Chapter 7

Launceston, Cornwall.Lewes, Sussex.

Launceston, Cornwall.

Lewes, Sussex.

Fig. 19.

Lewes, Sussex (Fig. 19).—The castle of Lewes is not mentioned in its proper place in Sussex by Domesday Book, and this is another proof that the Survey contains no inventory of castles; for that the castle was existing at that date is rendered certain by the numerous allusions in the Norfolk portion to “the exchange of the castle of Lewes.”[493]It is clear that at some period, possibly during the revolt of Robert Curthose in 1079, William I. gave large estates in Norfolk to his trusty servant, William de Warenne, in exchange for the important castle of Lewes, which he may have preferred to keep in his own hands at that critical period. This bargain cannot have held long, at least as regards the castle, which continued to belong to the Warenne family for many generations. We cannot even guess now how the matter was settled, but the lands in Norfolk certainly remained in the hands of the Warennes.

Lewes is one of the very few castles in England which have two mottes.[494]They were placed at each end of an oval bailey, each surrounded by its own ditch, and each projecting about three-fourths beyond the line of the bailey. On the northern motte only the foundationsof a wall round the top remain; on the other, part of the wall which enclosed a small ward, and two mural towers. These towers have signs of the early Perpendicular period, and are very likely of the reign of Edward III., when the castle passed into the hands of the Fitz Alans. The bailey, which enclosed an area of about 3 acres, is now covered with houses and gardens, but parts of the curtain wall on the S.E. and E. stand on banks, bearing witness to the original wooden fortifications. The great interest of this bailey is its ancient Norman gateway. The entrance was regarded by mediæval architects as the weakest part of the fortress, and we frequently find that it was the first part to receive stone defences.[495]It is not surprising that at such an important place as Lewes, which was then a port leading to Normandy, and at the castle of so powerful a noble, we should find an early case of stone architecture supplementing the wooden defences. But the two artificial mottes have no masonry that can be called early Norman.

Lewes is one of the boroughs mentioned in theBurghal Hidage, and was aburgusat the time of the Survey.[496]The value of the town had increased by £1, 18s. from what it had been in King Edward’s time.

Lincoln.

Fig. 20.

Lincoln(Fig. 20).—Domesday Book tells us that 166 houses were destroyed to furnish the site of the castle.[497]TheAnglo-Saxon Chroniclesays that William built a castle here on his return from his first visit toYork in 1068, and Ordericus makes the same statement.[498]Lincoln, like Exeter, was a Romancastrum, and the Norman castle in both cases was placed in one corner of the castrum; but the old Roman wall of Lincoln, which stands on the natural ground, was not considered to be a sufficient defence on the two exterior sides, probably on account of its ruinous condition. It was therefore buried in a very high and steep bank, which was carried all round the new castle.[499]This circumstance seems to point to the haste with which the castle was built, Lincoln being then for the first time subdued. The fact that it was inside the probably closely packed Roman walls explains why so many houses were destroyed for the castle.[500]Lincoln, like Lewes, has two mottes: both are of about the same height, but the one in the middle of the southern line of defence is the larger and more important; it was originally surrounded with its own ditch. It is now crowned with a polygonal shell wall, which may have been built by the mother of Ralph Gernon, Earl of Chester, in the reign of Henry I.[501]The tower on the other motte, at the south-east corner,has been largely rebuilt in the 14th century and added to in modern times, but its lower storey still retains work of Norman character. There is good reason to suppose that this bailey was first walled with stone in Richard I.’s reign, as there is an entry in thePipe Rollsof 1193-1194 “for the cost of fortifying the bailey, £82, 16s. 4d.”[502]The present wall contains a good deal of herring-bone work, and this circumstance led Mr Clark, who was looking for something which hecouldput down to William I.’s time, to believe that the walls were of that date. But the herring-bone work is all in patches, as though for repairs, and herring-bone work was used for repairs at all epochs of mediæval building. The two gateways (that is the Norman portions of them) are probably of about the same date as the castle wall. The whole area is 5¾ acres.

