A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Wycombe, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne, who by- 

 degrees created an extensive castellated mansion of 

 brick and stucco upon it, which appears to have con- 

 tained some slight remnant of the old fortress. He 

 died in 1809, and in July :8l6the property was put 

 up for sale for building material together with the 

 freehold site of the castle, having a river frontage of 

 377ft. 84 The mansion was taken down in 1818 and 

 the mound lowered; 86 and in 1824 Zion Chapel, 

 converted since to several uses, and in 1904 made a 

 store for chemicals, &c., was erected on the site of the 

 Norman keep. 



To return now to the town walls. From the south- 

 west angle of the castle bailey, the wall on a lower 

 level and fragmentary in condition ran south-west at 

 an angle of about eighteen degrees to a small tower 

 which headed the salient at about 100 ft. distance 

 from the bailey. It then ran southward for about 

 80 ft. and re-entered sharply to the east so as to cover 

 Biddies' Gate, set some 50 ft. back. All this was re- 

 moved in 1898 and 1899 under a scheme of improve- 

 ment by the corporation, a clearance being made of 

 all the houses and courts in the vicinity for a consider- 

 able extent, including a large part of Simnel Street. 

 Happily the interesting fourteenth-century vaulted 

 room (34 by 22) which was beneath a house on the 

 north side of that street has been preserved. 



Immediately below the site of Biddies' Gate the 

 defences for a distance of 260 ft. are composed of the 

 walls, some 4 ft. thick and 30 ft high, of Norman 

 buildings of a domestic and mercantile character, 

 which can never have been very suitable for defences, 

 and have in consequence been strengthened on the 

 outside by a series of nineteen arches, probably of 

 fourteenth-century date, and of sufficient depth to pro- 

 vide a rampart walk defended by a battlemented wall 

 along their entire length, and connecting with a similar 

 walk on the north and south. 



Between the arches and the wall behind a chase is 

 left at intervals something like the groove for a port- 

 cullis, but in this case much wider, forming a series 

 of machicolations. This arcade appears to have been 

 strengthened by three towers ; one by Biddies' Gate, 

 the second in front of the fourth arch, and the third 

 beyond the ninth arch. 



The first of these was no doubt ' Pilgrims' Pit ' 

 tower, 87 close to Biddies' Gate, deriving its name, as did 

 the gate itself sometimes, with a garden and its sur- 

 roundings, from the Pilgrims' Pit, perhaps some well 

 connected with the pilgrimages " to the tomb of 

 St. Thomas of Canterbury. 



The buildings to the rear of this part of the wall 

 have been removed by the corporation, who have 

 erected on the north of what was Blue Anchor Lane 

 a large lodging-house for single men, immediately to 

 the north of which a twelfth-century well was dis- 

 covered and still exists. The corporation has also 

 erected a considerable building let out in flats, the 

 clearance of the site having involved the destruction 



of the remains of a small Norman house on the north 

 of Blue Anchor Lane, close to the postern, some ancient 

 substructures only having been preserved. This pos- 

 tern, called for many years Blue Anchor, but formerly 

 Lord's Lane Gate, and more anciently simply Postern, 

 has been much pared away in former times to obtain 

 width, but the groove of its portcullis remains in the 

 head of the arch. 



Immediately to the south of the postern and 

 behind the last three bays of the arcade is the twelfth- 

 century house called locally ' King John's Palace.' 

 It is in two stages, and measures on the south side 

 44ft., on the east 41 ft., on the west along the town 

 wall, of which it forms a portion, 3 5 ft., and on the 

 north, along Blue Anchor Lane 43 ft. On the first 

 floor is a large room with an original fireplace and 

 chimney, and five original windows, one a mere loop 

 and four of two lights each, all in the west or outer 

 wall excepting one two-light window on the north 

 facing the lane and the site of the destroyed Norman 

 house opposite. On the same floor a wall passage 

 started at the middle of the east side and led round 

 through the south side to the town wall. This 

 passage, or what remains of it, is now hidden by a 

 lean-to roof constructed within the eastern half of the 

 house. The ground-floor has two Norman doorways; 

 one in the lane, the other in the archway next to the 

 postern. 89 



From this point all the houses which were in front 

 of the walls have been removed as far as the southern 

 entrance of Cuckoo Lane some 800 ft., two inser- 

 tions flush with the walls alone remaining ; the former 

 of these a small tenement immediately south of the 

 Norman house, the latter the Royal Standard Inn 

 adjoining the north side of West Gate. A little further 

 to the north, just beyond the entrance to what was 

 Collis's Court, the picturesque fragment of a tower is 

 seen, three sides of an octagon, the front carried upon 

 a broad rectangular buttress having its hollow angle 

 crossed by a squinch supporting the side above and 

 pierced in the usual way for a garderobe. 



West Gate, ' West-hethe-zate ' as it is called in 144 1 , 

 is a plain rectangular work flush with the outer face 

 of the walls 23 ft. broad and 30 ft. deep. It is in 

 three stages, the lowest being pierced by a roadway 

 I oft. broad covered by a low-pointed vault. The 

 entrance was formerly defended by a heavy door and 

 two portcullises ; there are also traces of other defences 

 and modes of worrying a foe. The tower is embattled 

 and capped by a tiled roof. 



From West Gate the wall stretches for about 250 ft. 

 with a south-westerly inclination to the site of Bugle 

 Tower, so called from the ancient Bull or Bugle Hall 

 which stood above it on the east. 



In the rear of this wall, and only divided from 

 West Gate by a stairway to the rampart walk on the 

 walls, is a fifteenth-century timber building on a stone 

 basement, built against the town wall, but leaving 

 space for the rampart walk. It is now called the 



85 Hants Telegrafb, 24 June, 1816. 

 This was only a portion of the old river 

 frontage, the entire length of which was 

 about 3 So ft. 



86 In 1822 a silver penny of OfFa was 

 found at the Castle Hill. It is now in 

 the museum of Hartley College. 



" In 1348 Agnes de Horder bequeathed 

 a tenement in the parish of St. Michael in 

 the street called Pilgrims' pit ' ; Add. 



MSS. 19314, fol. 85*. The name 'Pyl- 

 grymes pit' occurs in an inquisition taken 

 at Southampton in 1367. In 1441 there 

 is mention of the 'West gate next the 

 castle called "Pylgrymys pit"' ; and in 

 1468 of the 'towrat Pylgryms pit' which 

 carried 'j gonne wt iij chawmbres.' 

 Steward's Bk. sub annis. 



88 Starting from here the pilgrims made 

 their first halting place at Winchester in 



50O 



the close. The hall devoted to this pur- 

 pose is still existing, and one of the 

 canons' houses has been built into part 

 of it. 



89 This house passed some few years 

 ago into the possession of Mr. F. G. 

 Spranger, by whom a portion of it has 

 been restored and put in order, and is 

 carefully maintained. 



