Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)Clark, George Thomas
History
Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)
Clark, George Thomas
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Medieval; Military architecture
The entrance is at the ground level on the north-east side, from the
main ward. It is marked by a broad, flat buttress, rather Norman in
character, which rises vertically from the common base so as to stand
out about 18 inches, where it dies into the wall about 5 feet below the
battlements. In its centre is the gateway, and above it the window of
the portcullis chamber. It is extended laterally in two wings, rising
about half its height, and also dying into the wall above. These are
intended to strengthen the wall, weakened by a well-stair and a lodge.
As this buttress covers a considerable segment of the circle and is
flat, it is broken into three planes by two vertical angles. The modern
brick and stone wall replacing the battlement is rugged and broken,
but in parts about 12 feet high, and intended to give elevation to the
keep. The building thus made extensively visible has become a sort
of parish cynosure, and, however irregular its appearance, it would
scarcely be in good taste to remove the addition.
The keep has two floors. The lower is cylindrical, 31 feet in diameter,
with walls 14 feet to 15 feet thick. It was about 14 feet high, with a
ceiling of logs, which rested upon some forty plain corbels, of which
about seventeen remain. At two opposite points, about half way up the
wall, are two larger corbels, which evidently supported the struts
destined to give stiffness to the central and longest beam.
This chamber, no doubt a store-room, save when in time of siege it
might accommodate soldiers, was entered directly from the gateway, and
rather ventilated than lighted by three equidistant openings, about 4
feet from the floor, 4 feet broad, and 5 feet high, having shouldered
heads and covering. The sides converge, and the floor rises to a small
square-headed loop of 4-inch opening. There is neither fireplace,
seat, nor recess. The floor has been removed. There is no subterranean
chamber.
The upper chamber within is an octagon, inscribed about the cylinder
below it, with walls from 13 feet to 14 feet thick, and from side to
side 31 feet. It is about 15 feet high to the corbels that carried
its flat roof, and a row of larger corbels along one of the remaining
faces seems to have supported struts necessary to make the roof a safe
platform for military engines and stone ammunition. This, which was a
state-room, was lighted by three recesses at irregular distances. They
are 6 feet 6 inches wide, and rise from the floor 8 feet, being covered
by slightly-pointed drop arches. Each has a vaulted roof and parallel
sides, which afterwards converge upon a square-headed window, 2 feet
wide and 5 feet 6 inches high, having a plain chamfer outside. In each
side of the recesses is a plain shouldered doorway, 3 feet 9 inches
broad by 10 feet high, opening into the mural gallery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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