The total revenue which the city of Lincoln paid to the king and the earl had gone up from 30l.T. R. E. to 100l.T. R. W. For the sake of those who imagine that Saxon halls had anything to do with mottes, it is worth noting that the hall which was the residence of the chief landholder in Lincoln before the Conquest was still in existence after the building of the castle, but evidently had no connection with it.[503]

Monmouth.Montacute, Somerset.Morpeth, Northumberland.

Monmouth.

Montacute, Somerset.

Morpeth, Northumberland.

Fig. 21.

Monmouth(Fig. 21).—Domesday Book says that the king has four ploughs in demesne in the castle ofMonmouth.[504]Dr Round regards this as one of the cases wherecastellumis to be interpreted as a town and not as a castle. However this may be, the existence of a Norman castle at Monmouth is rendered certain by a passage in theBook of Llandaff, in which it is said that this castle was built by William FitzOsbern, and a short history of it is given, which brings it up to the days of William Fitz Baderun.[505]Speed speaks of this castle as “standing mounted round in compasse, and within her walls another mount, whereon a Towre of great height and strength is built.”[506]This sounds like the description of a motte and bailey; but the motte cannot be traced now. It is possible that it may have been swept away to build the present barracks; the whole castle is now on a flat-topped hill. The area is 1¾ acres.[507]

The value of the manor before the Conquest is not given.

Montacute, Somerset (Fig. 21).—This is another instance of a site for a castle obtained by exchange from the church. Count Robert of Mortain gave the manor of Candel to the priory of Athelney in exchange for the manor of Bishopstowe, “and there is his castle, which is called Montagud.”[508]The English name forthe village at the foot of the hill was Ludgarsburh, which does not point to any fortification on the hill itself, the spot where the wonder-working crucifix of Waltham was found in Saxon times. Robert of Mortain’s son William gave the castle of Montacute, with its chapel, orchard, and other appurtenances, to a priory of Cluniac monks which he founded close to it. The gift may have had something compulsory in it, for William of Mortain was banished by Henry I. in 1104 as a partisan of Robert Curthose. Thus, as Leland says, “the notable castle partly fell to ruin, and partly was taken down to make the priory, so that many years since no building of it remained; only a chapel was set upon the very top of the dungeon, and that yet standeth there.”[509]There is still a high oval motte, having a ditch between its base and the bailey; the latter is semilunar in shape. The hill has been much terraced on the eastern side, but this may have been the work of the monks, for purposes of cultivation.[510]There is no masonry except a quite modern tower. According to Mr Clark, the motte is of natural rock. The French name of the castle was of course imported from Normandy, and we generally find that an English castle with a Norman-French name of this kind has a motte.[511]

Bishopstowe, in which the castle was placed, was not a large manor in Saxon times. Its value T. R. E. is not given in the Survey, but we are told that it isworth 6l.to the earl, and 3l.3s.to the knights who hold under him.

Morpeth, Northumberland (Fig. 21).—There is only one mention known to us of Morpeth Castle in the 11th century, and that is in the poem of Geoffrey Gaimar.[512]He says that William Rufus, when marching to Bamborough, to repress the rebellion of Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, “took the strong castle of Morpeth, which was seated on a little mount,” and belonged to William de Morlei. Thus there can be no doubt that the Ha’ Hill, about 100 yards to the N. of the present castle, was the motte of the first castle of Morpeth, though the remains of the motte, which are mentioned by Hodgson, have been destroyed.[513]A natural ridge has been used to form a castle by cutting off its higher end to form a motte, and making a court on the lower part of the ridge. The great steepness of the slopes rendered ordinary ditches unnecessary, nor are there any traces now of banks or foundations. In the court some Norman capitals and carved stones were found in 1830. This early castle was admirably placed for commanding the river and the bridge.[514]The present castle of Morpeth was built in 1342-1349.[515]

