extent, stretching down to the former swamps of the river Nar. On the east side of the motte is a small half-moon annexe, with its own ditch; this curious addition is to be found in several other motte castles,[346]and is believed to have been a work intended to defend the approach, of the nature of a barbican. On the west side of the motte is the village of Castle Acre, enclosed in an oblong earthwork with an area of 10 acres. This work now goes by the name of the Barbican, but probably this name has been extended to it from a barbican covering the castle entrance (of which entrance the ruins still remain). It is most likely that this enclosure was aburgusattached to the castle. Mr Harrod, who excavated the banks, found quantities of Roman pottery, which led him to think that the work was Roman; but as the pottery was all broken, it is more likely that the banks were thrown up on the site of some Roman villa.[347]This earthwork has a northernentrance in masonry, evidently of 13th century date; and as the scanty masonry remaining of the castle is similar in character, it is probably all of the same date. The area covered by the motte and the two original baileys is 3½ acres; that of the whole series of earthworks, 15 acres.

Acre was only a small manor in Saxon times; its value at the time of the Survey had risen from 5l.to 9l.[348]

Carlisle.Castle Acre, Norfolk.

Carlisle.

Castle Acre, Norfolk.

Fig. 12.

Chepstow(Estrighoel or Strigul), Monmouthshire.—Notwithstanding the fact that there is another castle of the name of Strigul about 9 miles from Chepstow (known also as Troggy Castle), it is clear that Chepstow is the castle meant by Domesday, as the entry speaks of ships going up the river, a thing impossible at Strigul.[349]The castle occupies a narrow ridge, well defended by the river on one side, and on the other by a valley which separates it from the town. There are four wards, and the last and smallest of all seemed to the writer, when visiting the castle, to mark the site of a lowered motte. This opinion, however, is not shared by two competent observers, Mr Harold Sands and Mr Duncan Montgomerie, who had much ampler opportunities for studying the remains. This ward is now a barbican, and the masonry upon it belongs clearly to the 13th century; it occupies the highest ground in the castle, and is separated from the other wards, and from the ridge beyond it, by two ditches cut across the headland. The adjoining court must have belonged to the earliestpart of the castle, as it contains a very remarkable early Norman building (splendidly restored in the 13th century) which is regarded by most authorities as the original hall of William FitzOsbern. It must, however, have combined both hall and keep, otherwise the castle was not provided with any citadel, if there was no motte.[350]What is now the second ward has a Norman postern in the south wall, and may have been the bailey to the keep. All the other masonry is of the late Early English or the Perpendicular period, and the entrance ward is probably an addition of the 13th century. The shape of all the baileys is roughly quadrangular, except that of the fourth, which would be semicircular but for the towers which make corners to it. The whole area of the castle is 1⅔ acres.

We are not told what the value of the manor was before William FitzOsbern built his castle there, but from the absence of this mention we may infer that the site was waste. It paid 40s.in his time from ships’ dues, 16l.in his son Earl Roger’s time, and at the date of the Survey it paid the king 12l.[351]Chepstow was not the centre of a large soke, and it appears to have owed all its importance to the creation of William FitzOsbern’s castle.

Chester.—The statement of Ordericus, that William I. founded this castle on his return from his third visit to York, is sufficiently clear.[352]The very valuable paper of Mr E. W. Cox on Chester Castle[353]answers most of the questions which pertain to our present inquiry. The original castle of Chester consisted of the motte, which still remains, though much built over, and the small ward on the edge of which it stands, a polygonal enclosure scarcely an acre in extent. On the motte the vaulted basement of a tower still remains, but the style is so obscured by whitewash and modern accretions that it is impossible to say whether the vaulting is not modern. The first buildings were certainly of wood, but Mr Cox regarded some of the existing masonry on the motte as belonging to the 12th century; and this would correspond with the entry in thePipe Rollsof 102l.7s.0d.spent on the castle by Henry II. in 1159.[354]The tower, nicknamed Cæsar’s Tower, and frequently mistaken for the keep, is shown in Mr Cox’s paper to be only a mural tower of the 13th century, probably built when the first ward was surrounded with walls and towers in masonry.[355]The large outer bailey was first added in the reign of Henry III.[356]It is further proved by Mr Cox that Chester Castle stood outside the walls of the Roman city. The manor of Gloverstone lay between it and the city, and was not under the jurisdiction of the city until quite recent times.[357]This disposes of the ball set rolling by Brompton at the end of the 13th century, and sent on by most Chester topographers ever since, that Ethelfleda, when she restored the Roman walls of Chester,enlarged their circuit so as to take in the castle. We have already referred to this inChapter III.

