The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Castle
Goodrich lies within the ancient district of Archenfield, a border area betweenWalesandEnglandin the 11thc (see Preface to Herefordshire). GoodrichCastlestands on a sandstone scarp overlooking the river Wye, some 3 miles SW of Ross-on-Wye and 6½ miles NE of Monmouth. Close by was an important strategic crossing point on the road fromEnglandintoWales. Earthworks around the castle indicate the presence of an Iron Age hillfort here, but the first notice of a castle, Godric’s Castle, dates from 1101-02. Nothing of this survives; the oldest building on the site being the mid-12thcGreatTower, probably the work of Richard “Strongbow” de Clare (Lord of Goodrich 1148-76), or his father Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare (1138-48). This Gilbert had been given Goodrich along with the title of Earl of Pembroke, by King Stephen, whom he supported in the Civil War, and the Clares continued to support the king even when most of their neighbours had transferred their allegiance to the Empress Matilda. TheGreatTowerwas retained when the castle was rebuilt around 1300 probably by William de Valence (d.1296) and his wife Joan (d.1307). Thenew castleconsisted of a courtyard with ranges against a curtain wall with towers at three of the angles. The fourth corner, the NE, was occupied by an asymmetrical twin-towered gatehouse with a chapel in the larger S tower and a guardroom above the entrance from which the portcullises and murder-holes were controlled. East of the gatehouse, on the other side of the surrounding ditch, was a fortified barbican, and a bridge with a drawbridge section linked this to the entrance. Within the courtyard, the Great Hall occupied the west range; the kitchen and the oldGreatTowerthe south; the solar block the north; and another hall, perhaps for lower members of the household, the east. Also in the east range is a later medieval garderobe tower, perhaps 15thc. There is an outer ward surrounded by a wall on the north and west, and in the western section of the outer ward are remains of 17thc stables. The medieval stables cannot have been in this position, as it is not accessible from the barbican, where visitors would have dismounted.
The approach to the castle was from the south, giving the 15thc visitor a view of the tall, ancientGreatTowerrising above the battlements of the curtain wall and flanked by the round SE and SW towers. The visitor would have turned to the right, following the outer wall along its south and east sections. On turning the SE corner he would have been visually and nasally alerted to the consumption of great quantities of food here by the effluent from the garderobe tower. He would also have seen the barbican ahead of him; a signal to dismount and continue on foot. Passing through the entrance, the portcullises poised ready to fall and the murder holes above his head emphasized the fact that he was putting himself in another man’s hands. Finally emerging into the brightness of the courtyard he would have seen the Great Hall ahead of him and theGreatTowerto his left.
Only the Great Tower falls within our period, and it is there fore worth describing in more detail. It is approximately square, and its lowest levels are of rubble masonry, suggesting that they were originally hidden under an earth mound. From approximately 2m (6 ft) above the present courtyard level the rubble gives way to fine ashlar facing of grey sandstone (unlike the red sandstone used for the later parts of the castle). There are shallow buttresses clasping the angles, and flat pilasters in the centre of each face except the west. The tower is of three storeys. The undercroft is now entered from the courtyard through a doorway in the north face, but this is a late-medieval addition, and Ashbee suggests that the undercroft was originally only accessible by stairs from the floor above. Certainly the main entrance was through the round-headed doorway, converted into a window in the 15thc, in the N wall. This must have been reached by a timber staircase, as at Chepstow nearby. This doorway leads to the main storey which is impressively tall at more than 6m (20 ft), though not large in floor area. An internal doorway with a tympanum in the west wall of this storey gives onto a vaulted passage and a spiral staircase leading to the top storey; a fine room marked externally by its elaborately-carved N and W windows and internally by window seats, which could have served as the lord’s chamber. Romanesque features described here are the main N doorway, the internal doorway noted above, the top-storey windows and a stringcourse running below them.
Castle
A late medieval castle, housing an Archaeology Centre. Two loose fragments displayed in the castle bear 12thc. sculpture; (i) was discovered in rubble outside Dysert O'Dea churchyard in 1985 and (ii) was found in the churchyard at Rathblathmaic.
Castle
This ruined medieval castle stands on the site of a Roman fort, and incorporates some Roman fabric. Much of the standing fabric dates from the 12thc. and 13thc., including the keep, the chapel and the gatehouses. The chapel is in the middle of the inner bailey. There is no Romanesque sculpture in situ.
