The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole UA (now)
House
The Constable's (or Norman) House was built in the mid to late-12th century in the NE angle of the curtain wall of Christchurch Castle as a chamber block. It is rectangular with gables at the N and S ends, and of 2 storeys. and overloooks on its E side a branch of the River Avon, probably cut as a channel to serve the sanitary needs of the occupants. At the N end a hall sits above an undercroft. The hall has elaborate double-arched, chevron-decorated windows (one in the N wall and two in the E), while in the W wall are two plain round-headed windows. In the E wall was a fireplace.
At the S end of the building was the watergate, and presumably a garderobe emptying into the channel. There was probably a bedchamber in the upper storey. The house is built of large blocks of Purbeck rubble, with Binstead and Freshwater stone dressings, and Purbeck marble used for the shafts of the E windows.