The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
The first floor, like the basement, is divided into three rooms, as,
in addition to the usual cross wall, the Tower has a branch cross wall
to its eastern section, which is carried up to the top. This floor
was formerly only lit by loopholes; Clark states that there were two
fireplaces in the east wall, but there is some doubt about this. The
S.E. room contained the crypt of the chapel, which was vaulted. It
is commonly supposed that the rooms on the first floor were occupied
by the guards of the keep. In the account which we have quoted from
Lambert of Ardres, the first floor is said to be the lord's habitation,
and the upper storey that of the guards; so that there seems to have
been no invariable rule.[718] No special room was allotted to the
kitchen, as in time of peace at any rate, the lord of the castle and
all his retainers took their meals in a great hall in the bailey of the
castle.[719] The ceilings of the two larger rooms of this floor are now
supported by posts, an arrangement which is probably modern, as the
present posts certainly are.[720]
The second floor contains the chapel, which in many keeps is merely
an oratory, but is here of unusual size. Its eastern end is carried
out in a round apse, a feature which is also found at Colchester, but
is not usual in Norman keeps.[721] It is a singularly fine specimen
of an early Norman chapel. This floor probably contained the royal
apartments; it was lighted by windows, not loops. Both the eastern and
western rooms had fireplaces; the eastern room goes by the name of the
Banqueting Chamber.
The third storey is on a level with the triforium of the chapel.[722]
This triforium is continued all round the keep as a mural passage, and
it has windows only slightly smaller than those of the floor below.
These mural galleries are found in most important keeps. As their
windows were of larger size than the loops which lit the lower floors,
it is possible that they may have been used for defence, either for
throwing down missiles or for shooting with bows and arrows. But no
near aim could be taken without a downward splay to the window, and
the bows of the 11th and 12th centuries were incapable of a long
aim. A plausible theory is that they were intended for the march of
sentinels.[723]
The masonry of the Tower is of Kentish rag, with ashlar quoins. In
mediæval times it had a forebuilding, with a round stair turret, which
is shown in some old views; but it may reasonably be doubted whether
this was an original feature.
As regards the ground plan of the castle as a whole, it is now
concentric, but was not so originally. The Tower was certainly placed
in the S.E. angle of the Roman walls of London, and very near the east
wall, portions of which have been discovered.[724] The conversion
of the castle into one of the concentric type was the work of later
centuries, and the history of its development has still to be
traced.[725]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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