Newcastle, Northumberland.—The first castle here was built by Robert, son of William I., on his return from his expedition to Scotland in 1080.[516]It was of theusual motte-and-bailey kind, the motte standing in a small bailey which was rectilinear and roughly oblong.[517]This motte was in existence when Brand wrote hisHistory of Newcastle, but was removed in 1811. The castle was placed outside the Roman station at Monkchester, and commanded a Roman bridge over the Tyne, “and to the north-east overlooked a ravine that under the name of The Side formed for centuries a main artery of communication between England and Scotland.”[518]Henry II., when he built the fine keep of this castle, did not place it on the motte, but in the outer and larger ward, which was roughly triangular. The outer curtain appears to have stood on the banks of the former earthen castle, as the Parliamentary Survey of 1649 speaks of the castle as “bounded with strong works of stone and mud.”[519]The area of the whole castle was 3 acres and 1 rood.

Norham.Nottingham.

Norham.

Nottingham.

Fig. 22.

Norham, Northumberland (Fig. 22).—The first castle here was built by Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, in the reign of William Rufus. It was built to defend Northumberland against the incursions of the Scots, and we are expressly told that no castle had existed there previously.[520]This first castle, which we may certainly assume to have been of earth and wood, was destroyed by the Scots in 1138, and there does not seem to have been any stone castle until the time ofBishop Puiset or Pudsey, who built the present keep by command of King Henry II.[521]Mr Clark tried hard to find some work of Flambard’s in this tower, but found it difficult, and was driven back on the rather lame assumption that “the lapse of forty [really fifty at least] years had not materially changed the style of architecture then in use.”[522]In fact, the Norman parts of this keep show no work so early as the 11th century, but are advanced in style, for not only was the basement vaulted, but the first floor also. The simple explanation is that Flambard threw up the large square motte on which the keep now stands, and provided it with the usual wooden defences. It also had a strong tower, but almost certainly a wooden one; hence it was easily destroyed by the Scots when once taken.[523]The motte was probably lowered to some extent when the stone keep was built. It stands on a high bank overlooking the Tweed, and is separated from its bailey by a deep ditch. The bailey may be described as a segment of a circle; its area is about 2 acres.

Norwich(Fig. 23).—We find from Domesday Book that no less than 113 houses were destroyed for the site of this castle, a certain proof that the castle was new.[524]It is highly probable that it was outside the primitive defences of the town, at any rate in part. Norwich was built, partly on a peninsula formed by adouble bend of the river Wensum, partly in a district lying south-west of this peninsula, and defended by a ridge of rising ground running in a north-easterly direction. The castle was placed on the edge of this ridge, and all the oldest part of the town, including the most ancient churches, lies to the east of it.[525]In the conjectural map of Norwich in 1100, given in Woodward’sHistory of Norwich Castle,[526]the street called Burg Street divides the Old Burg on the east from the New Burg on the west; this street runs along a ridge which traverses the neck of the peninsula from south-west to north-east, and on the northern end of this ridge the castle stands.[527]There can be little doubt that this street marks the line of theburhor enclosing bank by which the primitive town of Norwich was defended.[528]A clear proof of this lies in the fact that the castle of Norwich was anciently not in the jurisdiction of the city, but in that of the county; the citizens had no authority over the houses lying beyond the castle ditches until it was expressly granted to them by Edward III.[529]The mediæval walls of Norwich, vastly extending the borders of the city, were not built till Henry III.’s reign.[530]

Norwich.(From Harrod’s “Gleanings among the Castles and Convents of Norfolk,” p. 133.)

Fig. 23.

