Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

1

Speed's map places it on the line of the wall of his time, which may have been a mediæval extension. The castle of Gloucester is now entirely destroyed, but there is sufficient evidence to show that it was of the usual Norman type. There was a motte, which was standing in 1819, and which was then called the Barbican Hill; it appears to have been utilised as part of the works of the barbican. This motte must originally have supported a wooden keep, and Henry I. must have been the builder of the stone keep which Leland saw "in the middle of the area;" for in 1100 Henry gave lands to Gloucester Abbey "in exchange for the site where now the keep of Gloucester stands." The bailey had previously been enlarged by William Rufus. Possibly the framea turris or framework tower spoken of in Henry II.'s reign may refer to the wooden keep which had been left standing on the motte. The walls of Gloucester Castle were frequently repaired by Henry II.," but the word murus by no means implies always a stone wall, and it is certain that the castle was at that time surrounded by a wooden stockade, as a writ of a much later period (1225) says that the stockade which is around our castle of Gloucester has been blown down

5

1 Fosbroke's History of Gloucester, pp. 125, 126. Stukeley, writing in 1721, says: "There is a large old gatehouse standing, and near it the castle, with a very high artificial mount or keep nigh the river." Itin. Cur., i., 69. 2 "Of al partes of yt the hy tower in media area is most strongest and auncient." Leland, Itin., iii., 64.

3 In excambium pro placea ubi nunc turris stat Gloucestriæ, ubi quondam fuit ortus monachorum." Mon. Ang., i., 544. The document is not earlier than Henry II.'s reign.

4 Round, Studies in Domesday, p. 123.

5 "In operatione frame turris de Glouec, 201. Pipe Rolls, i., 27. In the single Pipe Roll of Henry I. there is an entry "In operationibus turris de Glouec," 71. 6s. 2d., which may be one of a series of sums spent on the new stone keep.

[blocks in formation]

and broken by the wind, and must be repaired.1 Wooden bretasches on the walls are spoken of in the Pipe Rolls of 1193, and even as late as 1222.2

The value of the city of Gloucester had apparently risen at the time of the Survey, though the entry being largely in kind, T. R. E., it is not easy to calculate.

HASTINGS, Sussex (Fig. 18).—In this case we have positive contemporary evidence that the earthen mound of the castle was thrown up by the Normans at the time of the Conquest, for there is a picture in the Bayeux Tapestry which shows them doing it. A number of men with spades are at work raising a circular mound, on the top of which, with the usual all-inclusiveness of medieval picturing, a stockade is already erected. A man with a pick seems to be working at the ditch. The inscription attached is: "He commands that a castle be dug at Hestengaceastra." There is no need to

comment on the significance of this drawing and its inscription for the history of early Norman castles; what is extraordinary is that it should have been entirely overlooked for so long. In no case is our information more complete than about Hastings. Not only does Domesday Book mention the castellaria of Hastings,* but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also tells us that William built a castle there, while the chronicle of Battle Abbey makes the evidence complete by telling us that "having taken possession of a suitable site, he built a wooden castle there." 5 This of course means the 1 Close Rolls, ii., 88b.

2 "In reparatione murorum et bretaschiarum," 20l. 75. 11d. Pipe Rolls, 1193. "Jussit ut foderetur castellum ad Hestengaceastra."

3

♦ D. B., i., 18a, 2. "Rex Willelmus dedit comiti [of Eu] castellariam de Hastinges."

5 "Dux ibidem [at Pevensey] non diu moratus, haud longe situm, qui Hastinges vocatur, cum suis adiit portum, ibique opportunum nactus locum, ligneum agiliter castellum statuens, provide munivit," Chron. Monast. de

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

stockade on top of the motte, with the wooden tower or towers which would certainly be added to it. Wace states that this wooden castle was brought over in pieces in the ships of the Count of Eu.1

[ocr errors]

The masonry now existing at the castle is probably none of it older than the reign of Henry II. at the earliest, and most of it is certainly much later. The Pipe Rolls show that Henry II. spent £235 on the castle of Hastings between the years 1160 and 1181, and it is indicated that some of this money was for stone, and some was for a keep (turrim). There is no tower large enough for a keep at Hastings now, nor have any stone foundations been found on the motte, and Mr Harold Sands, who has paid particular attention to this castle, concludes that Henry II.'s keep has been carried away by the sea, which has probably torn away at least 2 acres from the area of the castle.* The beautiful

Bello, p. 3, ed. 1846. There is also the evidence of Ordericus, who says that Humphrey de Tilleul received the custody of Hastings Castle "from the first day it was built." iv., 4.

1 Par conseil firent esgarder

Boen lieu a fort chastel fermer.
Donc ont des nes mairrien iete,

A la terre l'ont traine,

Que le quens d'Ou i out porte
Trestot percie e tot dole.
Les cheuilles totes dolees
Orent en granz bariz portees.
Ainz que il fust avespre
En ont un chastelet ferme ;
Environ firent une fosse,

Si i ont fait grant fermete.-Andresen's edition, p. 289.

2 The north curtain is of ruder work than the other masonry.

3 In attractu petre et calcis ad faciendam turrim de Hasting 61. Idem 137. 125. Vol. xviii., p. 130. The work must have been extensive, as it is spoken of as "operatio castelli novi Hasting." 1181-1182. Though the sum given is not sufficient for a great stone keep, it may have been supplemented from other sources.

4 See Mr Sands' paper on Hasting's Castle, in Trans. of the SouthEastern Union of Scientific Societies, 1908.

« PreviousContinue »