Page images
PDF
EPUB

STAMFORD-STANTON

217

very exceptional thing that Henry should thus alienate a royal castle, and special circumstances must have moved him to this act. The castle was destroyed in Richard III.'s time, and the materials given to the convent of the Carmelite Friars. It appears to have been within the town walls, with a bailey stretching down to the river; this bailey is quadrangular. An inquisition of 1341 states that "the site of the castle contains 2 acres.

"1

Stamford had risen enormously in value since the Conquest. "In King Edward's time it paid 157.; now, it pays for feorm 50l., and for the whole of the king's dues it now pays 287.2

[ocr errors]

STANTON, Stanton Long, in Shropshire (Fig. 32).— At the time of the Survey, the Norman Helgot was Lord of Corve Dale, and had his castle at Stanton. The castle was afterwards known as Helgot's Castle, corrupted into Castle Holdgate. The site has been much altered by the building of a farmhouse in the bailey, but the motte still exists, high and steep, with a ditch round about half its circumference; there are some traces of masonry on the top. One side of the bailey ditch is still visible, and a mural tower of Edwardian style has been incorporated with the farmhouse. The exact area cannot now be calculated, but it can hardly have exceeded 2 acres. The manor of Stanton was an

1 Cited in Nevinson's "Notes on the History of Stamford," Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxv.

2 "T. R. E. dabat Stanford 157.; modo dat ad firmam 50%. De omni consuetudine regis modo dat 281."

3 "Ibi habet Helgot castellum, et 2 carucas in dominio, et 4 servos, et 3 villanos, et 3 bordarios, et 1 Francigenam cum 3 carucis. Ibi ecclesia et presbyter. T. R. E. valebat 18 solidos; modo 25 solidos. Wastam invenit." D. B., i., 258b. There are some fragments of Norman work in the church, which is chiefly Early English, doubtless of the same date as the mural tower of the castle.

agglomeration of four small manors which had been held by different proprietors in Saxon times, so it was not the centre of a soke. The value of the manor had risen.

TAMWORTH, Stafford (Fig. 32).-Although Tamworth Castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book, it must have been in existence in the 11th century, as a charter of the Empress Matilda mentions that Robert le Despenser, brother of Urso d'Abetot, had formerly held this castle; now Urso d'Abetot was a contemporary of the Conqueror, and so must his brother have been. Tamworth Castle stands on a motte 50 feet high, and 100 feet in diameter across the top, according to Mr Clark. It is an interesting instance of what is commonly called a shell keep, with a stone tower; one of the instances which suggest that the shell did not belong to a different type of castle to the tower, but was simply a ward wall, which probably at first enclosed a wooden tower. The tower and wall (or chemise) are probably late Norman, but the remarkable wing wall (there is only one, instead of the usual two) which runs down the motte is entirely of herring-bone work, and may be as old as Henry I.'s time. A bailey court, which cannot have been large, lay between the motte and the river Tame, but its outline cannot now be determined, owing to the encroachments of buildings. Tamworth is about a mile from the great Roman road known as Watling Street. We have already referred to the fortification of the burh here by Ethelfleda;

1 Stapleton's Introduction to Rot. Scac. Normanniæ, vol. ii.

3

2 It used to be supposed that herring-bone work was a Saxon sign, and this furnished an additional claim to the Saxon origin of this castle; but it is now known that herring-bone work only occurs in the later Saxon work, and is far more common in Norman. See note, p. 136.

3 See ante, p. 34.

[blocks in formation]

probably she only restored walls or banks which had existed before round this ancient capital of Mercia.

The value of the manor of Tamworth is not given in Domesday Book.

TICKHILL, Yorks (Fig. 32).—The name Tickhill does not occur in Domesday, but it is covered by that of Dadesley, the manor in which this castle was built: a name which appears to have gone out of use when the hill was thrown up. There can be no doubt that it was the castle of Roger de Busli, one of the most richly endowed of William's tenants-in-chief, as it is mentioned. as such by Ordericus.' He calls it the castle of Blythe, a name which it probably received because Blythe was the most important place near, and Dadesley was so insignificant. Florence of Worcester, when describing the same events, calls the castle Tykehill. The remains. furnish an excellent specimen of the earthworks of this class. The motte is 75 feet high, and its area on top about 80 feet in diameter; about a third of it is natural, the rest artificial. Only a slight trace remains of the ditch separating it from the oval bailey, which covers. 2 acres. The foundations of a decagonal tower, built in the reign of Henry II., are still to be seen on the top.2 The bailey retains its banks on the scarp, surmounted now by a stone curtain, which, along with the older part of the gatehouse, is possibly of the time of Henry I.3 The outer ditch is about 30 feet broad, and is still full of water in parts. On the counterscarp a portion of the

1 Ordericus, xi., ch. iii.

2 There are three entries for the works of the turris at Tickhill in the Pipe Rolls of 1178 and 1179, amounting to £123, 125. 5d.

3 Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I., 33, 36. Expenses for work at the wall of the castle are mentioned. Ordericus says that Robert Belesme fortified the castle of Blythe at the time of his rebellion in 1101, but he also says that it had belonged to Roger de Busli. Hist. Ecc., iv., 33; xi., 3.

bank remains.

This bank carried a wooden palisade when the castle was besieged by Cromwell.' The site is not naturally defensible; it is about three and a half miles from the northern Roman road.

The value of the manor of Dadesley had risen at the time of the Survey. The stone buildings which once stood in the bailey have been transformed into a modern house.

TONBRIDGE, Kent (Fig. 33).—This notable castle, the first English seat of the powerful family who afterwards took their name from Clare in Suffolk, is first mentioned in 1088, when it was stormed by William Rufus and his English subjects, who had adopted his cause against the supporters of his brother Robert. The castle was one of great importance at several crises in English history; but it began as a wooden keep on a motte, and the stone shell which now crowns this motte cannot be earlier than the 12th century, and judging by its buttresses, is much later. The castle stands outside the town of Tonbridge, separated from it by moats which were fed from the river. The smaller bailey of 1 acres, probably the original one, is square, with rounded corners. The palatial gatehouse, of the 13th or 14th century, is a marked feature of this castle. There appears to have been only one wing wall down the motte to the bailey, but a second one was not needed, owing to the position of the motte with regard to the river.

The value of the manor of Hadlow, in which Tonbridge lay, was stationary at Domesday. It belonged to the see of Canterbury, and was held by

1 Vicar's Parliamentary Chronicle, quoted by Hunter, South Yorks, ii., 2352 D. B., i., 319a. 3 A.-S. C. in anno.

4 D. B., i., 76.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed]
« PreviousContinue »