The motte of Norwich Castle, according to recentinvestigations, is entirely artificial;[531]it was originally square, and had “a prodigious large and deep ditch around it.”[532]The fancy of the antiquary Wilkins that the motte was the centre of two concentric outworks[533]was completely disproved by Mr Harrod, who showed that the original castle was a motte with one of the ordinary half-moon baileys attached. Another ward, called the Castle Meadow, was probably added at a later date. The magnificent keep which now stands on the motte is undoubtedly a work of the 12th century.[534]The castle which Emma, wife of Earl Ralf Guader, defended against the Conqueror after the celebrated bride-ale of Norwich was almost certainly a wooden structure. As late as the year 1172 the bailey was still defended by a wooden stockade and wooden bretasches;[535]and even in 1225 the stockade had not been replaced by a stone wall.[536]

Norwich was a royal castle, and consequently always in the hands of the sheriff; it was never the property of the Bigods.[537]As the fable that extensive lands belonging to the monastery of Ely were held on the tenure of castle guard at Norwichbefore the Conquestis repeated by all the local historians,[538]it is worth whileto note that the charters of Henry I. setting the convent free from this service, make no allusion to any such ancient date for it,[539]and that the tenure of castle guard is completely unknown to the Anglo-Saxon laws. The area of the inner bailey is 3¼ acres, and that of the outer, 4½ acres. The value of Norwich had greatly risen since the Conquest.[540]

Nottingham(Fig. 22).—This important castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but theAnglo-Saxon Chroniclesays that William I. built the castle at Nottingham in 1067, on his way to repress the first insurrection in Yorkshire. Ordericus, repeating this statement, adds that he committed it to the keeping of William Peverel.[541]The castle was placed on a lofty headland at some distance from the Danish borough, and between the two arose the Norman borough which is mentioned in Domesday Book as thenovus burgus. The two upper wards of the present castle probably represent William’s plan. The upper ward forms a natural motte of rock, as it is 15 feet higher than the bailey attached to it, and has been separated from it by a ditch cut across the rocky headland, which can still be traced below the modern house which now stands on the motte. Such a site was not only treated as a motte, but was actually called by that name, as we read of themotaof Nottingham Castle in thePipe Rollsof both John’s and Richard I.’s reigns.

Mr Clark published a bird’s-eye view of Nottingham Castle in hisMediæval Military Architecture, about which he only stated that it was taken from theIllustrated London News. It does not agree with theplan made by Simpson in 1617,[542]and is therefore not quite trustworthy; the position of the keep, for example, is quite different. The keep, which Hutchison in his Memoirs speaks of as “the strong tower called the Old Tower on the top of the rock,” seems clearly Norman, from the buttresses. It was placed (according to Simpson’s plan), on the north side of the small ward which formed the top of the motte, and was enclosed in a yet older shell wall which has now disappeared. The height of this motte is indicated in the bird’s-eye view by the ascending wall which leads up it from the bailey. It had its own ditch, as appears by several mentions in the accounts of “the drawbridge of the keep,” and “the bridge leading up to the dongeon.”[543]It is highly probable that this keep was built by King John, as in aMise Rollof 1212 there is a payment entered “towards making the tower which the king commanded to be built on the motte of Nottingham.”[544]But the first masonry in the castle was probably the work of Henry II., who spent £1737, 9s. 5d. on the castle and houses, the gaol, the king’s chamber, the hall, and in raising the walls and enclosing the bailey.[545]The castle has been so devastated by the 17th century spoiler, that the work of Henry and John has been almost entirelyswept away, but the one round tower which still remains as part of the defences of the inner bailey, looks as though it might be of the time of Henry II. This bailey is semicircular; the whole original castle covers only 1⅔ acres. A very much larger bailey was added afterwards, probably in John’s reign.[546]Probably this later bailey was at first enclosed with a bank and stockade, and this stockade may be the palitium of which there are notices in the records of Henry III. and Edward I.[547]The main gateway of this bailey, which still remains, is probably of Edward I. or Edward II.’s reign.[548]

The castle of Nottingham was the most important one in the Midlands, and William of Newburgh speaks of it as “so well defended by nature and art that it appears impregnable.”[549]The value of the town had risen from £18 to £30 at the time of the Survey.[550]

Okehampton, Devon.Penwortham, Lancs.Pevensey, Sussex.

