Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)Clark, George Thomas
History
Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 1 (of 2)
Clark, George Thomas
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Medieval; Military architecture
The transition from the Norman to the Early English style, which in
ecclesiastical architecture constitutes a period of great interest,
is by no means, at least in England, so strongly marked in buildings
of the military type. The rectangular and circular or polygonal
keeps, with their Norman features, retained their hold upon English
castle-builders through the reigns of Stephen and that of Henry II.,
1135-1189, or for a century and a quarter from the Conquest, or even
later. At Dover, the dog-tooth ornament and a bead moulding, combined
with very decidedly Norman features, mark the Transition period, as
do the ornamental details of the rectangular keep of Helmsley, and
the particulars of the shell-keeps of Tamworth and York. The later
keeps are known by the increased depth of the pilasters, which become
buttresses, as at Dover and Clun, and in the twelfth-century keep of
Chambois (Orne); sometimes by their improved and fine-jointed ashlar,
as at Hedingham; by a more frequent use of the stone of the district
instead of that brought from Caen; by the presence of ribs upon the
groins of the hip-vaulting of the galleries and mural chambers; by
the use of nook-shafts at the exterior angles, as at Scarborough and
Castle-Rising; and by the greater tendency to ornament about the rib
bosses, door cases, window recesses, and fireplaces; and by the more or
less Early English character of such ornamentation. The portcullis is
perhaps less rare in the later keeps. There was, however, little change
in the internal arrangement so long as the Norman outline was retained,
and but little tendency, so far as the keep was concerned, towards
flanking defences. Passive strength is still relied upon.
Little is known of the _castra adulterina_, of which so many score
were constructed during the reign of Stephen, and destroyed by his
successor. They could scarcely be of the solidity of the Norman
keeps, else their demolition would have been a more difficult task.
They were probably either of timber, or mere walled enclosures of no
great strength. Few, if any of them, represented the chief seats of
large estates, and being built for the most part on new sites, the
earthworks were inconsiderable, and where the works above ground were
destroyed there was little left to show where was their site. Among
the latest rectangular keeps should be mentioned the tower at Penhow,
Monmouthshire, the cradle of the house of Seymour; and that of Fonmon,
in Glamorgan, still inhabited. They are small, without pilasters, and
with scarcely any Norman features, and belong to the Early English
period, as, judging from its foundation laid open and from some
fragments dug up several years ago, did the castle of Sully, near
Cardiff, and probably that of Dunraven, in the same county, the remains
of which are built into a later house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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