Chester, as we have seen, was originally a royal castle. And though it was naturally committed to the keeping of the Norman earls of Chester, and under weak kings may have been regarded by the earls as their own property, no such claim was allowed under a strong ruler. After the insurrection of the younger Henry, Hugh, Earl of Chester, forfeited his lands; Henry II. restored them to him in 1177, but was careful to keep the castle in his own hands.[358]

The city of Chester, Domesday Book tells us, had greatly gone down in value when the earl received it, probably in 1070; twenty-five houses had been destroyed. But it had already recovered its prosperity at the date of the Survey; there were as many houses as before, and the ferm of the city was now let by the earl at a sum greatly exceeding the ferm paid in King Edward’s time.[359]This prosperity must have been due to the security provided for the trade of Chester by the Norman castle and Norman rule.

Clifford, Hereford.Clitheroe, Lancs.Corfe, Dorset.

Clifford, Hereford.

Clitheroe, Lancs.

Corfe, Dorset.

Fig. 13.

Clifford, Herefordshire (Fig. 13).—It is clearly stated by Domesday Book that William FitzOsbern built this castle on waste land.[360]At the date of the Survey it was held by Ralph de Todeni, who had sub-let it to the sheriff. In the many castles attributed to William FitzOsbern, who built them as the king’s vicegerent, we may see an indication that the building of castles, even on the marches of Wales, was not undertaken without royal license. In the reign of Henry I. Clifford Castle had already passed into thehands of Richard Fitz Pons, the ancestor of the celebrated house of Clifford, and one of thebaronsof Bernard de Neufmarché, the Norman conqueror of Brecon.[361]

The castle has a large motte, roughly square in shape, which must be in part artificial.[362]Attached to it on the south-west is a curious triangular ward, included in the ditch which surrounds the motte. The masonry on the motte is entirely of the “Edwardian” style, when keepless castles were built; it consists of the remains of a hall, and a mural tower which is too small to be called a keep. There is also a small court, with a wall which stands on a low bank. Below the motte is an irregular bailey of about 2⅓ acres, with earthen banks which do not appear to have ever carried any masonry, though in the middle of the court there is a small mound which evidently covers the remains of buildings. The whole area of the castle, including the motte and the two baileys, is about 3½ acres.

The value of the manor had apparently risen from nothing to 8l.5s.Clifford was not the centre of a large soke.

Clitheroe, Lancashire (Fig. 13).—There is no express mention of this castle in Domesday Book, but of two places in Yorkshire, Barnoldswick and Calton, it is said that they are in thecastellateof Roger the Poitevin.[363]A castellate implies a castle, and as there isno other castle in the Craven district (to which the words of the Survey relate) except Skipton, which did not form part of Roger’s property, there is no reason to doubt that this castle was Clitheroe, which for centuries was the centre of the Honour of that name. The whole land between the Ribble and the Mersey had been given by William I. to this Roger, the third son of his trusted supporter, Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. One can understand why William gave important frontier posts to the energetic and unscrupulous young men of the house of Montgomeri, one of whom was the adviser and architect of William Rufus, another a notable warrior in North Wales, another the conqueror of Pembrokeshire. As it appears from the Survey that Roger’s possessions stretched far beyond the Ribble into Yorkshire and Cumberland, it seems quite possible—though here we are in the region of conjecture—that just as his father and brothers had a free hand to conquer as they listed from the North and South Welsh, so Roger had a similar commission for the hilly districts still unconquered in the north-west of England. But fortune did not favour the Montgomeri family for long. They were exiled from England in 1102 for siding with Robert Curthose, and in the same year we find the castle of Clitheroe in the hands of Robert de Lacy, lord of the great Yorkshire fief of Pontefract.[364]

