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
As Robert de Monte says that Henry I. built many castles in England as
well as in Normandy, we naturally ask what other English keeps besides
Rochester may be assigned to him. It appears to the writer that Corfe
and Norwich keeps may very likely be his. Both were royal castles in
his time, and both were originally wooden castles on mottes.[1156]
Both these castles have forebuildings, and neither of them have
floors supported on vaults.[1157] Corfe has very superior masonry, of
larger stones than those used in the keeps known to be Henry I.'s,
but wide-jointed. At Norwich only a very small piece of the original
ashlar is left. Corfe is extremely severe in all its details, but quite
corresponds to work of Henry I.'s reign.[1158] Norwich has a great deal
of decoration, more advanced in style than that to be seen at Falaise,
but still consistent with the first half of the 12th century. Neither
keep has the least sign of Transition Norman, such as we seldom fail to
find in the keeps of Henry II. Moreover, neither of them figure in the
_Pipe Rolls_ of Henry II., except for repairs; and as Stephen in his
harassed reign can hardly have had any money for building stone keeps,
we may with some confidence ascribe these two keeps to Henry I.
A few words should be given to the castle of Gisors, which contains
in itself an epitome of castle history. The first castle, built by
William Rufus in 1096, was undoubtedly a wooden castle on a motte,
with a stockaded bailey below it; certain portions of the present
bailey walls rest on earthen banks, which probably belonged to the
original castle, and show what a much smaller affair it was than the
present one. Henry I., Robert de Monte tells us, strengthened this
castle with a keep. Probably this was the shell wall which now crowns
the motte; the smallness of the masonry (stones about 5 inches high,
rudely dressed and coursed) and the slight projection of the buttresses
(9 inches) agree with much of the work of his time. There would be a
wooden tower inside.[1159] The chemise or shell wall is pierced by
loopholes, a very unusual arrangement; they are round arched, and of
very rude voussoirs.[1160] Inside this shell there is a decagonal
tower, called the Tower of Thomas à Becket, which is almost certainly
the work of Henry II.,[1161] as its name would indicate; the chapel of
St Thomas is close to it. A stair turret of the 15th century has been
added to this keep; its original entrance was, as usual, a door on the
first floor, but a basement entrance was built afterwards, probably
in the 13th century. Philip Augustus, after he had taken this castle
from John, added to it one of the round keeps which had then become the
fashion, and subsequent enlargements of the bailey converted it into a
"concentric" castle, of which the motte now forms the centre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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