A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



thened. Complaints were made by the King 

 to Bishop Beaumont (1318-33) for neglecting 

 the defences, and thereupon the bishop repaired 

 the walls and rebuilt portions of the east wall 

 of the castle enclosure where Flambard's founda- 

 tions had failed. 1* 



Great alterations were made by Bishop Hat- 

 field (1345-81), the chief of which was the 

 enlarging of the keep mound and the rebuilding 

 of the keep ^^ itself in the form which it approxi- 

 mately retained until its demolition in 1840. 

 The former plan, an irregular octagon, has been 

 followed in the present building. Hatfield 

 enlarged Bek's great hall," adding a carved 

 roof, minstrels' galleries and two ' thrones.' He 

 also added a new high-pitched open timber roof 

 to Pudsey's Constable's Hall, at the same time 

 inserting the west window which has lately 

 been renovated.^* 



For a century after the death of the magnifi- 

 cent Hatfield, little work of importance was 

 carried out. Bishops Skirlaw and Langley re- 

 paired the gates, the latter bishop practically 

 rebuilding the north gate and gaol, and both 

 bishops strengthened the work of their pre- 

 decessors with buttresses, where necessary, but 

 it was not until the accession of Bishop Fox in 

 1494 that any notable alterations were made in 

 the buildings of the castle. Fox reversed Hat- 

 field's pohcy and reduced the hall to about the 

 size that it had been when built by Bek;** the 

 southern end which he cut off, he divided into 

 several rooms, and the Norman building at its 

 south-west angle he converted into the kitchen, 

 which is still one of the most striking features of 

 the castle. The great fireplaces in this kitchen 

 are of interest not only for their noble propor- 

 tions but also as being the only early brickwork 

 in the castle. The castle had by this time lost 

 much of its military importance and had become 

 a palace rather than a fortress, but Bishop 

 Tunstall (1530-59) seems to have refaced part 

 of the outer walls and the inner side of the 

 castle gate. His most important work, however, 

 was the building of the stair-turret, gallery and 

 chapel on the north side of the courtyard, against 

 Pudsey's gallery." These alterations must have 

 added not only to the effect but also to the 

 convenience of the castle as a residence. 



During the second half of the i6th century 



'2 Hutchinson, Hist, and Antiq. of Dur. i, 344. 

 Probably the wall running from the church to the 

 keep. 



" Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Sec), 138. 



" Ibid. 150. 15 Ibid. 



18 Ibid. 150. His badge of the pelican may still 

 be seen near the inner jambs of the doors under the 

 hood mould, and a large carved example formerly 

 adorned the wall built by him between the hall and the 

 buttery. 



1' Ibid. 155. 



Durham Castle would seem to have been rather 

 neglected, but Bishop Neile (1617-27) made 

 many repairs, rendering it more habitable, at 

 the same time shortening the hall by cutting 

 off the north end.^* His improvements were 

 much praised by Charles I when he was enter- 

 tained at Durham by Bishop Morton (1632-59). i» 

 The occupation of the castle by the Scottish 

 forces during the Civil War naturally resulted 

 in great injury to the fabric, and when at the 

 Restoration the bishopric was revived and 

 bestowed upon Bishop Cosin (1660-72), he 

 found it in a bad condition. During the twelve 

 years of his episcopate he executed a series of 

 repairs in practically every part of the castle 

 and made a few alterations, of which the most 

 important were the destruction of the barbican 

 and partial filling of the moat ^ and two additions 

 to the hall. In front of the original door to the 

 hall he built the elaborate porch and four great 

 buttresses, which still form a prominent feature 

 of the courtyard and at the north end he con- 

 verted the portion of the hall which Bishop 

 Neile had cut off into a council chamber and 

 built the great stair. From a letter,'^ dated at 

 London in 1662, to his secretary ordering the 

 erection of this stair to be deferred until he 

 could come down and see to it himself, it is 

 clear that he gave not only his money but also 

 his personal attention to the work which was 

 then done. It is to him or probably to his 

 successor Bishop Crewe (1674-1721) that we 

 must attribute the extension eastward of Tun- 

 stall's chapel. Cosin was the last bishop to 

 make any extensive alterations, other than 

 destructive, but Bishop Crewe probably formed 

 the Senate Room over the old Norman chapel. 

 Bishops Butler (1750-2), Trevor (1752-71), 

 Egerton (1771-87), and Barrington (1791-1826) 

 all did repairs in the way of strengthening over- 

 hanging walls and refacing the masonry, and 

 Bishop Thurlow in 1789 pulled down the upper 

 stories of the keep for fear they would fall. 

 Otherwise the history of the fabric during the 

 i8th and early 19th centuries was uneventful. 

 Upon the establishment of the University 

 within its walls, the castle was overhauled and 

 to some extent modernized, the most drastic 

 change being the pulling down of the remainder 

 of the old keep, which had become very ruinous, 

 and the erection upon the same foundations of 

 the new keep. 



The castle court is entered from the Green 

 by the main gateway, in front of which is the 

 site of the barbican and moat. Laurence, the 

 monk of Durham, writing between 1 144-9, 



1* Wood, Athenae Oxon. i, 665. 

 1' Hutchinson, op. cit. i, 600, 605. 

 "" The contract for this work, dated 1665, still 

 exists. Bp. Cosin's Corres. (Surt. Soc), ii, 379. 

 " Ibid. 90. 



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