Okehampton, Devon.

Penwortham, Lancs.

Pevensey, Sussex.

Fig. 24.

Okehampton, Devon (Fig. 24).—Baldwin de Molis, Sheriff of Devon, held the manor of Okehampton at the time of the Survey, and had a castle there.[551]On a hill in the valley of the Okement Riverstand the remains of a castle of the motte-and-bailey pattern. On the motte, which is high and steep, are the ruins of a keep of late character, probably of the 14th century.[552]The oval bailey covers ½ an acre, and the whole castle is surrounded with a very deep ditch (filled up now on the east side) which is in part a natural ravine. The usual ditch between the motte and the bailey is absent here. This castle appears to have continued always in private hands, and therefore there is little to be learned about it from the public records. The value of Okehampton manor had increased since the Conquest from £8 to £10. As there is noburgusmentioned T. R. E., but fourburgensesand a market T. R. W., Baldwin the Sheriff must have built a borough as well as a castle. Otherwise it was a small manor of thirty ploughs.

Oswestry, Shropshire.—Mr Eyton’s identification of the Domesday castle of Louvre, in the manor of Meresberie, Shropshire, with Oswestry, seems to be decisive.[553]The name is simply L’Œuvre, the Work, a name very frequently given to castles in the early Norman period. Domesday Book says that Rainald de Bailleul built a castle at this place.[554]He had married the widow of Warin, Sheriff of Shropshire, who died in 1085. The castle afterwards passed into the hands of the Fitz Alans, great lords-marcher on the Welshborder. As the Welsh annals give the credit of building the castle to Madoc ap Meredith, into whose hands it fell during the reign of Stephen, it is not impossible that some of the masonry still existing on the motte, which consists of large cobbles bedded in very thick mortar, may be his work, and probably the first stonework in the castle. A sketch made in the 18th century, however, which is the only drawing preserved of the castle, seems to show architecture of the Perpendicular period.[555]But probably the keep alone was of masonry in the 12th century, as in 1166, when the castle was in royal custody, the repair of the stockade is referred to in thePipe Rolls.[556]No plan has been preserved of Oswestry Castle, so that it is impossible to recover the shape or area of the bailey, which is now built over. The manor of Meresberie had been unoccupied (wasta) in the days of King Edward, but it yielded 40s. at the date of the Survey. Eyton gives reasons for thinking that the town of Oswestry was founded by the Normans.

Oxford.(From “Oxonia Illustrata,” David Loggan, 1675.)

Fig. 25.

Oxford(Fig. 25).—This castle was built in 1071 by Robert d’Oilgi (or d’Oilly), a Norman who received large estates in Oxfordshire.[557]Oxford was a burgus in Saxon times, and is one of those mentioned in theBurghal Hidage. Domesday tells us that the king has twenty mural mansions there, which had belonged to Algar, Earl of Mercia, and that they were called mural mansions because their owners had to repair the city wall at the king’s behest, a regulation probably as old as the days of Alfred. The Norman castle was placed outsidethe town walls, but near the river, from which its trenches were fed.[558]It was without doubt a motte-and-bailey castle; the motte still remains, and the accompanying bird’s-eye view by David Loggan, 1675, shows that the later stone walls of the bailey stood on the earthen banks of D’Oilly’s castle. The site is now occupied by a gaol. On the line of the walls rises the ancient tower of St George’s Church, which so much resembles an early Norman keep that we might think it was intended for one, if the Osney chronicler had not expressly told us that the church was founded two years after the castle.[559]It is evident that the design was to make the church tower work as a mural tower, a combination of piety and worldly wisdom quite in accord with what the chronicler tells us of the character of Roger d’Oilly.

