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
Those who have supposed that the _enceinte_ of the castle extended
to the present High Street have regarded the two well-known crypts
remaining there as proofs of this extent. One of these, on the
south side, the writer has not been able to visit; but the other,
exactly opposite the former, and about 160 yards from the keep, he
has examined, and it is said that the two are of the same age and
dimensions and very nearly alike.
The north crypt, beneath the Angel Hotel, is a rectangular chamber,
31 feet north and south, by 19 feet east and west, and divided into
two aisles and six bays by two central piers. The piers are plain
cylinders, 18 inches diameter and 5 feet 6 inches high. The bases are
now concealed; the piers are without caps and quite plain. The roof is
vaulted, and 10 feet 3 inches from the floor to the cornice, groined
and ribbed. The arches are drop and pointed, the ribs chamfered and
springing from carved corbels in the wall. At the south end of each
aisle is a window recess, converging and rising to a loop at the street
level. The entrance is by a narrow drop-arched door, opening from a
rising passage, vaulted, with hanging ribs. This opens into a small
chamber, north of, and 4 or 5 feet above, the vault, whence another
narrow door probably led up to the ground level. The date of the crypt
seems to be of the thirteenth century, and it is quite clear that it
never was prolonged southwards towards the other crypt, and was always
and only lighted, as now, from the street level. In all probability
this was the cellar of some considerable hostel, situate, as now, in
the High Street, which, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as
now, was probably the main thoroughfare of the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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