The castle of Clitheroe stands on a lofty motte of natural rock.[365]There are no earthworks on the summit,but a stout wall of limestone rubble without buttresses encloses a small court, on whose south-west side stands the keep. It is just possible that the outer wall may be the original work of Roger, as limestone rubble would be easier to get than earth on this rocky hill. The keep is small, rudely built of rubble, and has neither fireplace nor garde-robe, nor the slightest ornamental detail—not even a string course. But in spite of the entire absence of ornament, a decorative effect has been sought and obtained by making the quoins, voussoirs, and lintels of a dressed yellow sandstone. The care with which this has been done is inconsistent with the haste with which Roger must inevitably have constructed his first fortification, if we suppose, as is probable, that he received the first grant of his northern lands on William’s return in 1070 from his third visit to the north, when he made that remarkable march through Lancashire to Chester which is described by Ordericus. It seems more likely that even if the outer wall or shell were the work of Roger, he had only wooden buildings inside its circuit. Dugdale attributes the building of the keep to the second Robert de Lacy, between 1187 and 1194, and it is probable that this date is correct.[366]The bailey of Clitheroe lay considerably below the keep, and is now overbuilt with a modern house, offices, and garden. It covers one acre. A Roman road up the valley of the Ribble passes near the foot of the rock.[367]

As the very name of Clitheroe is not mentioned in Domesday Book, it clearly was not an important centre in Saxon times. The value of Blackburn Hundred, in which Clitheroe is situated, had fallen between the Confessor’s time and the time when Roger received it. It is quite possible that he never lived at Clitheroe, as he sub-infeoffed the manor and Hundred of Blackburn to Roger de Busli and Albert Greslet before 1086.[368]

Colchester, Essex.—The remarkable keep of this castle has been the subject of antiquarian legend for many centuries, and Mr Clark has the merit of having proved its early Norman origin, by its plan and architecture. A charter of Henry I. is preserved in the cartulary of St John’s Abbey at Colchester, which grants to Eudes the Dapifer “the city of Colchester, and the tower and the castle, and all the fortifications of the castle, just as my father had them and my brother and myself.”[369]This proves that the keep and castle were in existence in the Conqueror’s time; the Norman character of the architecture proves that the keep was not in existence earlier. We see, then, that the reason there is no motte at Colchester is that there was a stone keep built when first the castle was founded. As far as we are aware, Colchester, the Tower of London, and the recently discovered keep of Pevensey are the only certain instances of stone keeps of the 11th century in England.

That one of the most important of the Conqueror’s castles, second only to the Tower of London, and actually exceeding it in the area it covers, should be found in Colchester, is not surprising, because the Eastern counties at the time of the Conquest were notonly the wealthiest part of the kingdom (as Domesday Book clearly shows[370]), but they also needed special protection from the attacks of Scandinavian enemies. Mr Round has conjectured that the castle was built at the time of the invasion of St Cnut, between 1080 and 1085.[371]

The castle is built of Roman stones used over again, with rows of tiles introduced between the courses with much decorative effect.[372]The original doorway was on the first floor, as in most Norman keeps; but at some after time, probably in the reign of Henry I.,[373]the present doorway was inserted; and most likely the handsome stairway which now leads up from this basement entrance was added, as it shows clear marks of insertion. Henry II. was working on the walls of the castle in 1182, and it may be strongly suspected that the repairs in ashlar, and the casing of the buttresses with ashlar, were his work.[374]One item in the accounts of Henry II. is £50 “for making the bailey round the castle.”[375]There were two baileys to the castle of Colchester—the inner one, which scarcely covered 2 acres, and the outer one, which contained about 11. The inner bailey was enclosed at first with an earthwork and stockade, the earthwork being thrown up over the remains of someRoman walls, whose line it does not follow. Afterwards a stone wall was built on the earthwork, the foundations of which can still be traced in the west rampart.[376]The outer bailey, which lay to the north, extended on two sides to the Roman walls of the town; on the west side it had a rampart and stockade. If the £50 spent by Henry II. represents the cost of a stone wall round the inner bailey, then thepaliciumblown down by the wind in 1219 must have been the wooden stockade on the west side of the outer bailey.[377]The question is difficult to decide, but at any rate the entry proves that as late as Henry III.’s reign, some part of the outer defences of Colchester Castle was still of timber.

The position of Colchester Castle is exceptional in one respect, that the castle is almost in the middle of the town. But this very unusual position is explained by Mr Round’s statement that the land forming the castle baileys, as well as that afterwards given to the Grey Friars on the east, was crown demesne before the Conquest, and consequently had been cultivated land, so that we do not hear of any houses in Colchester being destroyed for the site of the castle.[378]But by keeping this land as the inalienable appendage of the royal castle William secured that communication between the castle and the outside country which was so essential to the invaders.

