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NEWARK CASTLE

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DESCRIPTION

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Medieval motte and bailey castle built in 1133-48 with much rebuilding and alterations carried out in the late 12th and 14th centuries. The gatehouse, part of the curtain wall and a tower are still visible. Excavations of the castle were carried out between 1954-1956 and in 1972. Scheduled.

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[SK79635407] Castle [G.T.] (In Ruins). (1)

"Newark Castle, built c.1130 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, now consists of the western half of what appears to have been a rectangular bailey. The remains include the original gatehouse and adjoining portion of the curtain west of it, the whole of the west curtain on the right bank of the R. Trent, with a tower near the middle and one at either end, and the vaulted undercroft of the great hall. Much rebuilding and alteration took place in the C13th when the NW tower, which has a bottle-neck prison in the basement, was built. There is a watergate in the west wall. The gatehouse combined the functions of gateway and keep. There was a drawbridge over the moat". (2)

As described by Authy.2. See AO/62/44/3-6 for photographs of the castle. (3)

Reports of Newark Castle excavations in 1954-6 and 1972. Finds consisted solely of pottery, all fourteenth century except for one Anglo-Saxon rim. (4-5)

SK 7965 5402. Newark Castle. Scheduled no. NT/3. (6)

Listed by Cathcart King. (7)

Remains of castle. Gatehouse, including chapel and lodging, curtain wall and north west tower built for Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, c1133-1148. South west tower later C12. North west tower and curtain wall remodelled and river front central tower built, probably for Bishop Henry de Burghersh, c1320-1340. Hall undercroft mid C14. Hall altered and front oriel window added for Bishop Thomas Rotherham, 1471-1480. Gatehouse, hall windows, central and south west towers altered and refenestrated for residence for Earl of Rutland, 1581. Slighted and left as a roofless ruin following siege of 1646. Restored 1845-1848 by A Salvin. Purchased and restored by Newark corporation, 1889. Restored and consolidated by DoE, 1979-1990. (8)

The Northern defences of the castle were located during excavations in 1992, establishing that the outer ward of the castle was a rectangle set well within the lines of the modern grounds. Excavations in 193 showed that the Norman castle occupied a site already defended by a timber palisade, and possibly also by a timber-laced rampart. This raises the prospect of a late pre-Conquest fortified manorial comple or the site of the Saxon burh. Alexander's castle of the 1130s apparently made use of at least part of a pre-existing northern defence, a short section of the curtain wall being built on top of a rampart belonging to it.

Excavations in the southern area of the site in 1994 located a Late saxon building, which given its East-West orientation and proximity to a graveyard also discovered, was probably a church, or manorial building adjacent to a church. Shortly after the budget the graveyard and church were built over to provide for defensive works. (9-10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" Rev.Edn. 1915/38

( 2) by Sidney Toy 1953 The castles of Great Britain

1953 Page(s)81

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 BHS 17-SEP-62

( 4) Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

60, 1056 Page(s)20-33

( 5) Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

(T W Courtney) 77, 1973 Page(s)33-40

( 6) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage, SAM List, Nottinghamshire, March 1994, p 10

( 7) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

2 Page(s)380

(8) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Newark, 13-Aug-1992

(9) by Philip Dixon ... [et al] 1994 Newark castle studies : excavations 1992-1993

(10) by Fred Coupland, Pamela Marshall and John Samuels 1994 Newark Castle studies : excavations 1994

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