Castle Builders by Malcolm James Baillie-Hislop

Author:Malcolm James Baillie-Hislop [Baillie-Hislop, Malcolm James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Wars & Conflicts (Other)
ISBN: 9781473883970
Google: QsPYDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword Archaeology
Published: 2016-10-31T01:42:52+00:00

In the early thirteenth century the initiative for great tower building was with the nobility rather than the king. The greatest concentration of cylindrical keeps in Britain is in Wales and the Marches. One of the earliest is Pembroke, built for William Marshal, who was invested as earl of Pembroke in 1199 and acquired Pembroke itself shortly afterwards. He died in 1219. The keep is about 16 m (53 ft) in diameter and rises to a height of 24 m (80 ft); it sits on a plinth with an arching profile and has two offsets marking the upper floor levels (Fig 6.11). The first-floor entrance was approached by a flight of stone steps; directly above it a window of two lancet lights with dog-tooth mouldings proclaims the keep to be a product of the Gothic age, and introduces an element of domestic charm into its otherwise severe appearance. The keep would have had a rather different aspect when its upper parts were intact. Not only was it crowned by a timber hoarding, the sockets for which survive, but it was capped by a dome that rose above the tops of the walls and was encircled by a second line of battlements that overlooked the hoarding. Architecturally, the arrangement provided greater visual interest and balance than is evident today.

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