A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



became the king's" it served the purposes of royal 

 residence and stronghold and county government office 

 and prison. The jurors of 1274-5 ^^'^ that it 'belonged 

 to the county,'*^ and an inquest of 1 329 found that 

 its constableship was by old custom appurtenant to 

 the county and jurisdiction of the sheriff.*^ The uses 

 to which the castle was put are illustrated by the fact 

 that this inquest was held in the castle hall which the 

 sheriff had been commanded to be prepared for the 

 sessions of the justices in eyre, who sat from November 

 1329 to May 1330,** the mayor having been ordered 

 to oversee these preparations.** In the same eyre the 

 mayor protested on behalf of the town against the 

 burgesses being forced to plead outside the liberties, 

 but was unable to obtain a special sessions for the 

 borough like that of 1285.^ The castle was still 

 outside the jurisdiction of the borough in 1655. A 

 Duston Utigant in that year writes, ' I deUvered writs 

 to the undersheriff to arrest G. and the rest. ... He 

 said Northampton was a pri\-ileged place and he 

 durst not serve them. They durst not come down 

 to the castle at Easter sessions last, for they had 

 been out of their liberty and had been arrested.'*' 

 When the castle was dismantled in 1662, Charles II 

 directed that as much should remain as was necessary 

 for the shelter of the justices of the Bench,** and 

 Henry Lee could remember the judge of Nisi Prius 

 sitting at the castle with his back against the west wall 

 of the Chapel of St. George.** The county magis- 

 trates sat there for quarter sessions down to the 

 Epiphany term, 1671,'** after which they sat in the 

 town, presumably in the temporary building erected 

 for the use of the Judges on Assize.*t From 1670 to 

 1675 the town and county authorities were wrangling 

 as to whether the new sessions house should be built 

 in the town or on the castle site.*^ .4ftcr the fire, 

 however, it was mutually agreed that the county 

 sessions house should be built in the town ' as an 

 encouragement to rebuilding,''* and the castle ruins 

 ceased to have any connection with the government of 

 the county. 



The greater part of the site of the castle was levelled 

 in 1880 for the erection of the London and North- 

 Western Railway Company's station and goods shed, 

 and the records of what formerly existed are so frag- 

 mentary tliat it is difficult to reconstruct the original 

 form of the castle. It seems to have been of the ' motte ' 

 and bailey type, common to the more important castles 

 of the time.** The ' motte,' upon which stood the 

 keep, surrounded by a moat, was apparently on the 

 north-east side of the bailey where a flat-topped 

 conical mound called Castle Hill was still a play- 

 ground for children in the middle of the 19th century. 

 This mound, under which a skeleton was found in 



1827,*^ was approximately bounded by Chalk Lane, 

 Castle Street, Phoenix Street and Castle Hill. The 

 bailey, which was fortified by a rampart and ditch, 

 was roughly circular in shape and covered about 3J 

 acres. It is now traversed by St. Andrew's Road, and 

 a little to the east of the point where this road would 

 cross the southern part of the moat was the southern 

 entrance to the bailey, and at the spot where it 

 would cross the northern part of the moat was the 

 northern or principal entrance. The jamb of the 

 gateway here was discovered in 1883. Outside this 

 entrance were some earthworks, which it is thought 

 covered the approach to the gate ; they may, however, 

 have been thrown up for siege purposes. The position 

 of the curtain wall of the bailey is known on the south 

 and west sides, and photographs exist of the wall and 

 of a bastion on the south side. On the west side of 

 St. Andrew's Road remains of buildings have been 

 from time to time discovered together with four 

 wells, and remains of the moat still exist at the north- 

 east of the bailey in the garden of St Peter's Rectory, 

 off Fitzroy Street.** Building accounts of the 12th 

 century refer to repairs to the tower or keep {turrtj) 

