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 Norman keep stood upon or just within the line of the _enceinte_,
at its south end, close to the east of the entrance, and opposite to
the church. It was a square of 40 feet, standing north and south, and
about 240 feet south of the mound. Its walls at the base were 9 feet 6
inches thick, and at the summit but little, if anything less, and its
exterior face was vertical. The basement chamber at the ground level
was 21 feet square and 14 feet high, and above it were three stages,
all with timber floors. The height to the rampart wall is, by guess,
about 70 feet, or a diameter and three-quarters. The first floor, 23
feet high, either rested upon joists which were supported by the north
and south walls, now gone, or, which is more probable, upon a ledge in
the wall, which is reduced in thickness at that level about 6 inches,
as seen on the west side. Only the west wall remains, and the lower 6
feet or 8 feet of the east wall. The north and south walls are entirely
removed. The west wall is solid at the base, but the east wall is
recessed in a curious way inside, and seems besides to have contained
two cavities like cesspits. The whole mass has, however, been so pulled
about, that little can be made of it.
At the first floor, also, the west wall is solid, save that in its
south end is a short mural passage, vaulted, which seems to have ended
in a garderobe, the vent of which is marked by a sort of vertical
furrow in the wall. This passage was probably entered by a door in the
south wall, near the south-west angle. The east floor, 19 feet high,
rested upon six joists in the east and west walls. In its west wall
is a full-centred recess, 3 feet deep, 2 feet above the floor, 5 feet
wide, with jambs 7 feet high. In the recess is a window 3 feet wide,
with jambs 5 feet high, also full-centred. Both recess and window are
quite plain, and are not splayed.
The third floor, 14 feet high, also rested on six joists, east and
west. This has no window to the west, but in the wall are two recesses
for the vertical beams of a roof, and at the base of each a corbel.
This looks as though the roof was inclined, as at Bridgenorth and
elsewhere, at a low pitch, the north and south walls being its gables.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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