HICHESTER CASTLE. 



A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



The steep slopes of the ground away from the castle, principally 

 on its eastern, southern and south-western sides, are largely natural, but 

 they have been emphasized by artificial work, and the castle is now 

 entirely surrounded by steep slopes and fosses. The ditch, or moat of 

 the great mount, forms the outer castle ditch on one part of the western 

 side. Inside the castle, unfortunately, a 

 part of the moat has been filled up and 

 converted into a lawn. There is no reason 

 to suppose that this moat was ever filled 

 with water ; it seems always to have been 

 dry, 



Chichester. — In addition to the de- 

 fensive works surrounding the city, which 

 are of Roman construction, a camp of the 

 Class E type seems to have been built at 

 the north-east corner within the walls. 

 There are remains of a mount, but the 

 building of the now destroyed Grey Friars 

 Monastery, and other changes, have had the effect probably of obliterat- 

 ing the earthworks. The position of the castle just within the city wall 

 is in accordance with the plan frequently adopted, and reminds one very 

 forcibly of the arrangement at Canterbury. 



Bramber, which stands in the valley of the Adur, is of a somewhat 

 oval shape and surrounded by a fosse of great depth. Although there 

 are wet ditches near the camp it does not seem probable that the great 

 fosse round the castle was ever filled with water ; indeed, the levels 

 would not permit of it. The great ditch 

 was probably always dry, and suggests 

 a prehistoric origin. It is just possible 

 that the Normans found an ancient 

 earthwork already existing here, and 

 converted it to their use, throwing up a 

 large mound in the centre, as shown in 

 the plan and section. The top of the 

 mound forms an excellent look-out point 

 commanding the river-valley, which is 

 rather narrow at this point, 



Mr, G. T, Clark points out in his 

 book on castles' that ' in the construc- 

 tion of the fortress (Bramber), advantage 

 was taken of a knoll of the lower or grey 

 chalk, roughly oval in figure, and about 

 1 20 ft, above the river. This was levelled on the top and scarped round 

 the sides so as to form a more or less rounded area, 560 ft. north and 

 south, by 280 ft. east and west. The scarp descended above i 80 ft, at an 

 angle of 45 ft, or a slope of one to one, into a ditch about 20 ft. wide at 



' Mediaval Military Architecture in England, i. 268, 



Bramber Castle. 