Castle
Windsor Castle, founded by King William I, consists of a big chalk motte on which stands a round tower, with walled enclosures to the W (the Lower Ward) and E (the Upper Ward. This is no place for a full architectural description of the castle, especially since it is by no means certain that the carved Romanesque stones described here were originally from this site (see Comments and Opinions, below), but the Bibliography will be useful as a guide to further reading about the site.
The material described here is all in the form of loose or reset stones, out of context and displayed in various locations around the castle, as follows.
The Moat Garden
This is the cultivated motte on which the Round Tower stands. The earliest account we have of a garden on the mound is in King James I of Scotland’s poem,The King’s Quair, written during his period of captivity at Windsor Castle between 1413 and 1423. This describes a small and private garden alongside the wall of the Round Tower :
Now was there maid, fast by the Touris wall,
A gardyn faire, and in the corneris set,
Ane herbere grene, with wandis long and small,
Railit about, and so with treis set
Was all the place, and hawthorn hegis knet,
That lyf was non, walkyng there forbye,
That mycht within scarce any wight aspy. (Tighe and Davies (1858), 79.)
There was little or no planting on the rest of the mound then, and none is visible in Norden’s 1607 view of the castle, but Hollar’s c.1672 engraving shows the south slopes divided into a series of geometric beds, quite unlike the present arrangement. (Roberts (1997), 161).
The area of the mound is associated with the so-called Norman Gate, built alongside it by William of Wykeham c.1359. At the time of Wyatville’s restoration of the castle, the mound had been rented out to a fruit and vegetable grower who sold the produce at market. The fruit trees planted against the curtain walls below the Round Tower were apparently undermining it, and in 1836 Wyatville sent a strongly-worded letter to the then resident of the Norman Gate, Lady Mary Fox, the State Housekeeper, warning her that if any more fruit trees were planted there was a danger of it collapsing. Indeed, some years earlier part of the wall had collapsed for this very reason, and repairs at a cost of £1500 were needed to repair the damage. (Taylor (1935)). By 1844, when the mound was photographed by Fox-Talbot, it was planted with a few shrubs and small trees, but there was no longer any evidence of systematic fruit-growing. The wall that partly encircles the mound on the inner side of the middle terrace was in place by that date (figure 1).
In 1901 the Norman Gate was given as a residence to the Right Hon. Sir Dighton Probyn, on his appointment as Keeper of the Privy Purse. Probyn had been a young officer during the Indian Mutiny, when he was awarded the VC and he rose to the rank of general before he entered the service of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. It was Probyn who was responsible for clearing away the remains of the Victorian design, and he transformed the mound into a richly-planted and less formal garden. He brought brown Carstone from Norfolk to build a rock garden, and introduced a water and bog garden and the present scheme of walls, terraces, borders and architectural ornaments. As we shall see, this work was in progress when Keyser photographed the Romanesque stones c.1915. The garden was neglected during the remainder of the Great War, and many plants were lost in the drought of 1921, so that Lord Wigram, Probyn’s successor as occupant of the house, had to restore the garden and added rare plants from the Far East (Taylor (1935), 326-28).
The present design is more or less Probyn’s, and consists of an outer crescent following the inside of the lower moat wall with a long bed of shrubs and herbaceous plants that runs in a three-quarter circle from the NE to the SE of the mound (figure 2). On this wall is an arched feature made of Romanesque carved stones (figure 3), and other loose stones are placed on stone shelves built onto its inner face. The bed is bounded on the inside by a low brick retaining wall, and inside this the ground is terraced to provide a flat lawn enhanced by rose beds and a small pond, with a paved terrace at the east end. From the inner edge of the lawn the mound rises steeply to the base of the Round Tower curtain wall, some 90 or 100 feet above. The lower slopes are simply grassed except towards the E, where they are planted with shrubs and trees, and at the far northern end, where the rockery descends with a series of pools and a flight of steps from the rear entrance of the Norman Gate, now the Governor’s residence, to the level of the moat wall (figure 4). At the top is the Herbere pavilion, and below it the Corinthian Fountain (figure 5), both of which include Romanesque carvings described here. Partway up the mound, and concentric with the line of the lower moat wall at the bottom and the Round Tower curtain wall at the top is a narrow terrace now known as the middle terrace (figure 6), and another arched feature made up of Romanesque carved stones is set there, with further carved stones placed on a shelf at the east end of the terrace (figures 7, 8). Above the middle terrace, up to the curtain wall of the Round Tower, the planting is denser, though still informal. At the extreme east end of the garden, at the foot of the mound, are greenhouses. The slope rising behind them has been reinforced with ashlar blocks, and among them are several stones with roll-moulded edges that show traces of possible Romanesque carving (figure 9).
