Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

NORHAM-NORWICH

2

173

Bishop Puiset or Pudsey, who built the present keep by command of King Henry II.' Mr Clark tried hard to find some work of Flambard's in this tower, but found it difficult, and was driven back on the rather lame assumption that "the lapse of forty [really fifty at least] years had not materially changed the style of architecture then in use.' In fact, the Norman parts of this keep show no work so early as the 11th century, but are advanced in style, for not only was the basement vaulted, but the first floor also. The simple explanation is that Flambard threw up the large square motte on which the keep now stands, and provided it with the usual wooden defences. It also had a strong tower, but almost certainly a wooden one; hence it was easily destroyed by the Scots when once taken. The motte was probably lowered to some extent when the stone keep was built. It stands on a high bank overlooking the Tweed, and is separated from its bailey by a deep ditch. The bailey may be described as a segment of a circle; its area is about 2 acres.

3

NORWICH (Fig. 23).-We find from Domesday Book that no less than 113 houses were destroyed for the site of this castle, a certain proof that the castle was new. It is highly probable that it was outside the primitive defences of the town, at any rate in part. Norwich was built, partly on a peninsula formed by a

1 "Castellum di Northam, quod munitionibus infirmum reperit, turre validissima forte reddidit." Geoffrey of Coldingham, 12 (Surtees Society). Symeon says it was built "precepto regis." The keep was extensively altered in the Decorated period.

2 M. M. A., ii., 331.

3 Richard of Hexham, 319 (Twysden).

"In illa terra de quâ Herold habebat socam sunt 15 burgenses et 17 mansuræ vastæ, quæ sunt in occupatione castelli; et in burgo 190 mansuræ vacuæ in hoc quod erat in soca regis et comitis, et 81 in occupatione castelli." D. B., ii., 116. This shows that the castle and its ditches occupied ground partly within and partly without the ancient burh.

2

double bend of the river Wensum, partly in a district lying south-west of this peninsula, and defended by a ridge of rising ground running in a north-easterly direction. The castle was placed on the edge of this ridge, and all the oldest part of the town, including the most ancient churches, lies to the east of it.' In the conjectural map of Norwich in 1100, given in Woodward's History of Norwich Castle, the street called Burg Street divides the Old Burg on the east from the New Burg on the west; this street runs along a ridge. which traverses the neck of the peninsula from southwest to north-east, and on the northern end of this ridge the castle stands. There can be little doubt that this street marks the line of the burk or enclosing bank by which the primitive town of Norwich was defended.* A clear proof of this lies in the fact that the castle of Norwich was anciently not in the jurisdiction of the city, but in that of the county; the citizens had no authority over the houses lying beyond the castle ditches until it was expressly granted to them by Edward III.' The mediæval walls of Norwich, vastly extending the borders of the city, were not built till Henry III.'s reign. The motte of Norwich Castle, according to recent

1 Harrod's Gleanings among Castles, p. 142.

2 The authorities from which this map is compiled are not given.

3 The "new borough" at Norwich was the quarter inhabited by the Normans. D. B., ii., 118. "Franci de Norwich: in novo burgo 36 burgenses et 6 Anglici." Mr Hudson says that Mancroft Leet corresponds to the new burgh added to Norwich at the Conquest. See his map in Arch. Journ., xlvi.

4 Norwich was not a Roman town; see Haverfield, Vict. Hist. of Norfolk, i., 320. But the Roman road from Caistor passed exactly underneath the castle motte. Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xlvi., Rev. H. Dukinfield Astley.

6 Harrod's Gleanings among Castles, p. 137.

6 Mon. Ang., iv., 13. In 37 Henry III. the monks of Norwich Priory received "licentiam includendi eandem villam cum fossis,” and by doing this they enclosed the lands of other fees.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

(From Harrod's "Gleanings among the Castles and Convents of Norfolk," p. 133.)

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »