Newark Castle
CastleGate, Newark
Newark Castle: A Detailed History
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​For a FULL historical study, see HERE
For the Gatehouse Project, see HERE
Newark is a significant example of how castle architecture was used as a potent visual expression of wealth and power.
Its gatehouse is the most complete example of a Romanesque gatehouse in England.
The castle stands on the east bank of the Trent, on a levelled platform raised over a Saxon settlement and cemetery.
An early Norman castle was established here in the 1060s. Rebuilt in stone in the 12th century, it has a remarkably symmetrical plan for its date, foreshadowing courtyard castles of the late 13th century.
The river frontage with its hexagonal towers was rebuilt in the late 13th and early 14th centuries
You can also see musket ball scars around the castle
More detailed elements can be found at the bottom of this page
Brief History
The first Norman castle at Newark was probably a motte and bailey castle, with an earth mound, known as the motte, with a wooden tower or keep on top, with an outer enclosed area known as the bailey, surrounded by a defensive ditch and a wooden wall, known as a palisade. A good example of a motte can still be seen at Laxton. Both of these castles were probably built following William’s push into the north during the winter of 1068-9.
Having built 2 castles at York, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us he built castles at Nottingham and Lincoln and ‘elsewhere in those parts.’ At this time Newark was about the same size as Nottingham and sat strategically on the Fosse Way and probably at a ford over the River Trent. Parts of the ramparts of this early castle were found during the excavations in the 1990s. Bishop Remigius died in 1092 and was succeeded by Robert Bloet. When Bloet died suddenly in 1123 he was succeeded by Alexander, nephew of the Bishop of Salisbury.
Alexander added to Lincoln Cathedral, founded 4 monasteries and built castles at Banbury and Sleaford. He became known as ‘Alexander the Magnificent.’ In 1135 King Henry I sealed a charter giving Alexander permission to build a stone castle at Newark. Finding there wasn’t enough room between the river and the Fosse Way to build a castle, Alexander appealed to the king for permission to divert the Fosse Way, which was granted. Shortly afterwards he was also granted permission to build a bridge across the River Trent, thus creating a permanent route to the north, which caused the Great North Road to then be diverted via Newark so as to avoid a ferry crossing at the River Humber.
The building of both the castle and the bridge would bring a strategic importance to Newark that would see it grow and thrive. It was this that led to Newark becoming known as 'The Key to the North' during the Civil Wars.
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Notable Figures​
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Bishop Alexander of Lincoln: Known as Alexander "the Magnificent," he was the founder of the castle and played a crucial role in its early history
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King John: The infamous King of England, who died at Newark Castle in 1216, reportedly from dysentery
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Anthony Salvin: A 19th-century architect who restored the castle between 1845 and 1848
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Battles and Sieges​
Newark Castle played a pivotal role during the English Civil War. It was a Royalist stronghold and endured several sieges:
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Siege of 1643: The castle was besieged by Parliamentarian forces but held out
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Siege of 1645-1646: The most significant siege, where the castle was besieged by Parliamentarian and Scottish forces. The castle eventually surrendered in May 1646
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The Gatehouse Project
The Castle Gatehouse Project is an ambitious initiative aimed at restoring and enhancing the castle's original Romanesque gatehouse. Funded by the Government’s Towns Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project will create a new visitor attraction with interactive exhibits, gallery spaces, and a tower-top viewing platform. The project also focuses on improving accessibility and enhancing the natural environment around the castle
For more info on the gatehouse project. go HERE
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Notable Events​
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The castle was granted permission to be built by King Henry I in a charter dating to around 1135. It served as a significant episcopal residence and a defensive stronghold.
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Death of King John: One of the most notable events in the castle's history is the death of King John in 1216
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Restoration by Anthony Salvin: The 19th-century restoration by Anthony Salvin, which helped preserve the castle for future generations
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English Civil War Sieges: The multiple sieges during the English Civil War, particularly the final siege in 1646, which left the castle in ruins
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Newark Castle stands today as a testament to its rich and turbulent history, offering visitors a glimpse into its medieval past and the significant events that shaped its story.
https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/newarkcastle/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Castle,_Nottinghamshire
http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/CSG%20Journal%202019-2020rev7-Newark%20on%20Trent.pdf (Intro)
Detailed Elements:
by http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/
For even more detail, go HERE
1) The Gatehouse including audience chamber, lodging suite, curtain wall and (lost) north-west tower built for Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, c 1130-1148. The north side of the castle is dominated by this gatehouse. Some early Norman castles had a simple gateway rather than a gatehouse-keep but Newark (Ludlow, and perhaps Sherborne) are probably unique as twelfth-century examples of the genre. It might be seen as ahead of its time, as the gatehouse offered ample residential accommodation anticipating keep-gatehouses of the Edwardian era. It is now an empty shell, but little altered except for the insertion of some Elizabethan upper-storey windows. It is a square-plan tower of three storeys pierced at ground level and approached through a shallow round-headed arch. The wide and lofty gate passage leads into the rectangular bailey. The gatehouse block is 45ft (14m) x 30ft (9m) with walls 8-9ft thick with clasping buttresses at the corners. The single anti-clockwise spiral staircase is notable for its stately width and climb (see CSGJ 25 pp. 113-174).
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2) Norman south-west tower - 12th century. At the far end of the bailey, the tall, narrow, rectangular four-storey residential tower in the south-west corner is Norman, heightened in the late 13th century. It is likely all the other corner towers were similar in original form. According to tradition it was inside this tower that King John died of fever in 1216 - a story that is highly unlikely. He did die at Newark, but possibly within the gatehouse.
