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
These composite structures are the earliest to which the term
concentric is properly applicable. Where the keep is central, and the
_enceinte_ double, as at the Tower and Dover, the result is a very
perfect example of the concentric type of castle, though of course
the parts are of different dates. Of Kenilworth, and probably of
Bridgnorth, the original arrangement was concentric, although the
central part is a ward or walled enclosure, not a single isolated
keep tower, which in these is worked into the line of the inner ward
wall. As the outline of most castles was materially affected by the
disposition of the ground, it is obvious that no classification as
regards chronology can be based altogether upon the ground plan. At
Alnwick, for example, the outline of which is probably Norman, and to
some extent governed by the ground, the keep stands between two wards,
and is the connecting part between them, and so at Chepstow and at
Pickering; while at Richmond, also Norman, the arrangement is wholly
different, as it is at Porchester, where Roman walls have been turned
to account.
South Wales contains some castles which appear to have been altogether
built, though possibly on old sites, in the reign of Henry III., as
Cilgerran, Manorbeer, Grosmont, and Whitecastle. These, especially
Whitecastle, are mere enclosures of irregular plan, within a strong
curtain wall, supported by mural towers almost always round, and
entered between two such towers as a gatehouse. The domestic buildings
or lodgings, as the hall, sleeping-rooms, kitchen, offices, and
stables, which in a regular English castle were of masonry, in these
Border structures, such as Whitchurch, were partly of timber, with flat
or moderately-sloping roofs, built against the walls of the area.
In the royal castles, and others the “capita” of estates and seats of
the greater barons, great attention was paid to domestic comfort and
splendour. The records of the reign contain many sheriffs’ accounts
for additions or repairs for domestic buildings within the castles,
for painting the walls in fresco, or filling the windows with stained
glass, all showing a vast growth in taste and luxury. More attention,
indeed, was paid to these matters than to the military defences, for
the pure castles in time of peace were allowed to fall into disrepair,
and scarcely any garrisons were kept up within them. When a rebellion
broke out, and the castles of a district were threatened, the patent
and close rolls are filled with orders to the sheriffs, constables,
and castellans, to supply timber, nails, lead, cordage, barrels of
arrow-heads and cross-bow bolts, calthrops, bow-staves, and now and
then military engines, which were collected from all quarters. All,
however, was done hastily, and any masonry work erected under such
circumstances is generally found to be of inferior quality, and in
marked contrast to the masonry of churches and ecclesiastical buildings
of the same period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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