Rochester Castle - Architecture

Architecture

Little is known about the design of the first castle at Rochester as it has since vanished, and even the exact site is uncertain. It most likely took the form of a motte-and-bailey castle, with a mound and an outer enclosure defended by a timber palisade and earthen banks. Boley Hill has been suggested as the site of the first castle, an outwork reinforcing the castle's defences, or an abandoned siege castle like those documented in the 1088 siege. Boley Hill is a natural outcrop of rock, and could have acted as a motte.

The castle built by Bishop Gundulf in the late 12th century was enclosed by a stone wall. Situated in the south-west corner of the city, the castle used the remains of the Roman town walls as foundations. The circuit had at least one tower; it was replaced in the 14th century. The original gateway was radically altered in the 13th or 14th century. From across the River Medway, the twin landmarks of Rochester's castle and cathedral would have dominated the medieval landscape, symbolic of the authority of the church and nobility in the period. Most castles were built by secular nobles, but the work by Gundulf and his successor Corbeil provide examples of the role of the church in castle building.

According to military historian Allen Brown Rochester's keep is "among the finest and oldest in all England". Since its construction it underwent limited alteration, aside from the rebuilding of one corner, and although now in a state of ruin it remains significantly intact and is considered one of the most important surviving 12th-century keeps in England and France. The keep was richly decorated with hangings and furnishings. Dating from the second quarter of the 12th century, it is Rochester Castle's dominant feature. It had a square plan, and measures 70 by 70 feet (21 by 21 m) externally with pilaster buttresses at each corner. The keep was built in the castle's southern corner, close to the curtain wall. The primary building material was local Kentish Ragstone, although Caen stone used to face the keep was imported from Normandy. The same material was imported for the Tower of London's White Tower in the 11th century. The tops of the turrets rise 125 feet (38 m) above the ground, 12 ft above the battlements. Below the latter are rectangular holes, marking where wooden hoarding would have been attached. Though 12 ft thick at the base, the walls of the keep taper to 10 ft at the top. It is the tallest keep in England, and only those at Dover, the Tower of London, Colchester, and Norwich are larger. During John's siege of Rochester in 1215, the south-east corner collapsed; during Henry III's reign it was rebuilt as a cylinder. The windows increase in size higher up the walls, although only the uppermost were decorated. A spiral staircase in the north-east corner provided access to all floors, and another in the south-west corner went from the first floor to the top floor. The north-west corner tower contains small chambers, and the south-east probably had a similar layout before it was rebuilt.

Keeps were traditionally built with an entrance at first-floor level, and Rochester's follows this pattern. A forebuilding attached to the north side guarded the entrance. A stone staircase began on the west side of the keep before turning and meeting the forebuilding, which could be entered by crossing a drawbridge across a gap 9 feet (2.7 m) wide. There was another entrance in the west of the forebuilding, and at some point a new doorway was knocked through to the keep at the bottom of the drawbridge pit. The original door from the forebuilding into the keep was protected by a portcullis.

The roof and floors of the keep no longer survive.

The stone-built keeps of the 11th century generally had simple plans, with few rooms and an uncomplicated layout. Rochester's keep bears testament to a developing complexity, and provides an early example of a keep divided into separate areas for the lord and his retinue. The thickness of the walls allowed rooms to be built into them, as can also be seen at the Hedingham Castle's contemporaneous keep, or the slightly later one at Dover. The keep's interior is divided for its entire height by a cross wall running east–west. The ground floor was used for storage, with the three storeys above providing accommodation. The first floor probably contained a hall and great chamber, divided by the cross wall. This level may have been the accommodation of the castle's constable who looked after it during the owner's absence. There is a room called "Gundulf's Chamber" built into the thickness of the wall in the north-west corner; it may well have been the constable's private chamber. The second floor contained the keep's best accommodation and some of its most elaborate decoration. It is 27 feet (8.2 m) high and surrounded by a gallery in its upper half built into the thickness of the walls. The floor also had a chapel measuring about 28 by 15 feet (8.5 by 4.6 m). At some unknown point in the post-medieval period, a fire gutted the keep, leaving it in its present state without floors or a roof. On the second floor, there are openings in the cross wall, broken by a series of Romanesque columns between round-headed arches. The cross wall carried a well shaft, with a well-head at each floor. The third floor had a second chapel and access to the roof, and may have held additional accommodation.

The current entrance in the north-east occupies the approximate location of the main gatehouse constructed by Gundulf and then rebuilt during 1249–1250. It was pulled down in the 1870s when the enclosure was converted into a municipal garden. An engraving from 1735 by the Buck brothers gives some indication of the gatehouse's form: the gate was an archway between two towers projecting from the curtain wall. It was reached by a stone causeway across a ditch, rather than a drawbridge. A tower containing a postern gate was located in the north-west corner of the enclosure, built at the close of the 14th century to guard the bridge over the Medway. The tower and postern no longer stands, but 19th-century antiquary and engineer G. T. Clark made some notes on the structure while it was still standing and commented that it had mechanisms to lift supplies for the castle from the river. The western part of the stone outer wall, a stretch facing the river, dates from when Gundulf built the first wall enclosing the castle. In the 19th century a revetment was added to strengthen the decaying wall. Like the keep, it was constructed using Kentish Ragstone. This part of Gundulf's wall was 4.5 feet (1.4 m) thick at the base, narrowing to 2 feet (0.61 m) at the top; it rose to a height of around 22 feet (6.7 m). Four embrasures were added to this part of the wall in the 13th century, although the builders imitated Norman design. At the northern end of the 12th-century stretch of western wall are the remains of a building, probably a hall, dating from the 13th century. Although no longer standing, it is known it had a vaulted undercroft.

In the south Gundulf's wall survived into the modern period, although has now been dismantled. The current wall is a 19th-century replacement. At the eastern end of this wall, near the southern corner of the castle, is a two-storey rounded tower 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter dating from the early 13th century. It was built to fill the breach in the curtain wall caused when John's army besieged the castle and to reinforce a weak point in the defences. The section from the tower to the location of the former main gatehouse in the north-east dates from about 1367 to 1370. Two towers were built along the wall, each two storeys high and again using Kentish Ragstone. The one nearest the keep is relatively plain and the northernmost one more elaborate. The latter was intended for use as a residence and in the modern period was converted into a cottage. The wall between these two towers was reduced in the modern period, possibly to give a better view of the cathedral. Apart from the west side, the castle was surrounded by a ditch, much of which has since been filled in.