Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/752

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��6 acres. The mound is about 90 ft. across at the top and about 200 ft. across the base, while its height is about 30 ft. from the ditch to the east, as it now is, or about 40 ft. from the lower ground to the west. It was made by cutting a ditch through a spur of the chalk hill and piling the debris upon the west end of the spur.

The outworks of the castle reached to what is now called Quarry Hill House in Quarry Street. Close to this are the remains of a sally port. The outer walls continued round by the south and south-east and east, inclosing the present bowling-green. The limits are marked by the boundary of the extra-parochial precincts. The curving line of Castle Street marks the outer walls to the north. On the west it is probable that an outer ward included Quarry Street, abutting upon the steep declivity above the river. By the steps which lead up here from the river to Quarry Street is the jamb of an ancient stone door- way. At the south-west angle, by Quarry Hill House, it is obvious that the castle ditch, now occupied by a greenhouse, has been abruptly broken off by the street crossing it. It ran across the street, no doubt, so that this way into Guildford came through the outer ward of the castle.

The principal building now on the castle site is square keep of early 12th-century date, near which are a few remains of a shell keep of earlier date," an artificial mound on which these stand, and fragments of the outer buildings, some of which are possibly a part of the hall, and are, so far as they can be dated, of about the same period as the keep. The entrance from Quarry Street is through a mediaeval gateway known as the Castle Arch, adjoining which on the north side is a building also in part of mediaeval date, but much altered in the I jth century, and now used as the head quarters of the Surrey Archaeological Society. On the higher ground to the east of it are considerable remains of I2th and 13th-century build- ing, unfortunately too fragmentary to be identified, but doubtless representing the palace of which so many details are preserved in the documents quoted.

The keep consists of an approximately square structure about 42 ft. each way, and is set a little west of north, and at the east of the top of the mound. It is built of Bargate stone rubble in thin slabs with some flint rubble as a core, and externally irregularly placed bands of herring-bone work in Bargate stone, some bands of scappled flints, and a certain amount of ashlar mainly in Bargate stone but with a little chalk. The lower part of the east wall has been repaired in modern times.

Externally the four faces are broken by broad angle and central pilaster buttresses running the whole height of the keep. The angle buttresses appear to have been carried slightly higher than the rest of the wall, while over the north-west angle was a turret over the vice. The doors and windows were all originally quoined with dressed Bargate stone, which in some cases has been replaced by brickwork, apparently in the lyth century. On the north and east of the tower the ground falls away rather rapidly, and the pilaster buttresses spring from a battered plinth faced in part with ashlar. The original access to the mound was under the north side of the keep, and on the face of the latter the remains of the spring of an arch which spanned the entrance are

��visible. The tower was originally divided into four stories, but the lowest one has been filled in nearly up to the level of the floor, the beam-holes of which remain. This, with the present ground floor, formed a basement, the main entrance being on the first floor. The foundations of the east wall of the keep are on the natural ground at the foot of the mound ; those of the other three walls, which terminate with an interior set-off, are in the artificial mound.

The ground floor is entered by a rough opening made at a recent date in the west wall. There are two windows, one in the north and one in the south walls, both of which have round heads with internal splays and semicircular rear arches which are sloped up from inside to outside. The walls are of rough rubble in flint and Bargate stone with a care- fully laid inside facing of thin stones which in places has been hacked away. Portions of the plaster

���SCALE or Ion

PLAN OF GUILDFORD CASTLE KEEP

��adhere to the south wall. In the north wall is cut a rough fireplace, a flue for which has been contrived in the thickness of the wall.

The entrance, on the west, has a very slightly pointed door of two orders, the outer of which is flush with the face of the pilaster buttress on this side. The door leads into a passage with parallel sides through the thickness of the wall, and is faced with wide jointed ashlar which shows diagonal tooling. It has a rough pointed barrel-vault. South of this is the door to a wall chamber, all the worked stones of which have been picked out. North of it is a small rou'id-headed door to a chamber in the thickness of the wall. The north and south walls are offset at this level for the wood floor which once existed. In the middle of the north wall is an opening with a segmental head, the jambs of which are much cut about, which opens into a long narrow barrel-vaulted chamber or passage in the

��' Shell Keep of Guildford Cajtle,' Sarr. Arch. Coll. xvi. 556

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