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3) The north-west tower and curtain wall was added along the river front with its central halfhexagonal stair tower, probably begun for Bishop Oliver Sutton (1280-1300) and continued under Henry de Burghersh (1320-1340). The lateEdwardian style NW hexagonal tower c. 1300 and the polychrome stone banding of the curtain echoes that of Caernarfon castle, and is best seen from the river frontage. The NW tower is accessible and contains a circular oubliette or bottle-dungeon in its rock-cut basement. There is a further subterranean square chamber or oubliette nearby which can also be visited. There was no access to these basement chambers from within the NW tower itself, but only from the basement passage that starts from along the north curtain.
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4) The 14th century halls complex There was a long range of conjoined buildings set against the new west curtain wall comprising of the Bishop’s Hall contiguous/back to back with the Great Hall with their corresponding end solar blocks. Although the buildings themselves have mostly gone, a great deal of knowledge about them can be gained from evidence left in the curtain wall and the archaeology under the ground. Their great pointed-arch windows are still there - the west front of the castle was so well protected by the river that the large windows were no risk to security. The shallow crease in the building’s roof can still be seen on the interior face of the north curtain where it was extended to the west to meet the new west wall. Both doubleheight halls, whilst open to the roof, had central hearths (arguably somewhat old-fashioned at this stage, but they lingered on to the end of the 14th century) and louvres but at both ends of the halls there were upper chambers / great chambers/ solars / bedrooms with garderobes and fireplaces. A cut-slab anti-clockwise spiral stair adjacent to the intermediate semi-hexagonal central turret - accessed via a window recess, and now partly visible as the wall has fallen away, gave access to two intermediate chambers with their own garderobes within the turret and the roof level wall-walk that probably linked the NW to the SW towers. The 4 x 2 bay pier- and corbel-supported vaulted undercroft is elegant, high and spacious.
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The 14th century Oubliettes, Undercroft, Watergate
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​In the 12th century the Norman riverside curtain wall stood on top of the river cliff. The late-13th century curtain was built at the bottom of the cliff, explaining the height of the curtain and the rising ground in the undercroft, as seen in the plan above
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4.1 Oubliettes: The NW Tower had below it two vaulted ‘oubliettes’, one oblong, one round, reached by a descending passageway and stairs from the north curtain; each are entered through a top-level trap door on the shoulder of the vault - there are no inclined stairs. The rectangular chamber is now lined and floored with bricks as it later served as an ice house. So there must be a provision for drainage, and at one time the drain may have served as a basic latrine. Peter Brears noted that ‘castle [..] gatehouses also have a well documented role as prisons, this frequently being associated with use of ‘oubliettes’ or ‘bottle dungeons’ in the form of pits entered by trap doors. However a study of their internal access routes and chambers, linked with early post-medieval archival evidence for their usage, shows that many of them were built as much for the convenience of financial administrators, as for soldiery[…]it was essential that he, (the cofferer) had access to secure, and, if possible, well-hidden strongrooms’ (2011 200-1) So we cannot always assume that ‘bottle dungeons acted solely as prisons. Prisons, even in the Norman period usually had en suite latrine provision. The two oubliettes at Newark in the NW corner tower are therefore difficult to define dogmatically. Each did have a single narrow light.
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4.2 The Undercroft The undercroft, under the bishop’s hall, consists of 2 x 4 bays of quadripartite vaults, supported by central octagonal columns or piers, lacking capitals or abaci/imposts. When the vaulting ribs die into the central piers without any intervening capitals it can be a diagnostic dating feature, but the date range for this is from the late-13th to the 3rd quarter of the 14th century. Like Morlais castle (Gilbert de Clare, 1290s) the structure forms an elegant, architectural element. Other similar examples include Spofforth (N. Yorkshire) (under the hall), 1308, Knaresborough c. 1312 (tower basement), Penshurst c. 1338 (undercroft to rear of the hall) and Warwick 1340s (under the Great Chamber). Lighting for the undercroft rests solely on the four slit lights onto to the river, seen above, running through the stone polychrome banding. Between the lights are three wall-mounted decorative corbels supporting the ribs. Each underside corbel terminal is different; north has an intertwined knot, the south appears to to a notched head (see Barnwell), both advertising the pride and skills of the masons. The undercroft has straight wide access stairs to the ‘high end’ of the Great Hall, and the space was no doubt for storage of wine offloaded from the adjacent watergate, where goods could be stored in airy, cool dark conditions
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4.3 The Watergate The watergate was built into the west curtain wall to facilitate the reception of goods brought by water to a small wharf. (The Trent was, exceptionally, navigable from Hull via the Ouse).The stronglyarticulated round-headed door projects slightly forward of the wall-face (in a similar way to Caernarfon). It is of two orders; the outer with a continuous chamfer and the inner with a segmental-headed surround with continuous curved bevelled edges. Bevelled edges start to occur c. 1300, and are seen at Caerphilly, Beverston and Berkeley all Clare owned or Clare-related properties at about this time; (but this second inner ‘order’ may be a modern 19th century intervention or rebuild). The heavy door is barred and entry is protected by an overhead meurtrière. The wide stone stairs, allowing large wooden barrels to be hauled, rises up and passes a long, very narrow, lighted chamber prior to entering the undercroft. This was probably used by the Receiver or his tally clerk, with a small desk or carrell to check in / and out / goods movements. The form and detail of this and of the whole range is typical of Edwardian work is of the 1290 - 1300 period. The stair passage continues past the undercroft and up to the bailey. This length appears older, with its barrel vault and could be part of some pre-existing Norman work.
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