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Richmond, Scarborough, and Skelton.1 Of the last - mentioned not a vestige remains, although the bases of a portion of the walls of the bailey enceinte-apparently late fourteenth century in date are incorporated in the existing modern structure. The writer, who for some years has made a special study of the rectangular keep type of castle, and has visited and examined every example in England and Wales and a number of those in France, is of opinion that the North Riding group is of unusual interest and variety, containing as it does such totally different structures as the great "palace - keep" of Middleham, the comfortless non-residential tower of Richmond, and the purely garrison keep-castle of Bowes. It is most unusual to find seven rectangular keep castles in such a comparatively small area as that covered by the North Riding; and although an almost unexampled act of vandalism has deprived us of Skelton, and although that of Mulgrave has been so much pulled about and faked that the only original portion now remaining is a fragment of the forebuilding, each of the remaining five towers may be said to afford in itself features of unusual interest. They will be compared with other examples

1 These seven keeps are by no means contemporary. The first to be commenced was that of Scarborough, which Henry II began in 1157. The exact date of the commencement of Richmond keep is difficult to ascertain. Alan III died in 1146, and, as Dr. Round tells us (vol. x of Pipe Roll Series, Ancient Charters) that he did not marry until 1137, his son and successor, Conan le Petit, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond, would not come of age until about 1159. We might not be far wrong in stating that Richmond would be commenced c. 1160, and that, perhaps five or six years later, Conan began the great keep at Bowes. On the Duke's death, in 1171, both these incomplete towers escheated to Henry II, with the wardship of Conan's heiress, and the king completed them, Richmond in 1174, and Bowes in 1187. It is a fact well worth remembering that when Richard I came to the throne in 1189, i.e. 123 years after the battle of Hastings, there were only five castles in the North Riding which possessed any works in masonry of the least importance; three of these, Bowes, Richmond, and Scarborough, were rectangular keep castles, the other two, Castleton and Pickering, were shell keep castles, although the masonry at the latter place was confined to what is now the inner bailey. These five castles were all in the king's hands. It must not be imagined that the great barons were content with their old

timber strongholds. They must have gazed with envy at these great stone castles so symbolical of the royal power. But the iron hand of the second Henry was laid heavily upon his barons, and it was not until the reckless Richard ascended the throne that they were, at length, permitted to bring their strongholds up to date. In 1190 Robert Fitz-Randolph abandoned his old timber castle, and commenced the erection of the great "palace-keep" of Middleham. Probably about the same time Adam de Brus II converted his timber castle at Skelton into a great stone fortress, with a rectangular keep. About 1197 Robert de Turnham, who had married the heiress of the Fossards, abandoned the old timber castle of Foss, and erected a stone castle with a rectangular keep half a mile to the east. In or about 1200 Robert de Roos converted the strong timber castle at Helmsley into a stone fortress, and erected the two lower storeys of the keep at that place.

The North Riding rectangular keeps may be said to approximately date as follows:

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in England and France, and a brief reference will be made. to the great advancement in the construction of siege engines, which was one of the factors which led to the general substitution during the latter part of the second half of the twelfth and particularly during the first half of the thirteenth century— of masonry for timbering.

The fourth article will deal with some of the castles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries other than the rectangular keep castles and the quadrangular "palace-fortresses." The list will include Cotherston, a motte castle which, very early in the thirteenth century, developed into a shell keep stronghold; Crayke, a Norman motte and bailey fortress which developed on the lines of a tower-house edifice; Kirkby Moorside (the Nevill Castle) and Ravensworth, stone castles founded in the fourteenth century; Kilton, Pickering, and Whorlton. The last-mentioned is somewhat of an anomaly, as although an early Norman motte and bailey stronghold, it eventually developed on the lines of a tower-house castle, and there would appear to be no masonry in existence there of a date earlier than the last two decades of the fourteenth century. The true solution of the problem probably is that, c. 1200, it developed into a shell keep fortress so far as the motte was concerned, and that such works were demolished when the motte was lowered and the existing buildings erected upon it at the end of the fourteenth century.

