Corfe Castle stands on a natural hill, which has been so scarped artificially that the highest part now forms a large motte. Three wards exist--the eastern or motte ward, the western, and the southern. The two former probably formed the original castle. On the motte (which possibly is not artificial, but formed by scarping) stands the lofty keep, of splendid workmanship, probably of the time of Henry I. In the ward pertaining to it are buildings of the time of John and Henry III.[385] The western ward has towers of the 13th century, but it also contains the interesting remains of an early Norman building, probably a hall or chapel, built largely of herring-bone work; this is the building which has been so positively asserted to be a Saxon palace. But herring-bone masonry, which used to be thought an infallible sign of Saxon work, is now found to be more often Norman.[386] The building is certainly an ancient one, and may possibly have been contemporary with the first Norman castle; its details are unmistakably Norman. But very likely it was the only Norman masonry of the 11th century at Corfe Castle.[387] It is clear that the stone wall which at present surrounds the western bailey did not exist when the hall (or chapel) was built, as it blocks up its southern windows. Probably there was a palisade at first on the edge of the scarp. Palisades still formed part of the defences of the castle in the time of Henry III., when 62_l._ was paid "for making two good walls in place of the palisades at Corfe between the old bailey of the said castle and the middle bailey towards the west, and between the keep of the said castle and the outer bailey towards the south."[388] This shows that the present wing-walls down from the motte were previously represented by stockades. The ditch between the keep and the southern bailey has been attributed to King John, on the strength of an entry in the _Close Rolls_ which orders fifteen miners and stone-masons to work on the banks of the ditch in 1214.[389] But we may be quite certain that this ditch below the motte belonged to the original plan of the castle; John's work would be either to line it with masonry, or to enlarge it. It is not without significance for the early history of the castle that Durandus the _carpenter_ held the manor of Mouldham near Corfe, by the service of finding a carpenter to work at the keep whenever required.[390] The area of Corfe Castle, if we include the large southern bailey, is 3-3/4 acres; without it, 1-1/2 acres. This bailey was certainly in existence in the reign of Henry III. (as the extract from the _Close Rolls_ proves) before the towers of superb masonry were added to it by Edward I. The value of Kingston Manor had considerably increased at the date of the Survey. After the Count of Mortain forfeited his lands (in 1105), the castle of Corfe was kept in the hands of the crown, and this increases the probability that the keep was built by Henry I.