The South Bowe
The South Bowe is a blocked sally port on the south side of the Upper Ward of the castle. It appears to date from the thirteenth century, although there is little in the structure that is diagnostic of date. In the passage is a rough arch constructed largely of clunch but including, in its west jamb, two moulded stones and two chevron voussoirs (figure 10).
The Carronade wall
The carronade wall is the retaining wall of the central motte on the Upper Ward side. A single stone carved with two units of diapering is set into this, described as cat. 55. It was photographed by Tsang and drawn by Brian Kerr. (figure 11).
All stones are numbered and described; the organisation of the stones being based on the type of object rather than its location. Loose stones were all photographed separately, but this was not always possible for stones built into structures, most notably the two arched structures in the Moat Garden. In these cases stones were identified by their position within the structure, and photographic references to the figures in which they appear are included in the feature descriptions.
1. The Lower Moat Wall. This structure takes the form of an arch attached to the garden side of the lower moat wall at the west (figure 12). There are two non-Romanesque stones carved with human figures in the centre, and around them is an arch made up of twelve 12th-century stones. Each jamb is made up of three stones, the arch is of five voussoirs and a niche-head in the centre forms a pseudo- tympanum. In the catalogue these stones are identified as follows:
LM1 - LM 3. Left jamb, bottom to top.
LM 4 - LM 8. Voussoirs of arch, left to right.
LM 9 - LM 11. Right jamb, top to bottom.
LM 12. Niche-head “tympanum”.
2. The Middle Terrace. The main feature is a structure in the form of an arch at the west side of this terrace, supported on a capital (R) or an impost (L) (figure 13). Five voussoirs form the arch, and five sections of label of two different designs surround the arch. Under the arch is another niche head, and below this, forming the centrepiece framed by the arch, is a post-medieval lion’s head. In the catalogue these stones are identified as follows:
MT1 - MT5. Label stones, left to right
MT6. Left hand impost
MT7 - MT11. Stones of arch, left to right
MT12. Right hand capital
MT13. Niche-head “tympanum”
Castle
The remains of Clitheroe Castle consist today of the Norman keep standing on rocky outcrop dominating the town. The keep is one of the smallest in the country, measuring no more than 10.8m on each side externally and 5.2m internally. It is square with small, flat, pilaster-like corner turrets, one of which contains a spiral staircase. It consists of a single room on three floors, with an extra intra-mural chamber on the 1st floor. The original roof or floor timbers is lost. The main entrance was on the NW elevation at 1st floor level. Entry must have been by an external, wooden staircase. The substantial stepped buttresses are part of the 1848 restoration work.
On the elevations, all apertures are either simple slits - some enlarged at a later date - or round-headed doors which appear to have been rebuilt and renewed or what appear to be breaches in the wall (particularly at ground floor level). It may be that the door apertures on 1st floor level are in their original position, however the jambs and arches appeared to contain rebuilt or newer fabric.
There was no sign of any moulding or decorative work on the extant jambs, lintels or sills.
The museum, occupying the 16thc Steward's House, was visited and checked for any ex situ fragments of stone but none were seen.
Castle
The motte and bailey castle built at Arundel by Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, in the late 11thc., would have contained mainly wooden structures, although the stone gatehouse is believed to date from that period. In the second half of the 12thc. (c.1170-1190) the circular shell keep was erected, the curtain walls were strengthened and the domestic quarters extended. The castle was ruined during the Civil War, and was largely rebuilt in the late 19thc. (C A Buckler; 1890-1903). This work included the neo-Norman Postern Gate.
The doorway of the keep dates from the second quarter of the 12thc., and the surviving S window of the hall from the late 12thc. A beakhead fragment recorded some years ago is now lost. However, a number of carvings, including a second beakhead voussoir, were discovered during an extensive restoration of the castle in 1976-78. These are now displayed in the Fitzalan Chapel. In addition, a carved voussoir is set in the restored face of the E curtain wall.
