Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle | |
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bailey | |
Site information | |
Owner | Oxfordshire County Council |
Condition | Ruined, elements used as a hotel |
Site history | |
Materials | Coral rag and gravel |
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined
Most of the castle was destroyed in the English Civil War and by the 18th century the remaining buildings had become Oxford's local prison. A new prison complex was built on the site from 1785 onwards and expanded in 1876; this became HM Prison Oxford.
The prison closed in 1996 and was redeveloped as a hotel and visitor attraction. The medieval remains of the castle including the motte, St George's Tower and crypt, are
History
Construction
According to the
D'Oyly positioned his castle to the west side of the town, using the natural protection of a stream off the River Thames on the far side of the castle, now called Castle Mill Stream, and diverting the stream to produce a moat.[9] There has been debate as to whether there was an earlier English fortification on the site, but whilst there is archaeological evidence of earlier Anglo-Saxon habitation there is no conclusive evidence of fortification.[9] Oxford Castle was an "urban castle", overlying a portion of the Saxon town wall, but it remains uncertain whether local buildings were demolished to make room for it. Poore et al. (2009) give a suggested street plan of the town in late Saxon times (their figure 4) showing the then town wall with its north, west, south and east gates; at the north gate is the Saxon tower now associated with the church of St Michael at the North Gate, while the west gate is occupied by the apparently Saxon tower of St. George's, which is now believed to have subsequently been incorporated into the fabric of the later Norman castle.[10]
The initial castle was probably a large
By the late 12th to early 13th century, the original palisade walls and wooden keep had been replaced in stone.[14] The new curtain wall incorporated St George's Tower, which is built of coral rag stone, 30 by 30 feet (9 m × 9 m) at the base and tapering significantly toward the top for stability.[15] This was the tallest of the castle's towers, and is now believed to be a survival from late Saxon times (c. 1020) as a watch tower associated with the west gate of the Saxon city.[16][17][18] Evidence that this tower is Saxon in origin and thus pre-dates the castle itself is presented in Poore et al. (2009),[19] who comment that "a single, massive stone tower does not seem to belong within the outer defences of an earth-and-timber castle", and other sources have concurred on architectural grounds, also noting that its orientation does not match that of the remainder of the castle, and that its height would have originally afforded an extensive view over the city, but which would have been superseded (and in fact, blocked) with the construction of the castle motte.[20][21][22] The date of the remaining towers is uncertain although the southernmost, round tower, of which the base still remains, is dated to 1235 in various documentary sources, including Woolnoth's The Ancient Castles of England and Wales of 1825; in at least one source, it is referred to as "Henry III's Tower".[23]
Inside the walls the buildings included a chapel with a crypt attached to St. Georges Tower,[16] which may be on the site of a previous church.[13] The chapel originally had a nave, chancel and an apsidal sanctuary. It was a typical early Norman design with solid pillars and arches.[24] In 1074 D'Oyly and his close friend, Roger d'Ivry had endowed a chapel with a college of priests, which is presumed to be the structure in question; at an early stage it acquired a dedication to Saint George. As detailed below, the crypt of this chapel still survives, albeit in a new location within the castle, having been moved and reconstructed from its original materials in 1794.
The ten-sided stone shell keep, 58 feet (18 m), constructed in the 13th century to replace an earlier wooden structure, closely resembled those of Tonbridge and Arundel Castles.[25] The keep enclosed a number of buildings, leaving an inner courtyard only 22 feet (7 m) across.[26] Within the keep, stairs led 20 feet (6 m) down to an underground 12 feet (3.7 m) wide stone chamber, with an Early English hexagonal vault and a 54 feet (16 m) deep well providing water in the event of siege.[27]
Role in the Anarchy and Barons War
Finally in December, Matilda responded by escaping from the castle; the popular version of this has the Empress waiting until the Castle Mill Stream was frozen over and then dressed in white as camouflage in the snow, being lowered down the walls with three or four knights, before escaping through Stephen's lines in the night as the king's sentries tried to raise the alarm.[30] The chronicler William of Malmesbury, however, suggests Matilda did not descend the walls, but instead escaped from one of the gates.[29] Matilda safely reached Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Castle surrendered to Stephen the next day.[25] Robert had died in the final weeks of the siege and the castle was granted to William de Chesney for the remainder of the war.[31] At the end of the war the constableship of Oxford Castle was granted to Roger de Bussy before being reclaimed by Henry D'Oyly, Robert D'Oyly the younger's son, in 1154.[32]
In the
14th–17th centuries
By 1327 the fortification, particularly the castle gates and the barbican, was in poor condition and £800 was estimated to be required for repairs.[38] From the 1350s onwards the castle had little military use and was increasingly allowed to fall into disrepair.[33]
On 13 January, 1400, Henry IV sat in judgment at Oxford Castle over rebels from Cirencester and other places, who had participated in the Epiphany Rising, or the Revolt of the Earls, men who supported Richard II, Henry’s cousin he murdered by starvation.
