A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



wall. The two lower chambers, or guard rooms, 

 have groined vaulting in two bays, with cross ribs 

 resting on moulded corbels, and contain each five 

 loopholes, three in the circular front and the others 

 in the side walls. The room in the south tower is 

 nearly square and has two loops low down facing 

 east and west and two others high up in the wall, 

 but the vaulting has been destroyed, the corbels and 

 springing of the ribs alone remaining. It is entered 

 from the court by an arched passage at the east end 



Barnwell Castle 



of the south wall, twisted so as to bring the inner 

 doorway to the middle of the wall of the chamber. 

 Access to the upper floor of the gatehouse was by a 

 flight of steps from the court in the wall north of the 

 passage, here curved out ; the doorway remains, but 

 the steps have been altered. They led to an oblong 

 apartment over the passage, lighted by a large window 

 at each end, that facing east being still entire ; traces 

 only of the other remain. From this apartment 

 doorways led to large rooms in the flanking towers, 

 and from the southern one to the tower beyond. The 

 windows in these rooms are tall, narrow openings 

 with acutely pointed rear arches. 



Each of the three circular corner towers is entered 

 from the court by a round-headed doorway set across 

 the angle leading to a straight vaulted passage giving 

 into a circular chamber. In the south-west lower 

 the chamber has two loops only, commanding respec- 

 tively the western and southern curtains ; a small 

 vice in the thiclcness of the wall on the left of the 

 passage gave access to a large square room which 

 has a fireplace and muUioncd window of two lights. 

 Above this was a similar room, also with fireplace and 

 window. These seem to have been the principal 

 living rooms. 



The north-west tower has four loops in the lower 

 chamber, and on its south-west side is an attaclied 

 •mailer tower containing a rectangular chamber, 



formerly vaulted, with two loops, and between this 

 and the main tower another still smaller attached 

 tower, formerly containing the staircase to a room 

 above, A'hich had a fireplace and wooden floor. The 

 north-east tower is very similar in plan and general 

 arrangement, with loops commanding the north and 

 east walls, smaller attached tower on the north side 

 and upper room. The doorway leading into it has 

 been rebuilt and the whole angle appears to have been 

 refaced in modern times. 



All the buildings inside the 

 courtyard have disappeared, but 

 on the east curtain are frag- 

 ments of cross walls between 

 which masonry is partially 

 plastered, indicating that it 

 was the east end of a large 

 apartment. Several parts of 

 the curtain inside have been 

 stripped of their facing stores, 

 leaving the rubble exposed. 

 Most of the loopholes have 

 two cross slits. 



Latham's Hospital, which 

 stands across the road on the 

 south side of tlie church, was 

 rebuilt in 1873-4 '" ^^^ °^'^ 

 style and is a gabled store 

 building facing three sides of a 

 quadrangle, the fourth side 

 open on the north to the road. 

 The old gateway, dated 1601, 

 has been preserved in the en- 

 closing fence wall. On it is the 

 inscription, ' Cast thy bread 

 upon the waters.' 

 Place names which occur are Boyespital, Jordones, 

 Alwoldeshallyate, Goldisplace, Childrebrigg, and 

 Fladerhill. 



In the 14th century there was a town at Barnwell 

 with many tradesmen, and we find such names and 

 descriptions as gardener, washerwoman, ' le roper,' 

 weaver, ' barcar,' ' le woollemongere,' the smith, 

 ' le parmenter,' the cobbler and the tailor in the deeds 

 of the Duke of Buccleuch. 

 There were also important 

 mills at Crowthorp. 



In 1921 the population 

 numbered 167 persons. 



A charter of 

 AUNOKS Edward the Con- 

 fessor confirmed 

 BARN fr ELL ST. ANDREW 

 to Ramsey Abbey as the gift 

 of Ethclric, Bishop of Dor- 

 chester," who died in 1034;' 

 William I and Edward III 

 also confirmed this grant.*" At 



the Domesday Survey (1086) and again in the nth 

 century, the land of St. Benedict of Ramsey included 

 six liidcs in Barnwell. '^ Between 1 1 14 and 1130, 

 Abbot Reinald granted ' as an inheritance ' [in here- 

 dttatem] to Reginald le Moyne, liis tenant in Barnwell, 

 and to his sons, the lands which Reginald held of him 



Ramsey Abqky. Or a 



hcnd azure with three 

 rams' beads argent there- 

 on. 



' Carlul. Mon. ii Ramts. (Roll» Str.), 

 , 73 ; Kcmblc, Cod. Dtpl. rol. iv, 



no. i.rccix. The authenticity of the 

 latter deed, however, i> doubtful. 



» Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 33. 

 '" Chart R. 121, m. 13, no. 29. 

 " V.C.II. Norlhants, i, 319, 365*. 



72 



