CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 -

Castle Bolton. Engraved by S. Rawle, from a drawing by W. Tayleure for the ‘Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain’, J Britton (ed). Vol. 4, 1835. (Detail). The SW view of , . Note position and location of the stepped entrance.

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Engraved by - Pote, from a drawing by W. Tayleure, for the ‘Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain’, John Britton (ed). 1814. The NE View of Bolton Castle, Yorkshire.

Bolton Castle as depicted by the LNER poster by Oliver Hall RA, c. 1940. Passengers to alight at Station, closed in 1954, but reopened in 2004, operated by the Railway Ass.

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Castle Bolton ton is the most ambitious in scale, of this The castellated great house built at Bolton in specialized type of building, and, despite the Wensleydale for Richard Lord , steward destruction of the north-east tower, one of the of the household and later chancellor, is largely most easily understood, because it is otherwise a creation of the years 1378-95. His master comparatively little altered. mason was John Lewyn of Durham, a highly A handful of key texts provide a framework for experienced practitioner, who had recently been the chronology of castle. They are, in date engaged to undertake significant works at the order: royal castles of Carlisle and Roxburgh, which 1. A building contract between Scrope and he was to oversee in tandem with Bolton over Lewyn dated 14 September 1378 (North York- the next few years. Castle Bolton is the out- shire Record Office, ZBO [MIC 2424/640]). standing English example of a late medieval type, in which large-scale domestic planning 2. A licence to crenellate issued on 6 July 1379 was confined within a restricted compass, rising (Calendar of Patent Rolls 1377-81, 369) through several storeys, to create a compact, 3. A licence for founding a chantry of six integrated castle with a custom-designed plan of priests in the castle chapel dated 3 February sometimes labyrinthine complexity. 1393 (Calendar of Patent Rolls 1391-6, 224). The building comprises the remains of four 4. John Leland’s Itinerary, in which it is said rectangular corner towers linked by lower resi- that the castle took eighteen years to build at an dential ranges to enclose an open quadrangular annual cost of 1000 marks (£666. 13s. 4d.), courtyard. Rectangular turrets project externally and that it was completed before the death of from the centres of the north and south ranges, Richard II (1399) (L. Toulmin Smith [1910], and the building was entered via a gateway at The Itinerary of John Leland, v, 139). the south end of the east range adjacent to the south-east tower. The building as a whole is The 1378 contract was drawn up close to the orientated east-west, a trait explained by the end of the building season, but Lewyn’s remu- restrictions of the site, namely, the pre-existing neration was to include a sum that had already Church of St Oswald to the north, and by steeply been paid, which suggests that some of the falling land to the south. In these circumstances, work described in the contract had already it was given comparatively short east and west been completed. The buildings of the contract ranges, and three of the towers were orientated are identifiable with the east range, the eastern in sympathy with the main block. In stark con- corner towers, and the eastern part of the south trast, however, the north-east tower, which col- range, which implies that the castle was built lapsed in 1761, and of which only the lower in at least two phases. courses survive, was built on a north-south axis. In seeking to identify the pre-contract works it At Bolton, the five-storey corner towers and may be worth focusing on the anomalous ori- three-storey linking ranges accommodated eight entation of the kitchen tower at the north-east major domestic suites centred on several halls, corner, and considering that it was conceived together with numerous individual lodgings, to serve the hall of an existing manor house and various domestic offices including two that was later replaced by the north range. The kitchens, a brewhouse and bakehouse, as well as kitchen tower is the building of which fewest stables. The genius of the design lies in the details are given in the contract, the paucity of assimilation of the various units, a task of three- information perhaps suggesting that it was dimensional design that involved arranging very already substantially advanced by the date of specific lines of communication in order to the contract. In which case, its orientation maintain a high degree of exclusivity for each might have been determined before it was residential unit. Amongst non-royal castles Bol- decided to convert an existing manor house

THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-1636 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Castle Bolton into a much more ambitious residence. There is a the gateway, giving an annual construction certain amount of structural evidence that assists rate of slightly under 3.35m (11 ft). Above with refining the chronology. Firstly, there is a this,assuming a similar work rate, there is vertical joint in the masonry of the south range, another two seasons’ work to the top of the confirming that the building was raised in two east range parapet. A further three seasons’ phases. This joint coincides with an internal trans- work must be added for the upper parts of the verse wall, which, at 7ft thick, is almost double the two towers, making eight seasons in all. If the thickness of the other internal walls. This seems to first year was 1378, the eighth season would be a consequence of the eastern part having been have been 1385. built first, the additional thickness having been Thus, so far, an absolute chronology can be added to the west in order to provide an abutment suggested for the buildings raised under the for the barrel vault of the basement. 1378 contract. lt is more difficult to do the The independence of these two principal phases same for the remainder of the castle, for al- is emphasized by a difference of detail, in that though both the north range and western part each of the standard rectangular windows to the of the south range are structurally later than west of the break in the south range was provid- the lower parts of John Lewyn’s work, it is ed with a small relieving arch, whereas to the conceivable that they were begun before the east of the line this feature is absent. In fact, preceding phase was completed. In fact it throughout the buildings created under the con- seems probable that the north range would tract of 1378, apart from a single exception have been started immediately after the com- (south-east tower, third floor, west face), none pletion of the east range, when a sizeable of the windows was provided with a relieving proportion of the workforce would have be- arch, whereas in the remainder of the castle, come available for redeployment. lt is for this although both types are found, those with re- reason that it is suggested here that the north lieving arches predominate. range was begun in 1383 and the stonework Based on the observation that the transition to virtually completed during the season of 1386. windows with relieving arches seems to have Assuming that work began on the final phase occurred during the construction of the north (i.e. the west range, western towers and the range, it may, perhaps, be suggested that the remainder of the south range), immediately buildings of the 1378 contract were followed, after the completion of the north range, then firstly, by the north range, and, subsequently, the south and west ranges would have been by the rest of the castle. completed c. 1392 and the towers in c. 1395. Horizontal building breaks providing evidence Corroboration of this suggested chronology is for seasonal phasing are most easily observed on provided by two pieces of documentary evi- the external face of the north range, where the dence. Firstly, the chantry licence of 1393, the work of at least four seasons is evident between chapel being on the uppermost storey of the the north turret and north-west tower, the aver- western part of the south range, the completion age height of each phase being approximately of which has been estimated as the season of 3.66m (12 ft), a measurement that accords well 1392, immediately prior to the grant. Second- with the annual progress rate on medieval build- ly, Leland’s statement that the castle took ings that has been noted elsewhere. eighteen years to build corresponds with the estimated chronology of 1378-95. Further- Although the north front provides the best more, Leland’s information that the cost of the structural evidence for annual phasing it is only building works amounted to 1000 marks per the east front that can be dated at all accurately. annum suggests that the operation was careful- 1378 is likely to have been the first building ly budgeted and explains why a phased ap- season proper. There are three discernible sub- proach was taken towards the construction of phases in the first 9.75m (32 ft) from the sill of the castle: it was largely for financial reasons.

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Bolton Castle Ground floor plan

Planning diagram (after Faulkner)

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Bolton Castle. Floor plans, with keys (after Faulkner)

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ABOVE: Castle Bolton from the west. Present visitor entrance up the steps into the re-entrant angle of the SW tower. Note the remains of a rooftop machicolation above the original entrance (now a window). (See the Rawle engraving by Britton to note how the steps have changed location). BELOW: The imposing south façade from the garden. L: SW tower; R: SE tower; chapel between.

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ABOVE: The east façade with the residential SE tower and adjacent entrance passage The NE corner Kitchen Tower demolished. (cf. Britton p. 33). BELOW: Detail of the entrance arch and exterior portcullis groove. Windows above and door to the right are later enlargements or insertions. See the Britton engraving - NE view.

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ABOVE, left: square exterior portcullis groove. Right: The portcullis sits above the gate-arch and is not chased into the upper arch. There is no gap. BELOW: The plain barrel vaulted passage - looking toward the courtyard, that may have had benches along the sides. There is one door off the passage, just inside the entrance to the left (south), not shown..

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Castle Bolton had five or six very unusual interior courtyard portcullises. All doors are of varying widths to suit the functions of the chambers in each wing. The full wooden portcullis structure remained exposed, and was drawn by one central chain. LOWER RIGHT: There is only one other castle in Britain that comes close to anything similar - at Appleby Castle. It is a one-off and it is not clear whether this is to be dated to the same period.

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Onsite panel defining the original suggested room functions on the principal (second/third) floors, with Great Hall on the north side (top). The Ladies’ Solar is shown near left in the SW corner tower. BELOW: The second floor ‘Ladies’ Solar’ looking west (Faulkner’s A1). Access to chapel behind.

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Two views of the Great Chamber on the second floor of the West range (both Faulkner’s A). ABOVE: Looking north-west. Door in the window embrasure leads to a latrine. BELOW: The three large windows looking east over the courtyard.

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Castle Bolton. The floor plans indicate that there were five anticlockwise spiral stairs and possibly four clockwise. There does not appear to be any obvious reasons for the choice of either in each range, but the spiral winder widths do scale up in width according to the status of the type of room use; services; lodgings and Great Hall, lordly apartments, with the largest on the partly destroyed north range.

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1 2

1. Mortimer’s Tower from the Outer Bailey. Note the chamfered or canted corners & inserted door. 2. The ‘D-shaped’ tower from the top of the keep. 3. The vaulted ground-floor room looking toward the blocked 5ft 6” entry with bases of the portcullis grooves on the ground. 4. One of the two 5 inch 1/2 round mid-late 13th /early 14th century portcullis grooves, seen on the floor in (3).

3 4

View of the south range, looking east. Chapel below and Intermediate Tower right (which small rooms were evidently for the priest / herbalist). The SE tower ahead. The smoke vents along the walls presumably cater for the fireplaces in the rooms below the chapel.

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