George Thomas Clark

“ Against the west wall is a stone bench, and above it a rude squint through which any person in the adjacent window recess could see the altar.
The entrance to the keep is by a gateway 5 ft wide and 6 ft. 6 in. high, having a drop arch rising about 3 ft. more. The jambs have a single, and the arch a double chamber. Two feet within is the portcullis groove, 4 in. square, and next is the rebate for the door, with its bar holes. Beyond is the vaulted passage, 6 ft. broad, leading to the ground-floor, with a door opening so as to be barred against that chamber ”

“ The battlements have been replaced by a modern wall, but the junction, at the rampart walk, may be readily detected.
The entrance is at the ground level on the north-east side, from the main ward. It is marked by a broad flat buttress, rather Norman in character, which rises vertically from the common base so as to stand out about 18 in. where it dies into the wall about 5 ft. below the battlements. In its centre is the gateway, and above, the window of the portculis chamber. It is extended laterally in two wings, rising about half its height, and also dying into the wall above. ”

“ F. Place of the Barbican.
is tolerably perfect. It is 7 ft. thick, and has been about 25 ft. high. It does not, as at Tamworth, so ascend the mound that its ramparts terminate at the level of the base of the keep, but it abuts against the keep at a height of 12 or 14 feet, and is so continued down the slope. Up the mound the rampart of the curtain, as at Windsor, was a flight of steps, but as the ramparts only abutted against, and had no doorway into the keep, the steps were merely to enable the defenders to man every part of the wall. ”

“ On the north-east side, or that towards the house, the descent is about 30 ft. at which level is a platform occupied by the main ward of the fortress, and beyond it, near the foot of a further but gentle slope, a broad and deep ditch, dry and wholly artificial, which sweeps round this the weakest side, and cuts it off from the area already mentioned. ”

“ The Welsh view is inconsiderable, being cut off by the higher ground.
It is laid to the charge of Sir John Glynne, that he made free with the materials of the castle, and so provided an ample field for antiquarian speculation. Even, however, though this be so, it must be admitted that his descendant has done his best to atone for the spoliation. No ruin in the kingdom is more carefully preserved, or situated to more advantage ”

“ A little above the ground is a double course of large ashlar blocks of a light yellow sandstone, tying the work firmly together, and higher up are other bonding courses of a less substantial character. ”

“ There is neither fire-place, seat, nor recess. The floor has been removed. There is no subterranean chamber.
The upper chamber within is an octagon, inscribed about the cylinder below, with walls from 13 ft. to 14 ft. thick, and from side to side 31 ft. It is about 15 ft. high to the corbels that carried its flat roof, and a row of larger corbels along one of the remaining faces seems to have supported struts necessary to make the roof a safe platform for military engines and stone ammunition. ”

“ This range was evidently continued along the south end of the court, being built against the curtain and carried on to the hall. Of these extensions only the excavated ground-floor, some low walls, and the base of a well-stair remain. From the character of the stair it looks as though it had been of some consequence, and it shows that there was an upper floor, probably of rooms communicating with the hall, and perhaps connecting it with the keep. ”