“This castle was defended by a wall surrounding it, built on the brow of the hill on which it stands, and by three ditches; the outermost of which reached on the west to the edge of the present Market Place, on the north to London Lane, which it took in; on the east nearly to Conisford Street, and on the south to the Golden Ball Lane. The postern or back entrance into the works was on the north-east, by which a communication was had with the earl’s palace, then occupying the whole space between the outer ditch and Tombland. The grand entrance is on the south, from which you passed three bridges in going to the Castle. The first hath been immemorially destroyed; the ruins of the second remained till the ditches were filled up and levelled thirty years since; and the third still continues and consists of one whole arch, exceeded by very few in England.”
Mr. John Kirkpatrick, who wrote an account of the Castle in the last century, gives quite a different description of the earth works. He notices the present ditch, and a second entrenchment lying between the present ditch and the Shire house, which then stood near the old weighing house on the hill. He also refers to the Shire house ditch as a distinct entrenchment. He describes a bridge house on the inner side of the great southern ditch in the middle of the present Cattle Market, and the line of the houses forming the southern limit of the Cattle Market seems to show the limit of the outwork.
Mr. B. B. Woodward, F.S.A., in his lectures delivered here on “Norwich in the Olden Time,” adopted this view of the earth works, which he believed did not consist of three concentric lines of defence. He described the Saxon fortress as probably no more than a strong palisade carried along the inner edge of two great trenches and the top of the steep bank of the small stream called the “Cockey;” the buildings consisting of a great timber hall with offices and stabling. He believed that the Normans strengthened the outworks, cast up the great mound, dug the vast inner ditch, and reared the noble donjon, which, before the “restoration” of its exterior, was a fine feudal monument. After the Norman period the earth works, Mr. Woodward thought, underwent great changes. The horse-shoe trench on the east side disappeared and was built upon. This horse-shoe trench enclosed the Castle Meadow. Another smaller outwork was formed on the south side of the original great southern trench, both of the last named being crossed by bridges. In support of this view, Mr. Woodward referred to the account given by Kirkpatrick, who, as we have said, described the second ditch as lying between the great circular ditch and the Shire house, which then stood near the old weighing house. The old way from King Street had been disused because the growth of the city had so greatly altered the defensive character of the fortress. In addition to this, there were the names of two churches, one of which was St. Martin’s, (originally called “on the Hill,”) but afterwards “at Bailey” or “at the Castle gate;” and the other, St. John, now Timberhill, but then “at the Castle gate.” Unless a way existed through the outworks to the castle hill, these churches could not have been properly called “at the Castle gate;” and as the “Bailey,” was the space enclosed within the intrenchments of the Castle, the other name of St. Martin would be quite inappropriate. The Buckes, in their view of the Castle, represented a ruined building, like a bridge house, on the inner side of the great southern ditch. Before the end of the last century, the level of the south side of the hill was raised to form a Cattle Market.
Mr. Harrod, some years since, at a meeting of the Archæological Society held in the Museum, exploded the theory of three circular ditches by showing from the city records that houses had always stood on the sites of the supposed outer and middle ditches; the inner vallum was the only one, and extended round the base of the hill on which the keep is erected, and is plainly traceable at the present time. It is planted with trees and shrubs, having a gravelled walk in the centre, and is enclosed with an iron palisade. The area of the upper ballium is level and comparatively high, and forms an irregular circle on the summit of the hill, surrounded by an iron railing. The great Keep situated within this area is a massive quadrangular pile, 110 feet in length from east to west, 92 feet 10 inches in breadth from north to south, and 69½ feet high to the top of the merlons of the battlements, and the walls are from 10 to 13 feet in thickness. From the basement to the top are three stories, each strengthened by small projecting buttresses, between which the walls are ornamented with semi-circular arches resting on small three-quarter columns. In the upper story the backs of some of these arcades are decorated with a kind of reticulated work, formed by the stones being laid diagonally, so that the joints resemble the meshes of a net. To give it greater richness of effect, each stone had two deeply chased lines, crossing each other parallel with the joints, so as to present the appearance of Mosaic. On the exterior of the west side are two arches which appear to have been originally intended as a deception to the enemy, giving an idea of weakness externally, where in fact was the greatest strength; for the wall is not only 13 feet in thickness in this place, but, within, it was additionally barricaded by two oblique walls which were, long ago, taken down. On the east side of the keep there is a projecting tower called Bigod’s tower, which was most probably built by Hugh Bigod, third Earl of Norfolk, who succeeded his brother as High Constable of the Castle, early in the 12th century. This tower, which was an open portal to the grand entrance of the Castle, is of a richer kind of architecture, and in the genuine Norman style, and since 1824, has been entirely restored, so as now to exhibit its pristine aspect, which is certainly different from the rest of the keep. The interior of the keep has been so greatly altered in order to adapt it to prison purposes, that the original arrangement of apartments cannot be traced.
The style of architecture has been a matter of dispute, as to whether it is Saxon, Danish, or Norman. Mr. Boid, in his history and analysis of the principal styles of architecture, ventures to challenge any one to prove the existence of any monument in this country of real Saxon skill; nor has any specimen been discovered. Mr. Wilkins, of Norwich, who has described both the ancient and modern states of the fortress in Vol. xii. of the Archæologia, believed, however, that the part which yet remains might have been constructed chiefly in the reign of Canute, but that it is notwithstanding in the style of architecture practised by the Saxons, long before England became subject to the Danes, and is the best exterior specimen of the kind. Other and later writers, with much better evidence, believe the whole keep to be Norman, of the time of William Rufus; for it is similar in style to Castle Rising, built in the reign of that king, by Albini. The earth works and stone works are very similar. The whole of the exterior of the keep has been refaced, the original style being preserved. It is to be regretted that the work was not wholly refaced with small square stones, in the Norman manner, instead of commencing with the large massive freestone, which is coloured to represent smaller stones. This defect, however, on being discovered was remedied, for a great part of the exterior was finished after the Norman fashion. The county jail stands on the east side of the keep, and was built on the site of a previous prison in 1824–28 at a cost of £15,000. It comprises a governor’s house and three radiating wings, and has room for 224 male prisoners. Three bridges are, as we have said, thought by some authorities to have crossed three ditches, but for more than a century the present bridge has been the only one. This bridge consists of one large semicircular arch. Mr. Wilkins supposed that it was the original bridge built by the Saxons, but this is only conjectural like the rest of his theory about the earth works. At the termination of this bridge, upon the upper ballium, are the remains of two circular towers, 14 feet in diameter, which are supposed to have flanked the portal of the ballium wall. The history of the castle will be given at some length in subsequent pages. We shall now proceed to
The Cathedral.
This grand Norman pile is the great