Henry II. spent some £260 on this castle between the years 1165 and 1173, the houses in the keep, and the well being specially mentioned. We may presume that he built with stone the decagonal [shell?] keep on the motte, whose foundations were discovered at the end of the 18th century.[560]There is still in the heart of the motte a well in a very remarkable well chamber, the masonry of which may be of his time. The area of the bailey appears to have been 3 acres.

The value of the city of Oxford had trebled at the time of the Domesday Survey.[561]

In the treaty between Stephen and Henry in 1153 the whole castle of Oxford is spoken of as the “Mota” of Oxford.[562]

Peak Castle, Derbyshire.—The Survey simply calls this castle the Castle of William Peverel, but tells us that two Saxons had formerly held theland.[563]There is no motte here, but the strong position, defended on two sides by frightful precipices, rendered very little fortification necessary. It is possible that the wall on the N. and W. sides of the area may be, in part at least, the work of William Peverel; the W. wall contains a great deal of herring-bone work, and the tower at the N.W. angle does not flank at all, while the other one in the N. wall only projects a few feet; the poor remains of the gatehouse also appear to be Norman. It would probably be easier to build a wall than to raise an earthbank in this stony country; nevertheless, behind the modern wall which runs up from the gatehouse to the keep, something like an earthbank may be observed on the edge of the precipice, which ought to be examined before any conclusions are determined as to the first fortifications of this castle. The keep, which is of different stone to the other towers and the walls, stands on the highest ground in the area, apparently on the natural rock, which crops up in the basement. It is undoubtedly the work of Henry II., as the accounts for it remain in thePipe Rolls, and the slight indications of style which it displays, such as the nook-shafts at the angles, correspond to the Transition Norman period.[564]The shape of the bailey is a quadrant; its area scarcely exceeds 1 acre.

The value of the manor had risen since the Conquest, and William Peverel had doubled the number of ploughs in the demesne. The castle only remained in the hands of the Peverels for two generations, and was then forfeited to the crown. The manor was only a small one; and the site of the castle was probably chosen for its natural advantages and for the facility of hunting in the Peak Forest.

Penwortham, Lancashire (Fig. 24).—“King Edward held Peneverdant. There are two carucates of land there, and they used to pay ten pence. Now there is a castle there, and there are two ploughs in the demesne, and six burghers, and three radmen, and eight villeins, and four cowherds. Amongst them all they have four ploughs. There is half a fishery there. There is wood and hawk’s eyries, as in King Edward’s time. It is worth £3.”[565]The very great rise in value in this manor shows that some great change had taken place since the Norman Conquest. This change was the building of a castle. Themodoof Domesday always expresses a contrast with King Edward’s time, and clearly tells us here that Penwortham Castle was new.[566]It lay in the extensive lands between the Ribble and the Mersey, which were part of the Conqueror’s enfeoffment of Roger the Poitevin, third son of Earl Roger de Montgomeri.[567]Since Penwortham is mentioned as demesne, and nounder-tenant is spoken of, we may perhaps assume that this castle, which was the head of a barony, was built by Roger himself. He did not hold it long, as he forfeited all his estates in 1102. At a later period, though we have not been able to trace when, the manor of Penwortham passed into the hands of the monks of Evesham, to whom the church had already been granted, at the end of the Conqueror’s reign.[568]Probably it is because the castle thus passed into the hands of the church that it never developed into a stone castle, like Clitheroe. The seat of the barony was transferred elsewhere, and probably the timbers of the castle were used in the monastic buildings of Penwortham Priory.

The excavations which were made here in 1856 proved conclusively that there were no stone foundations on the Castle Hill at Penwortham.[569]These excavations revealed the singular fact that the Norman had thrown up his motte on the site of a British or Romano-British hut, without even being aware of it, since the ruins of the hut were buried 5 feet deep and covered by a grass-grown surface, on which the Norman had laid a rude pavement of boulders before piling his motte.[570]Among the objects found in the excavations was a Norman prick spur, a conclusive proof of the Norman origin of the motte.[571]No remains appear to have been found of the Norman wooden keep; but this would be accounted for by the theory suggested above.

