BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



The building stands on the summit of an isolated 

 limestone hill at the south end of the town, but 

 only the keep and a small portion of the rounded 

 curtain wall, which skirts the edge of the rock on 

 the north side inclosing an area of about 80 ft. 

 by 90 ft., now remain." After the Civil War 

 the castle seems to have been abandoned but not 

 dismantled, and Buck's drawing of 1727 shows that 

 at that time there was a gate-house tower at the 

 south end of the lower ward having a semicircular 

 arched doorway, and a lofty embattled wall running 

 round the brink of the hill, turning first at the back 

 of the present steward's house, and secondly behind 

 the present court-house to the keep.'* All this outer 

 walling, with the exception of the fragment mentioned, 

 which is 6 ft. in thickness and stands about 30 ft. 

 away from the keep, appears to have been demolished 

 about the middle of the i8th century, probably when 

 the steward's house was erected.^^ The castle was 

 never of any very great size, the extent of the hill- 

 top not being sufficiently large to admit of a spacious 

 structure. There is no trace now of the chapel of 

 St. Michael de Castro, which stood in the castle yard, 

 nor is it indicated in Buck's drawing. 

 Repairs and alterations were made in 

 the castle in the 14th century,^" the 

 chief being carried out in 1324, when 

 the great gate was repaired and a new 

 room was added to the house. There 

 were further repairs in 1480. 



The keep is now in ruins, and is 

 square on plan with flat pilasters at 

 each corner, which give the appearance 

 of square angle towers. The building, 

 which is probably substantially the 

 original Norman keep with later re- 

 storations, is externally 35 ft. 9 in. 

 square, the pilasters or corner towers 

 measuring 9 ft. 3 in. on the face each 

 way, with a projection of 9 in. The 

 length of the main wall on each 

 side between the towers is therefore 

 1 7 ft. 3 in. externally. Internally the 

 keep is 17 ft. square on the ground 

 floor, with walls 8 ft. 9 in. thick setting back 12 in. 

 at the present height of 8 ft.*' The walling is of 

 limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, 

 and has been a good deal repaired in recent times at 

 the north and east corners, where large buttresses 

 have been built against the lower part of the towers.*^ 



The west corner tower contains a vice, starting from 

 the first or principal floor, and rises to a height of 

 46 ft. from the ground, being some feet higher than 

 any other part of the walls, the top of which is broken 

 all round. 



The ground floor was lit on three sides by a loop- 

 hole in the middle of the wall set in a round-headed 

 recess 5 ft. wide, the north-west wall being blank. 

 Two of these loopholes have been converted into 

 open breaches, the jambs and heads of which are now 

 broken, and the third, on the south-west side, has 

 been walled up and the recess covered with a flat 

 lintel. The entrance seems to have been from the 

 floor above by a trap-door. 



The holes for the first floor joists remain in the 

 north-east and south-west walls, but the floor itself, 

 as ^^•ell as that above, has gone. The room was 1 9 ft. 

 square and 23 ft. high, and was lighted on the south- 

 west and north-east by small square-headed loops in 

 round-headed recesses 4 ft. 6 in. wide. The principal 

 entrance to the keep was on this floor on the north- 

 west side towards the town, close to the west angle, 

 and reached by an external staircase built against the 



RAN or GROUND nOCR 



PL^ or FIRST nooK 

 Jp ■Norman 



San or Bn EIMmkn 



Plan of Clitheroe Castle 



wall,^' all trace of which has gone, but there was 

 another door in the opposite wall which may have 

 led on to the ramparts of the adjacent curtain, here 

 only 1 1 ft. from the keep. This doorway, which is 

 8 ft. high by 2 ft. 10 in. wide, still remains and pre- 

 serves its original semicircular head. In the south- 



his charge by Sir Piers Legh, who had 

 taken the profits since ; Ducky Plead, i, 

 36. 



In 1 540 Edmund Loud, gaoler or porter 

 of the castle, complained that whereas 

 certain lands called Castle dykes and 

 Castle hill pertained to his office he had 

 been ousted by John Dugdale, who pre- 

 tended that Castle dykes had belonged to 

 Whalley Abbey; ibid, ii, 123. See 

 TVhalUy Couch. (Chet. Soc), iv, 12 17. 

 A * view ' is mentioned in Lanes, and Chei. 

 Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 25. 



'7 The curtain is about 1 2 ft. high 

 inside and from 14 ft. to 20 ft. outside. 

 It is broken on the east side for about 

 70 ft. The general plan of the castle, 

 which had a lower walled court or bailey, 

 to the south of the keep, has already been 

 described under Ancient Earthworks 

 {V.C.H. Lanci. ii, 523-4), where a plan 



and section of the hill are given. The 

 top of the hill is about 130 ft. above the 

 valley below, and the site is about f mile 

 from the River Ribble. A detailed 

 description of the building, with a plan 

 of each floor and section, is given in 

 Clark, Mediac-ual Mil. Archit.\, 397-402, 

 where, however, the compass points are 

 wrongly given. 



88 Mackenzie, Cajrfw of England, ii, 

 183-4. Aviewof the castle, dated 1801, 

 is given in Pennant's Ahton Moor. 



39 ' The modern dwelling-house is built 

 upon the south-east curtain wall and no 

 doubt represents and probably contains 

 part of the old domestic buildings ' ; 

 Clark, op. cit. 



*" In 1304 a sum of 31. ijd. was paid 

 for ' covering and repairing houses within 

 the castle ' ; De Lacy Compati (Chet, 

 Soc), 97. 



A survey of the castle in 1 602 showed 

 that £^0 1 3 J. 4^/. was required for repairs. 

 The building was 'very ruinous, but 

 especially Mr. Auditor's chamber. The 

 hall and buttery are in such great decay 

 as that they are very like to fall down ' ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Special Com. 627. A 

 later report, in 1608, shows that parts of 

 the decayed buildings had actually fallen, 

 and that ,^177 6j. id. would have to be 

 spent on rebuilding and repairs ; ibid. 785. 



^^ The ground has been raised. 



*^ It is said they were preceded by 

 buttresses somewhat similar, though of 

 much slighter character ; Clark, op. cit. 

 400. The keep is not set four-square 

 with the compass, the angles, not the 

 sides, being approximately north, south, 

 east and west. See F.C.H. Lanes, ii, 323, 



^* Clark, op. cit. 401, The doorway 

 opening is now broken away all round. 



363 