It is a matter of regret that we do not possess an example of a circular keep or Juliet, a type of tower contemporary with the rectangular keeps; one would gladly exchange one of our rectangular keeps for the magnificent Juliet at Conisborough (West Riding), or for the well-arranged tower at Orford. It is somewhat extraordinary, considering the number of motte and bailey castles erected in the North Riding, that we possess only one good example, that of Pickering, of an ordinary Norman earth-and-timber castle developing into a shell keep stronghold, its natural and logical evolution. Of a genuine concentric

1 Previous to completing these two articles, the writer proposes visiting some eight or ten contemporary French castles which he has not hitherto had an opportunity of examining.

2 Conisborough, the finest tower of this type in England, was erected during the last quarter of the twelfth century; Orford was built between 1162 and 1172; Pembroke dates from the first quarter of the thirteenth century. This type of tower can be better studied in France,

where Coucy, Chateaudun, Villeneuvele-Roi, and Tournebu may be cited as magnificent examples.

3 Pickering is, however, an excellent example; indeed, the writer, who has visited the majority of the English shell keep castles, considers it, after Berkeley, perhaps as good an example of the development of a Norman earth-and-timber castle into a stone fortress as one could find anywhere.

castle, it is perhaps unnecessary to say, we have no example, nor is there one to be found in the north of England.1 We possess, however, astray in the wilds of Cleveland, a modified example, the castle of Kilton, of a keepless fortress, a type practically unknown in the north, and which can only properly be studied in Wales or on the Welsh borders.2

"

The last two articles will be devoted to the later castles, of which the North Riding contains unusually interesting and numerous examples. About the middle of the fourteenth century the military importance of castles had almost departed, and although a large number of licences to crenellate were issued for at least a century later, the structures erected were built as much for comfort and even luxury as for defence. Of these later castles the great quadrangular palace-fortresses ' are by far the most important. Mr. St. John Hope aptly describes these stately and magnificent structures as roughly resembling a rectangular keep split open in the centre to allow of a courtyard. Early in the fourteenth century a modified example of this class was erected at Danby, and in the latter half of the fourteenth century the regal fortress of Bolton-in-Wensleydale and the stately and imposing castle of Sheriff Hutton were erected. The Nevill palace at Middleham is also of the same type, and a great palace-fortress, few traces of which now. remain, was built at Upsall.

Among the later castles we get, in the North Riding as elsewhere, a reversion to the rectangular keeps in the towerhouses of Ayton, Cowton, Gilling, Harlsey, etc.; and later still another type appears in such structures as Mortham and Nappa. At Tanfield we have a graceful gate-house forming a detached part of a manor-house of earlier date.

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contain a central court of small size. This interesting structure has been very carefully restored within recent years, the alterations having been just completed when the writer visited it in the summer of 1910.

4 The earliest example of this type to be erected in England was Acton Burnell, Shropshire, built by Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Chancellor of England, which would appear to have been erected between 1282 and 1287 (Pat., 12 Edw. I, m. 7).

5 Bolton was commenced in 1379 (Pat., 3 Rich. II, part 1, m. 43), and Sheriff Hutton in 1382 (Pat., 5 Rich. II, part 2, m. 21).

6 Commenced in 1389.

1

With the exception of Gilling, which has been dealt with by Mr. Bilson, and Snape, described by the late Dr. T. Horsfall (Notes on the Manor of Well and Snape, pp. 87-101), these late North Riding castles have been practically ignored by the antiquary. Mr. Clark leaves them severely alone, and the writer must himself confess that these structures, imposing and stately as some of them are, do not appeal to him in the way that the more defensible castles do. He proposes, however, to describe them in some detail, illustrating the descriptions by photographs, plans, and sections.

THE NORMAN CASTLES OF THE
NORTH RIDING.

In placing this, the first of the series of articles, before the readers of the Journal, the writer desires to tender his grateful thanks to Mrs. Armitage for her valuable advice upon several of the earthworks, and to his friend, Mr. William Brown, F.S.A., who, with unfailing kindness, has assisted him in every possible way.2

The study of the earthworks which are all that now mark the sites of the majority of our Norman castles is still in its infancy, and has long been the most neglected portion of mediæval military architecture. Earlier antiquaries, with naive impartiality, apparently regarded one earthwork, no matter of what form or extent, to be pretty much the same as any other, and different historians, according to individual fancy or caprice, have labelled the same earthwork as a British strength, a Roman camp, a Saxon burh, or Danish geweorc. With very few exceptions the earthworks which mark the sites of our Norman castles are still designated as anything but what they really are.