In 1642, the
Role as prison
After the Civil War, Oxford Castle served primarily as the local prison.[48] As with other prisons at the time, the owners, in this case Christ Church College, leased the castle to wardens who would profit by charging prisoners for their board and lodging.[48] The prison also had a gallows to execute prisoners, such as Mary Blandy in 1752.[49] For most of the 18th century, the castle prison was run by the local Etty and Wisdom families and was in increasing disrepair.[50] A view of the castle published in 1769 in the work "England Displayed" by P. Russell and Owen Price is of interest in that it shows the appearance of the chapel attached to St George's tower prior to its demolition in 1794, as well as the motte and some then-surviving portions of the curtain wall including an arch or gateway in the wall immediately to the north of the tower.[51] The chapel and/or associated buildings are also shown, from a range of angles, in views by other artists including Samuel and Nathaniel Buck's Antiquities (drawing dated 1729),[52] a 1773 engraving included in Francis Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, 1786,[53] a painting by Michael Angelo Rooker dating from 1779,[54] and a view by the artist John Baptist Malchair dating from 1784.[55] In the 1770s the prison reformer John Howard visited the castle several times, and criticised its size and quality, including the extent to which vermin infested the prison.[56] Partly as a result of this criticism, it was decided by the County authorities to rebuild the Oxford Prison.[57]
In 1785 the castle was bought by the Oxford County Justices and rebuilding began under the London architect
In the 19th century the site continued to be developed, with various new buildings built including the new County Hall in 1840–41 and the Oxfordshire Militia Armoury in 1854.[33] The prison itself was extended in 1876, growing to occupy most of the remaining space.[33] The inmates included children, the youngest being a seven-year-old girl sentenced to seven days hard labour in 1870 for stealing a pram.[62] In 1888 national prison reforms led to the renaming of the county prison as HM Prison Oxford.
Today
Today, the remains of the Saxon St.George's Tower, Motte-and-Bailey Mound, the Prison D-Wing and Debtor's Tower make up the Oxford Castle & Prison tourist attraction.
The prison was closed in 1996 and the site reverted to
The full extent of the original castle is somewhat obliterated today, especially with the intrusion of the newer
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Referenced in Harfield, p.388.
- ^ a b c Joy, p.28.
- ^ MacKenzie, 147; Tyack, p.5.
- ^ Amt, pp.47–8.
- ^ Harfield, pp.384, 388–9.
- ^ Open Domesday, Place: Oxford: entry 13
- ^ Oxford Archaeological Unit Ltd 2011, p.2
- ^ Oxford Castle, Oxford, Oxfordshire, c1860-c1922. Artist: Henry Taunt
- ^ a b c MacKenzie, p.147.
- ^ Poore et al., 2009, p.8.
- ^ Map drawn after Hassall 1971, p.2; Tyack, p.6, p.80.
- ^ MacKenzie, p.148; Oxford Archaeology, accessed 12 September 2010.
- ^ a b Hassall 1976, p.233.
- ^ Beckley and Radford, 2012, p. 37
- ^ Tyack, p.7; MacKenzie, p.148.
- ^ a b Tyack, p.6; Hassall 1976, p.233.
- ^ Oxford Council: Historic Urban Character Area 12: Castle and Periphery - Oxford Castle
- ^ a b Signboard from Oxfordshire County Council on Oxford Castle Site
- ^ Poore et al., 2009, p.5-6.
- ^ Davies, p.72.
- ^ Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire: Norman Oxford (Ashmolean Museum)
- ^ St. Georges Tower, Oxford
- ^ Plan of Oxford Castle (provenance unknown)
- ^ Tyack, p.8.
- ^ a b c MacKenzie, p.149; Gravett and Hook, p.43.
- ^ a b MacKenzie, p.149.
- ^ Tyack, p.8; MacKenzie, p.149.
- ^ MacKenzie, p.149; Amt, p.48.
- ^ a b Gravett and Hook, p.44.
- ^ MacKenzie, p.149; Gravett and Hook, p.44.
- ^ Amt, p.48.
- ^ Amt, pp.56–7.
- ^ a b c d e Hassall, p.235.
- ^ Hassall 1971, p.9.
- ^ Hassall 1976, p.235; Tyack, p.8.
- ^ Davies, p.3; Marks, p.93.
- ^ Munby, p.96.
- ^ Crossley and Elrington, p.297.
- ^ Mortimer, Ian, The Fears of Henry IV, 2007, at Ch. 10.
- ^ a b Tyack, p.8; Hassall 1976, p.235; MacKenzie, p.149; Davies, pp.91–2.
- ^ Hassall 1976, p.235, 254.
- ^ Davies, p. 3
- ^ a b Oxford Archaeology, accessed 12 September 2010.
- ^ Poole et al., Figure 6
- ^ drawing based on Christ Church map of 1615, british-history.ac.uk
- ^ a b Joy, p. 29
- ^ Joy, p. 29; Oxford Archaeology, accessed 12 September 2010.
- ^ a b Davies, p.6.
- ^ Davies, p.106.
- ^ Davies, pp.9–10.
- ^ View of Oxford Castle, 1769 (www.alamy.com)
- ^ The North View of Oxford Castle (sandersofoxford.com)
- ^ Oxford Castle, Oxfordshire, from Francis Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, 1786
- ^ View of Castle Hill, Oxford by Michael Angelo Rooker (1746–1801), from Oxfordshire County Museums Service
- ^ Oxford Castle and the Castle Mound, 27 May 1784. Artist John Baptist Malchair. (Photo by Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
- ^ Davies, p.14.
- ^ Davies, p.15.
- ^ Hassall 1976, p.235; Whiting, p.54.
- ^ a b St Georges Tower, St Georges Chapel Crypt and D Wing Including the Debtors Tower Archived 28 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, National Heritage List for England, English Heritage, accessed 26 June 2013.
- ^ Hyack, p.7; Whiting, p.54.
- ^ Munby, p.53; Davies, p.24.
- ^ Oxford Castle mugshots show 'victims of their time, BBC News, accessed 15 January 2017.
- ^ Smith, p.93.
- ^ RICS Awards 2007 Winners list (archived), RICS, accessed 215 January 2017.
- ^ Well House Oxford Castle Archived 28 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, National Heritage List for England, English Heritage, accessed 26 June 2013.
- ^ Oxford Castle, Gatehouse, accessed 27 June 2013.
- ^ Oxford Castle and Prison Visitor Information
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