Penwortham is a double motte, the artificial hill rising on the back of a natural hill, which has been isolated from its continuing ridge by an artificial ditch cut through it. The double hill rises out of a bailey court which is rudely square, but whose shape is determined by the ground, which forms a headland running out into the Ribble. The whole area cannot certainly be ascertained. There was a ferry at this point in Norman times.[572]The castle defends the mouth of the Ribble and overlooks the town of Preston.

Penwortham was certainly not thecaputof a large soke in Saxon times, as it was only a berewick of Blackburn, in which hundred it lay. It was the Norman who first made it the seat of a barony.

Peterborough.—The chronicler, Hugh Candidus, tells us that Abbot Thorold, the Norman abbot whom William I. appointed to the ancient minster of Peterborough, built a castle close to the church, “which in these days is called Mount Torold.”[573]This mount isstill existing, but it has lost its ancient name, and is now called Tout Hill. It stands in the Deanery garden, and has probably been largely ransacked for garden soil, as it has a decayed and shapeless look. Still, it is a venerable relic of Norman aggression, well authenticated.

Pevensey, Sussex (Fig. 24).—The Roman castrum of Pevensey (still so striking in its remains) was an inhabited town at the date of the Norman Conquest, and was an important port.[574]After taking possession of the castrum, William I. drew a strong bank across its eastern end, and placed a castle in the area thus isolated. This first castle was probably entirely of wood, as there was a woodenpaliciumon the bank as late as the reign of Henry II.[575]But if a wooden keep was built at first, it was very soon superseded by one of stone.[576]The remains of this keep have recently been excavated by Mr Harold Sands and Mr Montgomerie, and show it to have been a most remarkable building[577](see Chapter XII.,p. 355)—in all probability one of the few 11th century keeps in England. We may perhaps attribute this distinction to the fact that no less a man than the Conqueror’s half-brother, the Count of Mortain, was made the guardian of this important port.

Pevensey is mentioned as a port in theClose Rollsof Henry III.’s reign, and was one of the important waterways to the Continent.[578]As has been already noted, the establishment of the castle was followed by the usual rise in the value of theburgus.[579]The area of the castle covers 1 acre.

Pontefract, Yorkshire (Fig. 26).—This castle is not spoken of in Domesday by its French name, but there can be no doubt that it is “the Castle of Ilbert” which is twice mentioned and several times alluded to in theClamores, or disputed claims, which are enrolled at the end of the list of lands in Yorkshire belonging to the tenants-in-chief.[580]The existence of Ilbert’s castle at Pontefract in the 11th century is made certain by a charter (only an early copy of which is now extant) in the archives of the Duchy of Lancaster, in which William Rufus at his accession regrants to Ilbert de Lacy “the custom of the castelry of his castle, as he had it in the Conqueror’s days and in those of the bishop of Bayeux.”[581]As Mr Holmes remarks, this carries us back to four years before the compilation of Domesday Book, since Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, whom William had left as regent during his absence in Normandy, was arrested and imprisoned in 1082.[582]

Pontefract is called Kirkby in some of the earlier charters, and this was evidently the English (or rather the Danish) name of the place. It lay within the manor of Tateshall, which is supposed to be the same as Tanshelf, a name still preserved in the neighbourhoodof, but not exactly at, Pontefract.[583]Tanshelf claims to be the Taddenescylf mentioned in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, where King Edgar received the submission of the Yorkshire Danes in 947. There is no proof that the hill at Kirkby was fortified before the Conquest. It was a steep headland rising out of the plain of the Aire, and needing only to be scarped by art and to have a ditch cut across its neck to be almost impregnable. It lay scarcely a mile east of the Roman road from Doncaster to Castleford and the north.

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