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
There were commonly three floors. The basement was for stores. The
central floor contained the principal apartment, usually with a
fireplace, and sometimes with mural chambers, one of which is almost
always a garderobe. The flues of the fireplaces and the shafts of
the garderobes are often vertical, and contained within the wall.
The upper floor was either for the soldiery or for a bedroom for the
lord. The walls are ordinarily 10 feet to 12 feet thick, and there is
often a well stair—as at Skenfrith, in Monmouthshire—from the first
floor, leading to the upper chamber and the battlements. In some of
the ruder towers—as in that by the church of Aghadoe, near Killarney,
the ascent from the first floor is by the narrow steps projecting from
the interior face of the wall into the chamber. In the larger towers,
as at Coucy, there is often a small chamber in the wall, over the main
entrance, for the working of a portcullis. Now and then the staircase
begins at the ground-level, ends at the first floor, and begins again
at the opposite side, as in the rectangular keeps. Thus no one could
leave his post on the battlements without the knowledge of the captain,
who lived in the main chamber.
Where the cylindrical tower formed the donjon or keep, it was commonly
placed within the area, as at Brunless and Skenfrith. At Coningsborough
it stands upon the outer wall; at Pembroke on the wall of the inner
ward; but in neither case is there any communication between the
tower and the rampart of the wall. At Coucy the tower stands on an
inner wall, but is girt about with a low concentric wall covering the
foundations. At Launceston the annular space thus created between the
tower and the girdling wall was roofed over, and there is something
similar round the tower of Penrice in Gower. At Tretower a round tower
has been built within an older rectangular keep, and the space between
roofed over. In these cases the outer wall was about half the height of
the tower. At Lillebonne and Coucy the tower has its proper ditch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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