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
Right and left of the great gatehouse the buildings had a ground
and first floor. Those on the left, or to the east, were rather more
ornate, as being nearer to the state apartments. The north-east and
north-west towers communicated on each side with these rooms. They have
sub-basement pits, with loops, a ground and two upper floors. They
differ somewhat in details, but each has a well-stair in its gorge
wall, and mural closets and fireplaces at the several levels. The pits
are circular, the chambers above hexagonal.
Along the west side are offices, and probably servants’ apartments, and
rooms for the garrison. In the centre a large and handsome doorway,
with a window on each side and traces of a porch, opens into a small
kitchen, a room 21 feet by 16 feet, having on each side a fireplace,
with a converging tunnel, and an arched head of 12 feet span and 2 feet
rise. There is no hood or projection. The roof was open, and at the
battlement level. A gallery seems to have run across above the door,
entered from the room to the south, and beneath it in the wall is also
a door.
The enclosure next south seems to have been of two floors. The lower
room, 38 feet by 22 feet, was probably for stores or for the servants;
the upper was the lesser hall. The lower room had two windows to the
court and a small door, and perhaps between the windows a shallow
fireplace with a bold hood. Above was a noble room of the same size.
The lower room opened into the west tower. This, like the east tower,
is 25 feet broad, by 21 feet deep, and of 15 feet projection from the
curtain. The sub-basement here was evidently a cellar. It has three
loops a little above the water-level. A well-stair in the south-east
angle leads upwards from the ground-level.
Along the south side were placed the great kitchen, buttery, and
great hall. The kitchen, 33 feet by 24 feet, occupies the south-west
angle, and communicates with the adjacent angle tower. It has two
large fireplaces, of 12 feet span, in the north and south walls. The
former has an oven in its west jamb, an afterthought, as it projects
into the adjacent room. The other had a large stone hood, of which one
springing stone remains, and is buttressed by a corbel, placed in the
hollow angle to receive its thrust, as at St. Briavels. The kitchen had
an open, lofty roof. Next is the buttery, of two floors, with traces
of a cellar below. It is 18 feet by 24 feet, and opened into the hall
by three equilaterally arched doorways side by side, each towards the
hall, having a deep hollow early Perpendicular moulding. These opened
into a passage under the music-gallery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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