 as well as to houses in the castle {castellum)P The 

 survey of 1323, moreover, refers to 'an old tower 

 called Fawkestour,' wliich seems to have been at that 

 date outside the curtain wall.** It does not appear to 

 have formed part of the later fortifications, being 

 ignored in Speed's map, and in the military drawing 

 of 1650,** but it is shown in the plan in the Gt'ntleman's 

 Magazine for 1800,* which is of value as giving a cross- 

 section from north to south of the bailey and the 

 triple rampart guarding the northern entrance. It 

 was finally levelled between 1827 and 1832, the earth 

 from it being used to fill in the moat.* 



The first Norman buildings may well have been of 

 wood, since it would take time for the earthworks to 

 become settled. Fxcavations in 1863 revealed, amongst 

 later remains, a Norman chamber with a groined roof 

 and a central column, which may have belonged to 

 the castle of the time of Henry II.' The accounts 

 of Becket's interviews with the King in 1164 mention 

 a castle gateway, through which the archbishop 

 rode ; a hall ; an inner chamber ; an upper chamber 

 where the King received the bishops wlio tried to 

 mediate between Becket and himself ; and a chapel.* 

 From the time of Henry II onwards there are constant 

 references on the Pipe Rolls, Close Rolls and Liberate 

 Rolls to constructions and repairs at Northampton 

 Castle.* The masonry uncovered in 1863 belonged 

 mainly to the 13th and 14th centuries, and the 

 records indicate the greatest building activity under 

 Henry III, with extensive repairs under Eduird Hand 

 Fdward III. There is specific reference to the King's 



•' Before 1130 ; ice Pipe R. 31 Hen. I. 



'' Rot. llund. ii, I : periinct comiiatui. 



•' Fine R. 3 Ed. Ill, m. 4. 



•• Cloic R. 3 Ed. Ill, m. 9 ; 4 Ed. Ill, 

 m. 3zd. 



" Cat. Pal. 1327-30, p. 441. 



'• See above, p. 10, .ind hclow, p. 36. 



•' Hill. MSS. Com. Rep. zii, app. 3, 

 p. 344. 



•• S. P. Dom. Charlei II, Entry Book I, 

 fo. 62. " I-ee, Coll. p. 98. 



•• See Record! of Quarter Se«iioni, 

 • t County Hall, Northampt. I owe thl» 

 iolormation to the tcindneit of Mill Joan 

 Walw. 



'" Boro. Rrc. ii, 148. Note .ilso Henry 

 I.ee'i itatement, that in 1670 the sessions 

 houie was removed from the caitle to the 

 Market Croii (Lee, Coll. p. 118). 



" R. M. Serjeantion, The Casile 

 Norihampl. reprinted from Xorlhnnls. A'a/. 

 Hill. Soc. and Field Cl:th, xiv, pp. 49-52. 



•• Ibid. p. 53. 



•* Thii account it baled on Asioe. Arch. 

 Soc. Repls. XV, ii, 198-209; xvi, 63-70, 

 243 251, and notei by Dr. Cyril Fox, 

 National Muieum of \Valei. 



" Alloc. Arch. Soc. Rcpii. xv, 2o8. 



•• Ibid. XV, 205 ; xvi, 247. 



" Pipe R. 20, 23, 28. 29 lien. H. Theic 



34 



have been interpreted .t» referring to the 

 tower in I.atinier'l Croft, ncir Derngato. 

 If thl« tower was a part of the town wall 

 there seems no reason for its appearance in 

 the iherifj'i accounts, and nothing in iti 

 later history supports this identification. 



•' Chan. Misc. Inq. 16 Edw. II, 80/15. 



"•Add. MS. 11564; reproduced in 

 Serjeantson, Caiile of Norihampl. p. 



' Gem. Ma^. Ixx, 929. 



• Alloc. Arch. Soc. Rrpis. xv, 208, 



• Serjeantson, op. cit. p. 55. 



• Gent. Ma^. i860, part i, 385-8. 

 •Serjeantson, op. cit. pp. 9, 11, 



21. 



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