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
As usual, these loops were for air
and light, not for defence. Between this loop and the south angle is
a square-headed door, of 3 feet opening, under a curious round-headed
arch, of which the tympanum is partly formed by the arch stones. This
leads to the well, which is in the centre of the wall. It is 4 feet
diameter, and much choked up. It ascends to the upper floor. At the
north end of this side the wall has been broken away and a small mural
chamber laid open, 5 feet wide by 8 feet long, having a plain barrel
vault. A door opened into it from the great chamber, and it was lighted
by a loop, now converted into a sort of window. The inner wall about
the doorway has been strengthened by a pilaster of 1 foot projection,
which stops at the first floor. In the recent restoration, this chamber
has been made the lobby at the foot of the staircase.
In the west wall is a plain, round-headed doorway, of 6 feet opening,
and with ashlar ring-stones 2 feet deep. This is the opening of a
straight passage through the wall, here 12 feet 9 inches thick. There
are in the passage rebates for two doors, opening towards each other.
At Rochester, a small door in this position led only into a sort of
prison in the base of the forebuilding, and this may have been the case
here; but the size of the door, as at Corfe, makes it at least possible
that it was a regular entrance, approached through the forebuilding
from the common exterior door. In small keeps the basement was often
entered from the first floor only, as at Clitheroe, by a trap, or, in
the larger keeps, by a well-stair, as at Middleham. Unfortunately,
as the forebuilding is almost always more or less injured, it is
impossible in most cases where there is a large basement door to say
positively whether it was an independent entrance. There is also the
further doubt, as at the Tower of London, Guildford, and Malling,
whether the doorway in the basement be not a later introduction. The
cill of this doorway is about 10 feet above the outer or main entrance
of the forebuilding, the floor of which rises to it. Close north of
the large doorway is a small one, of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which
leads into a garderobe, the seat of which is corbelled out into the
interior of the north-west turret. This interior, 10 feet 6 inches
square, seems to have been a vast cesspit, receiving the contents of
garderobes from each floor and from the battlements. There is no drain
below, and the lower part of the pit contained sand, which has recently
been removed. There is a somewhat similar pit in the keep at Ludlow,
and one at Sherborne which resembles them. Large as this pit is for
such a purpose, it is much smaller than the turret, the wall of which
to the west, if solid, must be 11 feet thick. Can there be a second and
smaller shaft in that part of the turret, not now accessible? There
was no way from this floor to either of the southern turrets, both of
which, at this level, were filled with earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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