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 platform, covered by the base-court, is an irregular figure,
governed by the ground, rounded to the east, and presenting right
angles to the north and south-west. Its dimensions are about 80 yards
east and west, by 35 yards north and south. There is a large drum-tower
at the south-west angle, and another, with a square rear, in the centre
of the south front, and there are traces as of a third capping the
south-east angle. These towers are 18 feet diameter, have a basement,
a first and second floor, and are about 23 feet high above the court,
and 35 feet to the field. In the west front, close to the angle-tower,
is a gateway; an opening in a very thick low curtain, round-headed, and
probably of the date of the tower. It had a drawbridge and portcullis,
and may have had a low upper story. Above the door, outside, is a flat
entablature, with mouldings in the Renaissance style, and the adjacent
bastion and curtain are pierced with long loops, placed horizontally,
evidently intended for musquetoons, and therefore insertions. They are
similar to those in the north-east bastion of Berwick town wall. The
southern bastion has the original vertical loops for bows and arrows.
The west is the weak side, for which nature has done nothing. The
curtain accordingly is on that side thickened to 12 feet or 15 feet,
and there may have been a ditch, now filled up.
The court was divided by a cross wall, north and south, of no great
strength, and the tower stood in the western half, from six to eight
yards from the three outer walls. The northern curtain is an irregular
heap of ruins; upon it, opposite to the tower door, there seems to have
been a mass of masonry ascended probably by steps, and serving as an
abutment to the stone arch by which the main or first-floor entrance
was reached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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