Into an examination of the various types of earthworks it would appear to be unnecessary to enter in an article dealing exclusively with mediæval military architecture. The particular type with which we are concerned is one we are constantly meeting with in our archæological expeditions, not only in England and France, but in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Broadly speaking, this particular type consists of a hillock, mound, or

'Yorks. Arch. Journal, xix, 105-192. 2 The writer desires to thank Colonel Parker, C.B., F.S.A., Professor Haverfield, F.S.A., Mr. William Farrer, D.Litt.; Rev.

C. V. Collier, F.S.A.; Mr. H. B. McCall,
F.S.A.; Mr. W. T. Lancaster, F.S.A.; and
Mr. Edward Wooler, F.S.A., for assistance
in various ways.

motte,1 occasionally natural, usually artificial, generally varying from 15 to 60 feet in height, and from 40 to 150 feet in diameter at the summit. On one side of this motte there usually lies a fortified enclosure, courtyard, or bailey. The motte which, when perfect, has a banquette, rampart, or breastwork of earth running round its upper edge, almost invariably forms part of the general line of outer defence. It is usually defended by its own ditch, separating it from the bailey, which ditch, at two points, joins the main ditch running round both the bailey and the exterior sides of the usually three-quarters detached motte. There is the same marked divergence in the area of the baileys as in the area of the summit of the mottes. They vary from, say, half an acre in extent, as at Middleham, to 81 acres, as at Skipsea; but generally speaking, we may say that the average earthwork has a bailey of about 1 acres. These baileys vary in shape as well as in size; the great majority of them are semi-lunar or oval. There are, however, examples of triangular, oblong, and even of almost square baileys. Generally speaking, perhaps, we may liken the typical earthwork of this class to the figure 8 with the lower part enlarged and elongated to represent the bailey. This general plan is not, of course, an absolutely rigid one; the shape of the earthwork was, to a large extent, governed by the contours of the site selected. Several promontory earthworks which can be proved to represent Norman castles, of which Mountferrant (East Riding), the well-known fortress of the Fossards, is an example, have more than one bailey, set

1 The writer is, of course, aware that one or two leading authorities object to the use of the word "motte," and prefer the word "mound." This, however, must be a matter of individual preference, and it seems to him more appropriate, considering the purely French origin of this type of castle, to use the French word for a thing which was essentially foreign to the English. Moreover, it is surely a distinct advantage to have a specific name for a specific thing.

2 M. de Caumont, in his Abécédaire ou rudiment d' Archéologie, published in 1869, gives a description of a motte and bailey castle which might have almost been written at the present day. "Au Xe et XIe siècle, les châteaux étaient en général composés de deux parties principales; d'une cour basse et d'une seconde enceinte renfermant une tour ou donjon. L'étendue de la cour basse, ou première enceinte, était proportionnée à l'importance de la place.

end to end, a somewhat in

Souvent elle occupait environ hectare,
quelquefois 1 hectare de terrain et même
davantage. Si j'en juge par le grand
nombre d'emplacements de châteaux
que j'ai observés, beaucoup étaient
entourés d'un rempart en terre sans
maçonnerie qui devait être surmonté
de palissades en bois, et dont l'approche
était défendue par un fossé plus ou
moins profond
A l'une des
extrémitiés de la cour, quelquefois au
centre (this arrangement may be more
common in France than in England;
in this country the motte is usually
placed upon the main enceinte) s'élevait
une éminence arrondie, souvent artifi-
cielle, quelquefois naturelle, sur laquelle
était assise la citadelle ou le donjon.
Lorsque cette butte était artificielle,
elle offrait habituellement l'image assez
régulière d'un cône tronqué. C'est
ce que l'on appelait une motte, etc."
He gives (p. 393) a picture of a typical
motte and bailey castle, with its palisades
and timber keep.

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