The value of the city of Colchester had risen enormously at the date of the Survey.[379]

Corfe, Dorset (Fig. 13).—Mr Eyton has shown that for thecastellum Warhamof Domesday Book we ought to readCorfe, because the castle was built in the manor of Kingston, four miles from Wareham.[380]And this is made clear by theTesta de Nevill, which says that the church of Gillingham was given to the nunnery of Shaftesbury in exchange for the land on which the castle of Corfe is placed.[381]Because King Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe, at some place where his stepmother Elfrida was residing, it has been inferred that there was a Saxon castle at Corfe; and because there is a building with some herring-bone work among the present ruins, it has been assumed that this building is the remains of that castle or palace. But theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, the only contemporary authority for the event, says nothing of any castle at Corfe, but simply tells us that Edward was slain at Corfe Geat, a name which evidently alludes to a gap or passage through the chalk hills, such as there is at Corfe.[382]Nor is there any mention of Corfe as a fortress in Anglo-Saxon times; it is not named in theBurghal Hidage, and we do not hear of any sieges of it by the Danes. Nor is it likely that the Saxons would have had a fortress at Corfe, when they had a fortified town so near as Wareham.[383]Kingston, the manor in which Corfe is situated, was not an important place, as it had no dependent soke. The language of Domesday absolutely upsets the idea of any Saxon castle or palace at Corfe, as it tells us that William obtained the land for his castle from the nuns of Shaftesbury, and we may be quite sure they had no castle there.[384]

Corfe Castle stands on a natural hill, which has been so scarped artificially that the highest part now forms a large motte. Three wards exist—the eastern or motte ward, the western, and the southern. The two former probably formed the original castle. On the motte (which possibly is not artificial, but formed by scarping) stands the lofty keep, of splendid workmanship, probably of the time of Henry I. In the ward pertaining to it are buildings of the time of John and Henry III.[385]The western ward has towers of the 13th century, but it also contains the interesting remains of an early Norman building, probably a hall or chapel, built largely of herring-bone work; this is the building which has been so positively asserted to be a Saxon palace. But herring-bone masonry, which used to be thought an infallible sign of Saxon work, is now found to be more often Norman.[386]The building is certainlyan ancient one, and may possibly have been contemporary with the first Norman castle; its details are unmistakably Norman. But very likely it was the only Norman masonry of the 11th century at Corfe Castle.[387]It is clear that the stone wall which at present surrounds the western bailey did not exist when the hall (or chapel) was built, as it blocks up its southern windows. Probably there was a palisade at first on the edge of the scarp. Palisades still formed part of the defences of the castle in the time of Henry III., when 62l.was paid “for making two good walls in place of the palisades at Corfe between the old bailey of the said castle and the middle bailey towards the west, and between the keep of the said castle and the outer bailey towards the south.”[388]This shows that the present wing-walls down from the motte were previously represented by stockades. The ditch between the keep and the southern bailey has been attributed to King John, on the strength of an entry in theClose Rollswhich orders fifteen miners and stone-masons to work on the banks of the ditch in 1214.[389]But we may be quite certain that this ditch below the motte belonged to the original plan of the castle; John’s work would be either to line it with masonry, or to enlarge it. It is not without significance for the early history of the castle that Durandus thecarpenterheld the manor of Mouldham near Corfe, by the service of finding a carpenter to work at the keep whenever required.[390]

The area of Corfe Castle, if we include the largesouthern bailey, is 3¾ acres; without it, 1½ acres. This bailey was certainly in existence in the reign of Henry III. (as the extract from theClose Rollsproves) before the towers of superb masonry were added to it by Edward I.

The value of Kingston Manor had considerably increased at the date of the Survey. After the Count of Mortain forfeited his lands (in 1105), the castle of Corfe was kept in the hands of the crown, and this increases the probability that the keep was built by Henry I.

About 400 yards S.W. of Corfe Castle is an earthwork which might be called a “Ring and Bailey.” Instead of the usual motte there is a circular enclosure, defended by a bank and ditch of about the same height as those of its bailey, but having in addition an interior platform or berm. This work is probably the remains of a camp thrown up by Stephen during his unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle in 1139.

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