CLIFFORD-CLITHEROE 129 hands of Richard Fitz Pons, the ancestor of the celebrated house of Clifford, and one of the barons of Bernard de Neufmarché, the Norman conqueror of Brecon,1 The castle has a large motte, roughly square in shape, which must be in part artificial. Attached to it on the south-west is a curious triangular ward, included in the ditch which surrounds the motte. The masonry on the motte is entirely of the "Edwardian" style, when keepless castles were built; it consists of the remains of a hall, and a mural tower which is too small to be called a keep. There is also a small court, with a wall which stands on a low bank. Below the motte is an irregular bailey of about 2 acres, with earthen banks which do not appear to have ever carried any masonry, though in the middle of the court there is a small mound which evidently covers the remains of buildings. The whole area of the castle, including the motte and the two baileys, is about 31 acres. The value of the manor had apparently risen from nothing to 8. 5s. Clifford was not the centre of a large soke. CLITHEROE, Lancashire (Fig. 13). There is no express mention of this castle in Domesday Book, but of two places in Yorkshire, Barnoldswick and Calton, it is said that they are in the castellate of Roger the Poitevin. A castellate implies a castle, and as there is 1 "Ancient Charters," Pipe Roll Society, vol. x., charter xiii., and Mr Round's note, p. 25. It is extraordinary that Mr Clark, in his description of this castle, does not mention the motte, except by saying that the outer ward is 60 or 70 feet lower than the inner. M. M. A., i., 395. 3 This passage occurs in a sort of appendix to Domesday Book, which is said to be in a later hand, of the 12th century. (Skaife, Yorks. Arch. Journ., Part Iv., p. 299.) It cannot, however, be very late in the 12th century, as it speaks of Roger's holdings in Craven in the present tense. no other castle in the Craven district (to which the words of the Survey relate) except Skipton, which did not form part of Roger's property, there is no reason to doubt that this castle was Clitheroe, which for centuries was the centre of the Honour of that name. The whole land between the Ribble and the Mersey had been given by William I. to this Roger, the third son of his trusted supporter, Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. One can understand why William gave important frontier posts to the energetic and unscrupulous young men of the house of Montgomeri, one of whom was the adviser and architect of William Rufus, another a notable warrior in North Wales, another the conqueror of Pembrokeshire. As it appears from the Survey that Roger's possessions stretched far beyond the Ribble into Yorkshire and Cumberland, it seems quite possible-though here we are in the region of conjecture-that just as his father and brothers had a free hand to conquer as they listed from the North and South Welsh, so Roger had a similar commission for the hilly districts still unconquered in the north-west of England. But fortune did not favour the Montgomeri family for long. They were exiled from England in 1102 for siding with Robert Curthose, and in the same year we find the castle of Clitheroe in the hands of Robert de Lacy, lord of the great Yorkshire fief of Pontefract.1 The castle of Clitheroe stands on a lofty motte of natural rock. There are no earthworks on the summit, 2 1 See Farrer's Lancashire Pipe Rolls, p. 385. The castle is not actually mentioned, but "le Baille" (the bailey) is spoken of. Mr Farrer also prints an abstract of a charter of Henry I. (1102): "per quam concessit eidem Roberto [de Laci] Boelandam [Bowland] quam tenuit de Rogero Comite Pictavensi, ut extunc eam de eodem rege teneat." P. 382. 2 In an inquisition of Henry de Laci (+1311) it is said that "castelli mote et fossæ valent nihil." (Whitaker's History of Whalley, p. 280.) This is probably an instance of the word motte being applied to a natural rock but a stout wall of limestone rubble without buttresses encloses a small court, on whose south-west side stands the keep. It is just possible that the outer wall may be the original work of Roger, as limestone rubble would be easier to get than earth on this rocky hill. The keep is small, rudely built of rubble, and has neither fireplace nor garde-robe, nor the slightest ornamental detail-not even a string course. But in spite of the entire absence of ornament, a decorative effect has been sought and obtained by making the quoins, voussoirs, and lintels of a dressed yellow sandstone. The care with which this has been done is inconsistent with the haste with which Roger must inevitably have constructed his first fortification, if we suppose, as is probable, that he received the first grant of his northern lands on William's return in 1070 from his third visit to the north, when he made that remarkable march through Lancashire to Chester which is described by Ordericus. It seems more likely that even if the outer wall or shell were the work of Roger, he had only wooden buildings inside its circuit. Dugdale attributes the building of the keep to the second Robert de Lacy, between 1187 and 1194, and it is probable that this date is correct. The bailey of Clitheroe lay considerably below the keep, and is now overbuilt with a modern house, offices, and garden. It covers one acre. A Roman road up the valley of the Ribble passes near the foot of the rock.2 which served that purpose. See another instance under Nottingham, post, p. 176. 1 Dugdale's Baronage, i., p. 99. Dugdale's authority appears to have been the "Historia Laceiorum," a very untrustworthy document, but which may have preserved a genuine tradition in this instance. The loopholes in the basement of the keep, with the large recesses, appear to have been intended for crossbows, and the crossbow was not reintroduced into England till the reign of Richard I. 2 Victoria History of Lancashire, ii., 523. |