POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



BARNWELL ST. ANDREW 



Beornwelle, Bcrnewelle (xi cent.) ; Berncwelle 

 Sancti AnJree (xiii cent.) ; Rernewell Moyne (xiv 

 cent.) ; B.irnwell, Barnwell Andree (xvi cent.) ; 

 Barnwell St. Andrew (xvii cent.). 



This parish, to which Barnwell All Saints has been 

 ecclesiastically attached since 1821, covers 1,681 acres 

 on a subsoil of cornbrash in the west and centre and 

 Oxford clay in the cast, the upper soil being mixed. 

 The principal crops are hay, wheat, barley and beans. 

 Barnwell St. .Andrew lies low, rising from about 

 80 ft. above the ordnance datum on the bank of the 

 Nene, which bounds it on the north-west, to 117 ft. 

 at the church, and an average of 200 ft. east and 

 south-east of the village. A large tract of land in 

 the north and north-west is liable to floods. From 

 Barnwell .AH Saints on the south a stream flows north- 

 wards through the village of Barnwell St. Andrew 

 into the Nene. The principal road in the parish, 

 known as Barnwell Road, leads from Thrapston in a 

 north-westerly direction to Oundle. The North- 

 ampton and Peterborough branch of the London Mid- 

 land and Scottish Railway runs in the same direction 

 on this road ; Barnwell station is in the parish of 

 Lilford. The church of St. Andrew and its rectory 

 stand near the station and from the churchyard a 

 shady pathway leads over a single-arched bridge to 

 the ruins of Barnwell castle. 



The ruins of the castle stand some 20 ft. above the 

 Barnwell Brook, up a small side valley opening on 

 to the main valley of the Nene, to the south-east of 

 the earthwork already described,^ which is apparently 

 the site of an earlier castle. The position is one of 

 no military importance. The castle is a quadrangular 

 stone structure with round towers at the angles, and 

 a gatehouse at the south end of the east wall, which 

 has semi-cylindrical towers on either side of its outer 

 entrance. I; is built throughout with oolite limestone, 

 probably from the quarries at Barnwell,^ by Berengar 

 le Moyne in or about 1266-* and is a good example of 

 the type of stronghold erected when the strengthening 

 of outer walls and entrances had made the keep super- 

 fluous and the defence of the curtains had made neces- 

 sary the multiplication of flanking towers. In 1257, 

 William de Stokes, canon of Salisbury and rector of 

 Barnwell St. Andrew, agreed that Berengar le Moyne 

 should have a chantry in his chapel in Barnwell Castle.^"" 

 Leland, in 1540, speaks of ' four strong towers, part 

 of Berengarius Moynes castle ' as still remaining, and 

 mentions a ' raeane house for a farmer ' within the 

 ruins, which has long disappeared.' Half a century 

 or so later Camden described Barnwell Castle as ' a 

 little castle repaired and adorned with new buildings 

 by the worthy Sir Edward Montacute Knight.'* 

 Charles I was here on his way to Bedford in August, 

 1645,* and the place remained one of the residences 



of the Montagu family until the latter part of the 

 17th century. In 1704, however, it was said to be 

 ' late demolished '° and Stukeley in 1748 records that 

 the Duke of Montagu lamented that his father (who 

 died in 1 709) had pulled the castle down. Buck's 

 view shows a great gap, or breach, 42 ft. wide, in the 

 western curtain wall, which was afterwards filled up, 

 but the filling is less than half the thickness of the 

 original wall. 



To tlie south-east of the castle is a picturesque 

 stone-built house with many gables and chimneys, 

 probably the successor of the house mentioned by 

 Leland, on whose porch is a shield with the arms of 

 Montagu quartering Monthermer.' It is now the 

 residence of the lord of the manor. 



There are no indications of a moat or true entrench- 

 ments of any kind, except on the north side, where 

 there is a broad embankment about 6 ft. high, 220 ft. 

 in length, but ap)^arently not of early date. 



The walls are now about 30 ft. high, probably little 

 less than their original height without the battle- 

 ments, and are 12 ft. in thickness, the masonry being 

 excellent and with fine joints. The enclosed space, 

 or ward, is an irregular oblong, the greater length 

 being from north to south, with the corners (except 

 at the south-east) cut off by angle walls. On the east 

 side the length is 135 ft. 4 in., on the west 133 ft. 6 in., 

 while the width is go ft. 8 in. at the north end, and 

 94 ft. 4 in. at the south. At the south-west corner 

 is a single circular tower, set angle-wise, and the 

 north-west and north-east corners have each a similar 

 tower with a smaller one attached on the south-west 

 and north-west sides, respectively. There is a small 

 postern gate at the north end of the west curtain 

 wall, but the main entrance, as already stated, is at 

 the south end of the east wall. 



The gatehouse follows the normal plan of the period, 

 being a rectangle with a passage through the middle 

 and with projecting half-round towers on each side 

 of the entrance. The passage is entered through a 

 porch beneath a drop arch of three chamfered orders, 

 springing from clustered responds with moulded 

 capitals, and was guarded within the arch by a port- 

 cullis, the grooves for which remain in the wall on 

 either side. Further on are two other arches forming 

 the abutments for outer and inner pairs of gates, 

 beyond which is a round-headed doorway opening to 

 the courtyard. The passage is vaulted throughout. 

 The projection of the gatehouse is entirely towards the 

 outside and adjoining it on the south is a semi- 

 cylindrical tower similar to those flanking the entrance. 

 All three bastions are entered from the courtyard by 

 round-headed doorways, and are almost identical in 

 plan, except that in the northern one there is a closet 

 about 3 ft. square in the thickness of the south 



' V.C.H. yoribants, ii, 413. 



' C. A. Markham, Barnwell Castle, in 

 Alloc. Arch. Soc. Repi. xxxi, 525, from 

 which much of the following deicription 

 ii taken by permiiiion. 



*» The jurori of the hundred in 1276 

 pretenEed that Berengar le Moyne built 

 a caille at Barnwell ten yean elapied, 

 Roi. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 7. 



"■ Buccleuch MS. no. 4. 



> It is not ihown in S. & N. Buck'i 

 View of the Castle in 1729. Thi« drawing, 

 though itylcd the ' louth view,' it really 

 taken from the ealt. 



* Brit. (Ed. Gibion), i, 407. 



' C. Wile, The Monlagus of Bougblon, 23. 



' Recov. R. Hil. 3 Anne ; Noribantt 

 N. and Q. iti, 89-93 (1890). 



71 



' The house and stables are probably 

 the ' new buildings ' mentioned by 

 Camden in 1586 as having been ' of late 

 erected ' by Sir Edward Montagu. The 

 •tables, which stand at right angles to the 

 house on the north, were rebuilt stone by 

 etone about fifty yean ago. Behind the 

 •tables i« a large barn. 



