i6 



(JFotrnor (Jfastlc, antr its ^nctcnt C^tuncrs. 



By Rev. Charles Kerry. 



HIS interesting relic of feudal greatness lies on the 

 verge of the upland forming the western boundiry of 

 the Erewash valley, little more than a mile from 

 Codnor Park Station, and about three miles east of Ripley. In 

 the sixteenth century this stronghold consisted of two large 

 oblong — if not rectangular — courts, separated by a wall strengthened 

 by four circular towers, nearly equidistant, the gateway between 

 the courts being placed in the centre. The northern or inner- 

 most court seems to have contained the principal building — a 

 large edifice of three stories, of which now only three walls 

 remain, and these, unless a protecting hand be speedily applied, 

 will soon be among the things that have been. Of tlie main, or 

 boundary walls of the north court, there is an east frontage of 

 masonry of 152 feet overlooking the Erewash ; of this, 59 feet 

 (the soutliern portion) consists of a ruinous serrated wall about 

 eighteen feet high, with two rugged perforations as if for windows. 

 In this wall are two projections like wide buttresses, which seem to 

 have been garderobes or latrinse, standing on the slope of the 

 moat. The southern extremity of this wall for twenty-six feet has 

 twenty courses of squared freestone of broad and narrow work 

 {drcci 1200), capped by later shale masonry [circa 1330), and is 

 clearly coeval with the circular towers. The remainder of this 

 wall northwards consists of an advanced basement, which can 

 only be seen from the moat, shewing a face ot sixty-three feet 

 eight inches, obviously a side foundation of the principal structure. 



