A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



means clear, and the only apartment with a fireplace 

 large enough for the kitchen is that marked Court of 

 Requests.* 11 To the south of the hall is a square court- 

 yard, surrounded on three sides by an open timber 

 cloister, and with a small oratory projecting into the 

 court at the south-east angle. The great chapel 

 probably occupied the first floor of one of the wings 

 shown projecting eastward from the main building. 

 The great angle bastion on the curtain wall has now 

 completely disappeared. It was, however, still standing 

 in 1772, and is shown in a view in Grose's Anti- 

 quities? On plan it formed the segment of a circle 

 about 60 ft. in external diameter. The brick wall 

 built across the gorge is still in part standing and is 

 of the time of Henry VIII. On the outer face are 

 traces of the newel stair with a sunk brick handrail. 



and the chapel is mentioned in 1201. 1 * No doubt 

 the castle suffered severely in the siege at the end of 

 the reign of John, which would account for a sum of 

 £10 from the farm of the vill being assigned to the 

 constable for the repair of the gate in 1225.* In , 

 April of the same year a mandate was issued to the 

 sheriff to pull down the houses which had belonged 

 to Falkes de Breaute' at Little Berkhamprtead, 

 and to build them up again in the castle of Hertford.* 

 The old hall, the old chapel, the brewery, and the 

 marshalsea {mareitakld) were left at Little Berkhamp- 

 stead, but in July of the following year the king 

 ordered that the domus mareseak'te should also be 

 brought to Hertford and built up there.' In 1 300 

 the hall, chamber, wardrobe, kitchen and paling were 

 repaired, in 1301 the bakehouse and other houses. 



Hertford Castle : The Gate-k 



The second fragment of the MS. plan shows the 

 bakehouse and other buildings in connexion with 

 another angle bastion, in this case open at the gorge. 

 It seems impossible to place it anywhere else but on 

 the site of the earlier keep, in which case the keep 

 ditch, if it ever existed, must have been filled in and 

 the keep itself destroyed late in the Middle Ages. 



These plans and the existing remains are explained 

 and illustrated bv documentary evidence. The resi- 

 dential part of the castle had been built before 1 199, 

 when a sum of £5 was spent in repairing the hall, 



the walls and bridge, and in 1 302 the houses, bridges, 

 outer gates and the chamber over the gate." 



From the 1 4th to the 1 7th centuries there are a series 

 of surveys of the castle. The earliest of these, dated 

 1317,' is a survey of the defects with the estimated 

 cost of their repair. Mention is made of (1) a 

 certain chamber . without the outer bridge in the 

 entry of the castle and a certain other chamber 

 adjoining the outer gate ; (z) the middle bridge with 

 a certain chamber adjoining the outer gate of the 

 same bridge ; (3) a certain bakehouse against the 



. (Rec. Com.), ii, 86, ' Ibid. 1 10. The •heriff w to bring it 



'whenever the burden of carriage ihould 

 1224. weigh lent heavily on the neighbourhood,' 



ki. (Ree. Com.), ii, ■ Cat. Clou, 1 ]i J-l t, p. i 1 !■ 



* Eich. AccU. bdle. +6;, no. 15. 