Castle
Orford is a tiny coastal town in the sandlings of SE Suffolk, 16 miles due E of Ipswich. It was not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but there was a successful port at the mouth of the river Alde and a market here by 1138. The town received a boost from the building of the castle by Henry II between 1165 and 1173, but its importance fell as the port silted up; the sea throwing up the long sand bar that now extends for over five miles from Orford Ness down to Hollesley. The town is simply laid out around the market place, with the church at its E end and the castle 300 yards W of the market at the edge of the town. The road from Sudbourne runs right through the centre, alongside the market, to end at the quay at the town’s S edge.
The castle is polygonal in plan, but the form is masked by three rectangular turrets, regularly spaced around the core, and by a recatngular 2-storey forebuilding at the W, with a chapel on the upper storey. The castle has three main storeys: a basement, lower hall and upper hall, but the turrets rise a storey higher. The external fenestration is plain but plentiful, with large round-headed windows at both main levels of the core, and slits on the towers. None of the windows is adorned with sculpture, and they are not treated as features here. The castle is entered by means of an external staircase leading to a completely plain triangular-headed doorway to the forebuilding. Such sculptural decoration as the castle contains is on the interior: the S doorway into the Lower Hall from the forebuilding, and the arcading on the walls of the chapel. The chapel is on the upper storey of the forebuilding, and is in plan a trapezium with its parallel sides at the W and E (where a niche houses the altar), and the doorway at the W end of the sloping N side. It is reached through a passage in the thickness of the wall, in the upper part of the Lower Hall, reached from the spiral staircase in the SE tower.
Castle
Carisbrooke Castle occupies an elevated site near, the centre of the island adjoining the Medina gap in the lateral chalk ridge, and overlooks the village of Carisbrooke. It is a medieval castle site which originated as a castle between 1066 and 1086, with several phases of development culminating in the provision of the surrounding artillery fortifications in the late 16thc. The later medieval castle consisted of the curtain wall, the motte surmounted by a shell keep, an elaborate gate house and various internal buildings including the chapel of St Nicholas. The chapel was rebuilt between 1905 to 1906 on its medieval foundations. The core of the gatehouse originated in the 13thc and its existing form dates from 1335 to 1356. The outer artillery fortifications were the work of Gianibelli and were commissioned in 1597 (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 107-12).
The only surviving Romanesque sculpture is a capital now displayed in the museum.
Castle
Although the cathedral and the episcopal palace were probably the most elaborate buildings on the site, it was the castle that was at the heart of Old Sarum and the reason for the complex’s existence in that location. The original building was a motte and bailey castle on an earthwork. The castle, which was always intended as a temporary measure, was originally held by the King, but by c.1130 it had passed to Bishop Roger who replaced many of the early, purely-defensive structures with a substantial, fortified house, the ‘Great Tower’ and Herlewin's Tower in the northern half of the inner bailey. The Great Tower was first mentioned in 1130-1 and by the 13th century it was probably three storied.
The house had four ranges enclosing a rectangular, paved, inner courtyard. The major chambers were on the first floor, with the Great Hall occupying the west range and the Great Chamber the north one. The eastern end of the south range was occupied by St Margaret’s Chapel on the ground floor with St Nicholas’ chapel above. At the north end of the east range there was a ‘kitchen tower’ and an east turret holding further garderobes. Although Roger’s house was substantial and elaborate in plan, it does not seem to have been embellished with the same level of sculptural detail as the cathedral. Where sections of the walling survive, the remnants show that they were reinforced with pilaster buttresses and in the excavations fragments of stone shingles and ornate, red and green glazed ridge-tiles were discovered. The published reports suggest that the doors and windows were decorated with chevron, while it was surmised that the upper windows were subdivided by stone shafts with spiral grooves and other patterns. The chimney, which is the most elaborate surviving feature from the Great Tower, was discovered during the 1910 excavations and illustrated in the following year's report. The Great Tower and the adjacent narrow Postern Gate, as well as the east gate, are the only significant, but ruinous, structures surviving from this period.
Many fragments in the English Heritage stone store and the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum may originate from the early 12th century fortified house that succeeded the early castle. The most striking feature was the large chimney, which has been reconstructed in the museum (museum entry 80). For details of these fragments refer to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum entry.