The Internal Arrangement of the Donjon at Colchester in Essex: a Reconsideration

The internal arrangement of the donjon at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration 178 The Castle Studies Group Journal No 23: 2009-10 The internal arrangement of the donjon at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration The internal arrangement of the donjon century,7 which would only have acted as at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration another propaganda spur to the Normans to Pamela Marshall build a castle there, underlining continuity of authority. Roman building material was Impressive in size, the great tower at liberally used in the construction of the Colchester represents one of the more enig- donjon, though it has to be borne in mind matic early donjons extant in the British that the dearth of good building stone in the Isles, for its early history, development and region, combined with a copious source of design are not entirely typical. While Wil- recyclable Roman ruins, would naturally liam the Conqueror instigated its building encourage such a course of action even around 1074 to 1076, only the ground floor without the added advantage of any sym- was completed, leaving the structure in an bolic connotations. architectural state of limbo. A quarter of a century passed before Henry I granted the The second peculiarity of the don- castle by charter to his steward Eudo, a jon surrounds the lengthy building break, man who had close personal connections clearly evidenced by crenellations fossil- with Colchester, and who may have over- ised within the walls at the top of basement 8 seen the earlier phase of building on behalf level (Phase Ia). Arguments that this was of the former king. It is likely that Eudo envisaged as a temporary measure are cer- 9 completed the Conqueror’s unfinished tainly justified, but resumption of the work on his own account, and it was not planned upper stories was delayed by about until his death in 1120 that the castle re- twenty years, which is an unusually long turned to royal ownership.1 For the purpos- hiatus. Corner turrets were built, doubtless es of this article and in the interests of to give the half-finished structure a better simplicity I shall divide the construction look (Phase Ib) but the upper levels of the regimes into just two phases, the first sub- building were not added until c.1101 10 divided, described as Phases Ia, Ib and (Phase II). This means that, although the Phase II.2 tower and its plan were started under Wil- liam I, it was not brought to fruition until The problems attendant on any the reign of Henry I, by which time some interpretation of this building are well developments were emerging in donjon known and can be summarised as follows. design. In the first place, the donjon is much larger than any other,3 which certainly accounts The third problem is the absence for some of the peculiarities in its plan. Its of all but a trace of the fabric above the first size, 46m by 33.5m can be attributed to a floor, due to a determined attempt by one desire to re-use the podium of the Roman Mr. Wheeley, beginning in 1683, to raze Temple of Claudius as a foundation for the the tower to the ground for its stone. How- donjon.4 Without doubt this decision repre- ever, he found that the effort required to sents more than simply a labour-saving take down any solid walls in the structure device, for the deliberate exploitation of made the enterprise economically unviable Roman connotations in both architecture and it was given up as hopeless within a and place for propaganda purposes has few years, though not, unfortunately, be- been noted here, as elsewhere.5 Indeed, this fore demolition of the upper storey had seems to have been a trend already preva- been achieved and other damage inflicted: lent in early eleventh-century France.6 “The tops of the towers and walls were There are also indications that the temple forced down with screws or blown up with site at Colchester had devolved into an gunpowder …... but [since] the profit did Anglo-Saxon villa regalis by the tenth not answer the charge of further demolition The Castle Studies Group Journal No 23: 2009-10 179 The internal arrangement of the donjon at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration 0m 10m Figure 1: Floor plans of the White Tower, London he [Wheeley] was forced to desist.” 11 the location of a chapel in the SE corner, the Subsequent alterations were made to the presence of mural galleries on all sides and surviving two floors when the S part was the continuation of the stairs in both of the used as a prison and later a museum, while W turrets. It is therefore possible to draw a the N part remains a ruinous shell.12 Nev- likely reconstruction of the final form of the ertheless, we have reasonably good evi- building from the surviving evidence, espe- dence for the basement and first floor and cially taking into account parallels with oth- the trace of the second floor has left enough er plans. to reconstruct certain key features, notably 180 The Castle Studies Group Journal No 23: 2009-10 The internal arrangement of the donjon at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration It has been assumed that Colchester, built for the same patron and initially in progress at the same time, would basical- ly have followed the plan at the White Tower, comprising two full floors above the basement.13 It will be argued here that the polite accommodation as finally built comprised an aisled Hall approached through a waiting room and rising through two sto- reys; that there was an audience chamber and private bedcham- ber at the same level as the Hall; that at top floor level a gallery gave access to a chapel and to chambers placed over the small- er rooms below. At Colchester the SE cell is, in plan, pretty much a replica of the White Tower design, with a protruding apse for the vaulted chapel envisaged on the top floor and two vaulted Figure 2 Colchester: Ground floor plan stories below this to support its structure (compare Figure 1 and Figure 2). The chapel was almost certainly building, with a lateral cross-wall and designed to stand proud of the roofline, as chambers across the whole width of the S in the original White Tower arrangement.14 section; at the White Tower this occurred However, the scale of the enterprise made only where the chapel cell was situated. any further reproduction of the White Tow- Even the cross-wall was not straightfor- er plan problematical and there were bound ward, for the chambers differed in size, so to be differences from the outset. In the their N walls dog-legged to accommodate first place, the basement floor was not set the layout of the first floor. Despite the at ground level, as was normal, being al- outline footprints of Colchester and the ready raised some 3m by the re-use of the White Tower having been so celebrated for temple podium. More importantly, the size their similarity,15 it must have been clear to of the building required two spine walls, its builders that Colchester could not sim- structurally necessary because of a roof ply reproduce the Conqueror’s other great span that needed a triple pile rather than the donjon on this particular site. The layout of more common dual pile plan (see Figure 2). the basement reflects this from the very start and even more essential differences This left a long central cell that was emerged in the finished plan, delayed by difficult to light. In addition, the scale of two decades. By the time building resumed the building did not lend itself to accom- c.1101, work on Henry I’s great tower at modating one hall through its immense Norwich was advancing, marked by a de- length, as was normal. So the spine walls termined change of plan over that envis- did not even run the full length of the The Castle Studies Group Journal No 23: 2009-10 181 The internal arrangement of the donjon at Colchester in Essex: a reconsideration aged by the architects of its instigator, secure, possibly envisaged as strong-rooms. William Rufus.16 There are signs of cross- The N wall of the central cell was deliber- fertilization between Henry’s modified ately set proud of the line of its SE counter- plan for Norwich and a revised plan for part, while the N wall of the next cell to the Colchester, which probably veered closer W was set back again. Thus a salient corner to the contemporary royal model than that protruded into the westernmost of the long which the Conqueror’s master masons had northern cells, made more pronounced by had in mind. the position of the westernmost spine, which does not align with the W wall of the Analysis of the Plan: Ground Floor (See vaulted central cell on the S side. This ar- Plan: Figure 2) rangement of supporting walls is very sig- Although circumstances led to its constitut- nificant in interpreting the first floor. ing the entire accommodation throughout In the N section of building the E Phase I (c. 1074-1101, the poor provision spine wall still stands but the W one was of lighting, no more than ventilation loops, demolished by Wheeley. Where this joined shows that the vast majority of the ground the N wall of the donjon, however, there is floor space was envisaged, as was normal, no scarring on the lower 2m, suggesting as a basement designed mainly for storage.

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