PORTSDOWN HUNDRED 



PORTCHESTER 



work in the buildings at the south-west corner of the 

 bailey, and the king's houses in the castle are 

 mentioned in 1 192. In the same year 10 was paid 

 to Eyas de Oxeneford for carpenters and workmen at 

 the castle, and in the next year work and repairs to 

 walls and ditches cost a like sum. In 1200 there 

 were further repairs, and in the Close Rolls for 

 i 204-6 the king's chamberat Portchester is mentioned, 

 and the king's houses there in 1208. By this date 

 the magna turns or keep must have assumed its present 

 form, its upper part being an addition of the last years 

 of the twelfth century. The battlements now to be 

 seen on the east and west sides are a late addition, 

 but the tower is now about 100 ft. high. It is 

 divided intern.illy by a central wall running east and 

 west for the full height of the building, and originally 

 contained four floors, the present arrangement of its 

 interior dating from 1793, when it was fitted up to 

 hold French prisoners, many of whom have left their 

 names painted or cut on its walls. The basement 

 has been vaulted in two spans with pointed barrel 

 vaults resting on cross-springers, of which the skew- 

 backs only are now left ; the vault was set up in 

 1398,33 appears from the accounts," and cost 20. 

 The two chambers here were lighted by narrow 

 round-headed windows with double splays, the walls 

 being 8 ft. thick ; there are six of these windows in 

 all, two in each of the north, south, and west sides, 

 and the original entrance to the basement was by a 

 newel stair in the south-west angle, the present 

 entrance from the basement of the chapel being 

 probably modern. Access to the basement must 

 therefore have been from the first floor of the keep 

 only. From the existence of windows on the south 

 side, against which a range of buildings now abuts, it 

 seems that the keep was originally free on this side, 

 the twelfth-century ' king's houses ' not covering the 

 full length of the west curtain wall. 



Against the east face of the tower was set the fore- 

 building, which seems to have contained three 

 divisions, that to the south being the chapel, with a 

 basement beneath it ; that to the north, which pro- 

 jected beyond the Roman wall to the same extent as 

 the north wall of the keep, a room of uncertain use, 

 perhaps a guard-room ; while between them was a 

 passage or lobby leading to the round-headed entrance 

 door of the keep. These rooms were all on the first- 

 floor level, and must have been reached from the court- 

 yard by an outer stair occupying much the same 

 position as that which now serves the purpose. Of 

 the chapel only the west end, with a large round- 

 headed recess, and part of the south wall remain. In 

 the latter is a late fourteenth-century doorway leading 

 to a building at the south-east angle of the keep, 

 which overlaps the south wall of the chapel for 8 ft., 

 and to the east of it the jamb of a sixteenth-century 

 window, beneath which is a doorway to the base- 

 ment, of like date, and the royal arms of Henry VII. 

 Part of a small blocked twelfth-century window is 

 to be seen near the jamb of the sixteenth-century 

 window. The room corresponding to the chapel on 

 the north has had a wide sixteenth-century bay 

 window in its north or outer wall. Over the en- 

 trance to the keep, or perhaps to the lobby leading to 

 it, was a tower, called the East Tower in a roll of 

 accounts of 1385 ." a The first floor of the keep 



contained the two principal rooms, and was lighted 

 by large round-headed windows, now blocked up. In 

 the south-west angle of the south room is a doorway, 

 now also blocked, to the newel stair which leads from 

 the basement to the battlements, and the entrance to 

 the north room is by a door at the west end of the 

 dividing wall. In the south-east angle of the keep is 

 the circular shaft of a well, which is continued up- 

 wards to the upper stories. 



In the second floor of the keep are small round- 

 headed lights on the south and west sides, and the 

 weatherings of the original roof are here to be seen, 

 showing two parallel gables running east and west. 



The added upper part of the tower has narrow 

 square-headed openings on the north and west, but 

 towards the interior of the castle, on east and south, 

 there are coupled square-headed lights under round- 

 headed inclosing arches. The walls in this upper 

 stage are 4 ft. 6 in. thick, as against 8 ft. in the 

 basement. 



There are no traces of original openings in the 

 twelfth-century curtain walls, but the south-east angle 

 tower, which has been divided into two, or perhaps 

 three, stories, and is of irregular plan, narrower at the 

 gorge than at the outer end, has a small blocked 

 round-headed light in its south-east face on the first- 

 floor level. The twelfth-century gatehouse on the 

 south has likewise been of two or three stories lighted 

 by narrow windows on the three projecting sides, and 

 must have been closed in on its north or inner face 

 by a masonry wall carried on an arch, now destroyed, 

 or by a wooden partition. All the twelfth-century 

 work is faced with excellent Binstead stone, and 

 where the facing has not been picked off it remains 

 in very good preservation. 



There is no evidence of building in the thirteenth 

 century as far as the actual remains are concerned. 

 In 1 2 20 loo/, was paid for the strengthening of the 

 castle, and in the same year the roof of the keep was 

 being covered with lead. 



The work next in point of date to be seen at the 

 present time is the vaulted gateway added to the 

 twelfth-century south gateway. This belongs to the 

 first quarter of the fourteenth century, and building 

 accounts of this time, 13201, are extant. They 

 show that work on the north wall of the castle was 

 going on, and a small doorway of this date is to be 

 seen just east of the forebuildings of the keep in this 

 wall, and was doubtless part of the work. 



The king's chamber was being roofed, and in the 

 keep some mason's and carpenter's work was being 

 done. Much timber was also cut in the neighbour- 

 hood for use in the castle, and the mention of work 

 on the middle gate of the castle and stones for founda- 

 tion of a bridge within the castle probably refers to the 

 building under notice. It has a pretty ribbed vault, 

 a segmental inner arch, and an outer arch with port- 

 cullis grooves, flanked by two massive buttresses. In 

 its east and west walls are small doorways, which must 

 have opened to a berm between the walls and the 

 moat which defended the inner bailey on east and 

 south, and at the outer southern angles of the gate 

 are narrow walls starting diagonally and flanking the 

 bridge head which must have existed at the time. 

 The gate has received two additions since then, one 

 of late fourteenth-century date, 1 8 ft. long, with an 



77 Exch. K..R. 479, No. 23. Bonchurch 

 stone was used for the springers and ribs. 



"a Ibid. No. 22. 



155 



7 Ibid. No. 17. 



