Wow, check out all this "news" about Lincoln castle that I came across in a google search while making the Lincoln Castle post yesterday (I put "news" in quotation marks because two of them are a bit old):

Unknown church beneath Lincoln Castle is 'major find'

The article is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-22553227

Lincoln Castle skeleton 'could be Saxon king or bishop'

The article is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-23113241

This one is from today!:

Lincoln Castle archaeologists to extract sarcophagus

The article is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-23817713

Please comment below and tell us what you think!!!

Lincoln Castle

Lincoln Castle

Alright Castle Lovers, today's castle is one that I personally believe gets far less attention than it should: Lincoln Castle.

Castle and cathedral have faced each other across the hilltop since Norman times.  Lincoln Castle was raised over the southwest quarter of the citadel by order of William the Conqueror in 1068.  The site had previously been densely occupied - Domesday Book tells us that 166 houses were destroyed to make way for the castle.  Its stonewall is mentioned as early as 1115 and Henry I is regarded as the likely builder.

The high curtain, still intact though frequently patched up in later centur

ies, preserves portions of herringbone masonry confirming its early Norman date.  It stands on top of an earth rampart surrounding a large, roughly square bailey.  A rare feature is the presence of not one but two mottes, both on the southern edge of the bailey. Why they should stand so close together is a mystery, since they seem to threaten each other from a defensive point of view.  The larger motte is crowned by a polygonal shell keep known as the Lucy Tower, evidently a later Norman addition and possibly erected by the Earl of Chester, who held Lincoln for the Empress Matilda.

The smaller motte carries the so-called Observatory Tower, an early Norman structure extended in the fourteenth century and capped by a Victorian turret.  Cobb Hall, a horseshoe-plan tower flanking the vulnerable northeast corner of the walled circuit, is a defensive improvement made after an unsuccessful siege by the Dauphin Louis' supporters in 1217.

There are two gatehouses.  The West gate, now blocked, is a simple Norman gate tower.  The East Gate was re-fronted in the fourteenth century with a lofty gate arch and round turrets corbelled out higher up.  Foundations of a barbican can be seen in front, but the courtyard extension of the gatehouse is another Victorian embellishment.  It incorporates an oriel window from a medieval house in the city.

Canterbury Castle

Canterbury Castle

 Here's another keeper (pun intended, get it? "keep"?)
Considering the level of bombing sustained by the city in 1942, it is a miracle that so much of medieval Canterbury survives.  Among the many attractions are the ruined castle keep and a large part of the city wall.  Indeed, though incomplete, the wall of Canterbury ranks among the foremost in England.

The shape of the defenses was determined in the third century AD.  The Roman wall enclosed an oval area nearly two miles in circumference, and the medieval wall follows exactly the same line.  However, very little Roman masonry survives because the wall was rebuilt from the 1370s, when a French invasion seemed imminent.

More than half the circuit is preserved, extending from the site of the North Gate at the southwest end of the old city.  The only gaps in this sector are those left by the demolition of the gatehouses.  Eleven bastions survive, notable for their early "keyhole" gun ports.  The four northernmost are square and date from about 1400, but the others are the traditional U-shaped type with open backs.

Canterbury Castle was probably founded soon after the Norman Conquest and certainly before the Domesday Book..  All that remains is the lower half of a large, oblong keep. The stepped splays behind the narrow window openings suggest an early date. The plinth and pilaster buttresses are typical Norman features.   The entrance was at first-floor level in the northwest wall and excavations have uncovered a fore building.

The West gate is the only survivor of seven gatehouses in the wall.  The fortress-like outer façade of the gatehouse, with machicolations overhanging the entrance and sturdy drum towers pierced by gun ports, contrasts with a more domestic townward front. Note the porticullis groove in the vaulted gate passage. The West Gate has survived because it housed the county gaol after the castle keep had become too derelict.

Barnwell Castle

On the Duke of Gloucester's estate at Barnwell can be seen three successive manorial centers in close proximity.  First there are the earthworks of a Norman motte And bailey, now hidden in a clump of trees.  Then comes the massive stone ruin of Barnwell Vastle, built by Berengar le Moine about 1265-66.  It seems that Berengar took advantage of Henry III's preoccupation with his barons to build a strong adulterine castle.  Berengar later sold his new castle to Ramsey Abbey.  It is said he was compelled to do so by Edward I as a punishment for building it without a licen

se.  Barnwell remained with the abbey until the Dissolution, when Sir Edward Montague purchased it.  He erected the present house, Barnwell Manor, nearby.

The castle is an interesting example of thirteenth century military architecture with some delightfully experimental touches.  On a smaller scale, it anticipates the great castles that Edward I would build in Wales in the following decades, and though it pre-dates Edward's coronation by several years, it is a rare English example of a pure Edwardian castle.

An unusually thick curtain, well preserved except for the loss of its parapet and a single breach on the west, surrounds an oblong courtyard.  Circular towers project boldly at three angles, the fourth being occupied by a gatehouse.  The two northern towers are quite eccentric as they both have a smaller round tower projecting from them, resulting in a figure-of-eight plan.  The prime function of these subsidiary towers was domestic rather than military.  They contained latrines serving the apartments in the main body of the towers.

The southwest tower has no projections, but its upper floors are square internally for greater domestic convenience.  The latrine for this tower was accommodated in a more conventional manner within the thickness of the curtain.

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