CITY OF DURHAM 



by Bishop Barrington is the only order with 

 parallel joints. Into this widened doorway 

 Tunstall apparently fixed the fine iron-bound 

 gates filled in with oak.^' These gates are 

 hung in two halves with a wicket in the left- 

 hand half ; their original massive bolts are 

 worthy of inspection. 



In 1665 Bishop Cosin destroyed the barbican, 

 which is said to have been in a ruinous condition, 

 and partially filled in the moat. The requoining 

 at this time of the north-east corner of the 

 present library building, where the masonry was 

 disturbed by the removal of the tower at the 

 outer end of the barbican, can yet be seen.-* 

 Much of the stone work of the barbican was 

 reused in the walls he erected. A curious 

 picture in the castle attributed to the time of 

 Bishop Crewe (1674-1721) shows a clock in the 

 south face of the gateway 2' and the tower sur- 

 mounted by a campanile. 



The restoration by Wyatt undertaken during 

 Bishop Barrington's episcopate (1791-1826) 

 reduced the gateway to its present unsatis- 

 factory appearance. He built the two projecting 

 wings and refaced the whole of the exterior.^* 

 As it now stands the gateway consists of a nearly 

 square tower with clasping angle buttresses 

 capped by turrets rising above the embattled 

 parapets of the main tower at each corner. 

 The buttresses are ornamented with shallow 

 sunk imitation loops and quatrefoils, plain 

 rounded necking and string-courses upon which 

 are formed the turrets slightly overhanging the 

 lower walls. The ground and the first floors of 

 the gate house are lighted with sharp-pointed 

 arched windows deeply recessed by a hollow 

 chamfer mould with roll at the outer edge, and 

 hood moulds. The upper story has a circular 

 window in which was formerly the clock face 

 already referred to, and above is a square hood 

 mould. The entrance arch is semicircular and 

 of four orders ornamented with shallow sunk 

 cheverons, the innermost being varied with a 

 star mould. The three inner orders are the 

 only remains of original Norman work to be 

 seen. The outermost order springing from a 

 shallow hollow chamfered jamb, and the two 

 middle orders, carried on shafts with imitation 



" Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 155 ; 

 F. G[od\vin], Cat. of Bishops of Engl. (1601), 533. 



28 See contract dated 6 May 1665, printed in 

 Bp. Cosines Corresp. (Surt. Soc), ii, 379. 



*' This may be the clock in the possession of 

 Mr. C. W. Dixon Johnson of Aykley Heads. 



2* A plan of the castle dating about 1775 shows the 

 gate before Bishop Barrington made his alterations ; 

 on the west side there is a projection at the back into 

 the courtyard, indicating possibly that the gateway 

 was originally double and that the circular staircase, 

 at the time of the plan, was entered from the court- 

 yard (p. 67). 



Norman capitals, are by Wyatt. The innermost 

 order springs from square jambs with small 

 chamfered edges, and possesses curious small 

 moulded abaci and bases returned on themselves 

 within the face of the stone. On the south 

 front, above and on either side of the gateway, 

 are two shields, the dexter bearing the arms of 

 the see, the sinister the arms of Bishop Barrington 

 (three cheverons with a label for difference). 



The ribs of vaulting have a broad flat soffit, 

 shallow moulded with roll on angle, meeting in 

 a central boss. The boss is ornamented with a 

 wreath of foliage, in the centre of which is the 

 badge of a lion or clawed beast. It is deeply 

 undercut and is effective in appearance. The 

 four ribs spring from corbels, much defaced, 

 which in turn have had plain corbels inserted 

 under them for support.^' 



The foundations of earlier buildings have 

 from time to time come to light in the courtyard, 

 but until some systematic attempt is made to 

 trace them it would be misleading to attempt 

 any description of the fragments of walls found. 

 One piece of wall, however, exposed in the north- 

 east corner of the yard revealed a small window- 

 opening very similar to those in the undercroft 

 of Bishop Bek's hall, but without the wide 

 splay in the jambs. An undercroft or basement 

 was also discovered under the north-east corner 

 of the courtyard, immediately adjoining the 

 chapel. It is now entered by a manhole in the 

 courtyard. Its length is 20 ft. and its width 

 8 ft., the length being divided into four bays 

 by semicircular arches of one square order, 

 springing from the side wall on the west, and 

 from massive square pilasters on the east side. 

 It has a depth from crown of arch to the paved 

 floor of 18 ft. 5 in. The piers have a set-off 

 at about half their height covered with a stone 

 slope, and the north pier has a rectangular open- 

 ing in the face, which runs a considerable dis- 

 tance under the courtyard, and apparently dips 

 slightly to the east. The sides of this opening, 

 top and bottom, are rendered in mortar, and the 

 top angles are rounded off. Whether it has 

 been an overflow drain, or whether a timber 

 has been built into it and decayed, is impossible 

 to say, but no sign of timber graining was 

 noticed on the mortar lining. The walls generally 

 are built of roughly coursed rubble, the arches 

 and quoins are of ashlar dressed with the axe ; the 

 jointing is large, especially the upright joints. 

 The wall on the south side of the courtyard, 

 stretching from the gateway to the garden 

 stairs, is in its lower part of early origin and is 

 a continuation of the old moat wall under the 



*' The vaulting and the arch have probably been 



removed and refiied at a higher level, possibly by 

 Bishop Tunstall, who did much work at the gateway. 

 The original level of the approach from the Green is 

 some 3 ft. below the present roadway at this point. 



69 



