A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



last two years, which sum, together with 1,000 

 besides, they had expended on fortifications. The 

 town was but half inhabited, they stated, owing to 

 the above burdens, and those who remained were 

 preparing to go. They also petitioned for soldiers to 

 defend the town and neighbourhood, being themselves 

 unable to hold the place against the force prepared by 

 France." They obtained no relief at the time, but 

 evidently there had been considerable outlay on the 

 walls. In the first year of Richard II, under the 

 immediate apprehension of invasion, the mayor 

 and bailiffs were ordered to look to the walls 

 and compel necessary contributions, 8 December, 

 1377 ; and a few months later, 9 April, 1378, pro- 

 vision was made for the reconstruction of the castle- 

 keep. Sir John Arundel had been appointed governor 

 in the preceding July. In 1386 the defences of the 

 town were ordered to be surveyed in view of the 

 threatened invasion of the French ; walls and ditches 

 were to be repaired and fortified.* 8 



In 1400 (i Henry IV) a grant of 200 per annum, 

 during the royal pleasure, 100 out of the duty of 

 wool in the port of the town, and 100 out of the 

 fee-farm for the first year, but after that entirely from 

 the latter source, was made in aid of the fortification, 

 provided the inhabitants raised among themselves 

 another 100 each year for the like purpose. This 

 300 per annum was to be spent under the super- 

 vision of Richard Mawardyn, king's esquire, of the 

 mayor, and controller of the port. 89 By this time the 

 beautiful octagonal projection had been added to the 

 front of the Bargate. 



Henry V, in 1414, released 140 marks (93 tit. SJ.) 

 from the fee-farm for ten years, with licence to pur- 

 chase lands in mortmain to the value of 100 in aid 

 of the fortifications. 40 At this period possibly, or not 

 long after, the spur-work and tower outside God's 

 House Gate were added. Under the act of resumption 

 of 1482 grants for repairs of the walls were especially 

 saved to the town ; 41 but at this very period we have 

 a note of their miscarriage. Thus the Steward's Book 

 of 1483 (rather 1484) contains an account of the 

 town's suit ' ayeynste Roger Kelsale, 4 * Elizabeth Sorell, 

 and Thomas Nutson, as to the xl //' the which was 

 graunted to the reparacon of the walles by Kynge 

 Edwarde for vij yeres ; and they and Richard Wystard 

 have take alowance of the same as for iiij yeres, and 

 have not paid hit to the towne.' 



In 1493 (8 Henry VII) the king granted 50 out 

 of the fee-farm towards repairing the walls on the west 

 side, several private persons contributing at the same 

 time. 4 ' 



On 9 November, 1486, licence had been given 

 to export thirty sacks of wool, free of custom, in 

 aid of the maintenance of the walls, stathes, and 

 quays of the port ; and again in February, 1511, 

 the corporation obtained licence to export 100 sacks 

 of wool, free of custom, towards the repair of the town 

 walls inundated by the sea. 44 



Some provision against this danger to the wall- 



footings had been made from early times. In 1469 

 the town purchased ' a grove of wood ' from the abbot 

 of Netley for 53*. \d. for piling the shore for the 

 purpose. The lightermen of the town had also by 

 ancient custom to bring their lighter-loads of stone 

 yearly from the Isle of Wight or elsewhere, to shoot 

 between the piles ; receiving for ' every lighter of 20 

 ton a barrell of beer, and under 20 ton a verkyn.' 

 There was, too, of old time, a ferry from Hythe to 

 the western shore, by virtue of which the corporation 

 claimed of the ferrymen their service of a boat or 

 lighter-load of stone every half-year to be deposited 

 between the piles. 



Such were the chief periods of construction. It 

 now remains to deal with such of the fortifications as 

 demand notice in connexion with town history. 



The Bargate is a fine structure of various periods in 

 two stages, the upper part of which is occupied by the 

 Gildhall, arranged as a court of justice for the petty 

 sessions of the borough ; and the lower pierced by a 

 principal or central archway, with a postern of modern 

 construction on either side that to the east belonging 

 to 1764, that to the west to 1774. The original 

 gate of the twelfth century had a plain semicircular 

 arch about 10 ft. wide, of three orders, and there was 

 probably an upper story over the arch. This 

 arrangement seems to have remained with but little 

 alteration till the fourteenth century, in the early 

 part of which two towers 4<a were built on either side 

 of the north face of the gate, and about 1330 the 

 south front was added, and carried to the east and 

 west beyond the lines of the old gate, giving a much 

 larger room space above, on the first floor. About 

 the end of the century, or a little later, the north 

 front was enlarged by the addition of a projecting 

 fbrebuilding with its east and west angles canted off, 

 a fine and imposing structure, with its battlements 

 carried forward on large corbels, and a central gate- 

 way between a pair of boldly designed buttresses. 

 Above the arch is a band of panels with heraldry, 

 and a central loop-hole flanked by two narrow slits. 



The south front is of very different character, with 

 a flat face divided into two stages. In the upper 

 stage are four two-light fourteenth-century windows, 

 with a canopied niche between the middle pair, now 

 containing a statue of George III in classical garb, and 

 in the ground stage are three archways, that in the 

 centre being of the fourteenth century, and the two 

 others eighteenth-century insertions. Beyond them 

 on either side are original entrances to stairs, that on 

 the east leading up to the Gildhall over the gate, 

 while the other is blocked. It formerly led to the 

 old Bargate prison, mentioned in the Steward's Book 

 of 1441 and afterwards. The central archway 

 beneath has been pared and cut away to make the 

 opening as wide as possible, and comparatively recently 

 the roadway has been deepened 20 ins. to give head- 

 way to the electric tram-cars. Under the archway 

 may still be traced the loopholes, one on either side, 

 which commanded the ditch, and also those which 



"7 Rot. Part. (Rec. Com.), ii, 346*. 



88 Pat. 10 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 34, 26 

 Aug. on the general preparations ; cf. 

 Froissart, Bk. iii, cap. 37. 



89 This document it printed in Madox, 

 Firma Burgi t 290. 



Rot. Par/. (Rec. Com.), iv, 53 ; Pat. 

 2 Hen. V, pt. 3, m. 1 3. 



n Rot. Par/. (Rec. Com.), vi, 201. 



42 He was M.P. in 1477-8, and again ~ materials jor nist. oj nen. t 



1482-3 (22 Edw. IV), was attainted with Ser.), ii, 38 ; L. and P. Hen. 



other known Southampton men and others 1474. 

 in I Ric. Ill (1483), when he is described 



Materials for Hist, of Hen. VII (Rolls 



I, 



as yeoman ; reversal of attainder in 148; 

 (i Hen. VII) ; he was customer of South- 

 ampton with John Sorell j Steward's Bk. 

 1486. 



Steward's Bk. (Corp. MSS.), 1493 



496 



44a The Corporation has most lauda- 

 bly opened to view and is repairing 

 the tower on the west side, having 

 removed a public-house which stood 

 against it. 



