Capture The Castle

First published in 2017 by Sansom and Company, a publishing imprint of Redclife Press Ltd., 81g Pembroke Road. Bristol bs8 3ea www.sansomandcompany.co.uk info@sansomandcompany.co.uk

Published in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Capture the Castle’, 26 May–2 September 2017, Southampton City Art Gallery, Civic Centre, Commercial Road, Southampton so14 7lp www.southamptoncityartgallery.com

Book and exhibition have been made possible with the support of:

© `e contributors

isbn 978-1-911408-05-5

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. Except for the purpose of review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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Frontispiece: Kenneth Steel, Durham [detail]; see page 107

Acknowledgements

Southampton City Art Gallery would like to thank the following:

• Stuart Southall and the Punter Southall Group for their great generosity in funding this publication.

• Friends of Southampton’s Museums, Archives and Galleries for their continued support of arts and heritage in Southampton.

• All of the contributing artists and lenders for kindly allowing their work to be included within the catalogue.

• Tim Craven and Steve Marshall, co-curators of the exhibition, Dan Matthews and Jess Whitfield for the catalogue production.

• Anne Anderson, Andy King, Steve Marshall, Roy Porter and Sam Smiles for contributing fine essays to the catalogue.

• All at Sansom & Co, including project manager, Clara Hudson, and Ian Parfitt for the catalogue design.

• Exhibitions, Conservation and Learning staf at the City Art Gallery: Dan Matthews, Jess Whitfield, Stu Rodda, Andrew Ball, Rebecca Moisan, Ambrose Scott-Moncrief, Benedict Hall, Joseph Hill, Richie Gooding, Caroline Piper and Kate Mitchell.

• Brynn Jones and Mike Evans at English Heritage.

• We thank UNIQA for supporting Southampton City Art Gallery, by providing insurance cover for the city’s world-class collection (www.artuniqa.at).

All efort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders for the reproductions included in this publication. In cases of errors or omissions please contact the publishers so that we can make corrections in future editions.

L IKE T IM C RAv EN, WHo SE INTRoDUCT oR y ESSAy oPENS THIS catalogue, I have vivid childhood memories of a castle obsession. My mother still speaks of a Welsh holiday when exploring castles was all I wanted to do and a generation later I had the same experience when my own son spent a day roaming the impressive fortifications surrounding Avila in Spain.

`is catalogue and the accompanying exhibition contain a cross-section of castle images from my print collection and, as I was reviewing possible candidates for inclusion, I realised just how frequently such scenes had captured the artistic imagination, both in the UK and further afield. In some cases, such as in the works of F.L. Griggs, the castles are almost entirely imaginary; in others, for example, the multiple images of Corfe castle, reality transcends the imagination producing views of mesmeric mystery.

Why a financial conglomerate might want to sponsor an exhibition on castles may be less clear. But perhaps the many castles still standing, and constantly engaging the interests of new generations, speak volumes for long-term wellbeing founded on sound investment decisions, protective strategies and forward thinking.

All a bit tenuous no doubt but, as the exhibition sponsor, the Punter Southall Group would like to congratulate Southampton City Art Gallery on producing a fascinating and innovative show and we hope it is greatly enjoyed by all its visitors.

Stuart Southall Co-founder, Punter Southall Group

Sydney R. Jones / Durham / 1924 / etching / 163 x 172 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Introduct Ion

tim craven

IT ALL STARTED WHEN I READ MARC MoRRIS’S excellent book on King Edward i a few years ago. `is prompted a summer holiday in Snowdonia planned specifically to see his world-class, big-four castles (Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris). `e expedition rekindled my boyhood love of exploring castles and first sight of Conwy Castle was a jaw-dropping moment that remains vivid in my memory. Its powerful and brooding presence dominates a stunning location and the others were equally impressive. `e nearby native castles, though sited in strong, strategic places and appearing utterly romantic are puny by comparison, emphasising the unstoppable brute force of Edward i’s military campaigns in Wales. `ese relics of a long distant age still possess an intangible and potent force.

Later I related these experiences to the celebrated artist Graham Arnold who has long employed castles in his paintings and he announced that he would like to paint another one. Immediately I thought – perhaps I could paint a castle and because my mind works that way – is there an exhibition? For a long time though I believed that the subject was too specialist, too boys-own to enjoy universal appeal, but gradually, through sharing these ideas with friends and other artists I realised how wrong I was. `e resulting exhibition that accompanies this publication is the first major artistic project of its kind in recent times, relating the story of the castle from early times until the present through historic and contemporary paintings, prints and drawings. History is entwined with art.

Everyone it seems, loves castles. `ey exhibit an exceptional visual wow factor. No wonder Disneyland’s brand image is a fairy-tale castle, the associations are magical and exciting. Steeped in history and legend, many of these extraordinary buildings exude a compelling and dramatic magnetism. `ey are the stuf of knights in shining armour, derring-do, highborn heroines and deep scary dungeons. Part of the fabric of our land, they conjure up a past of high adventure and royal intrigue that we can only imagine. A chasm of understanding though now exists between their original functions and our present perception of castles as tourist attractions, leisure amenities and picnic-sites.

Castle visiting is more popular than ever and is big business. English Heritage manage around 400 sites of which 90 are

castles and attract over 4 million visitors each year. We expect as standard, certainly for the larger castles, a visitor centre, shop and café, and our experience is carefully orchestrated with audio guides and text panels. `e souvenir guide books relate how castles were rediscovered in the late eighteenth century after more than a century of neglect and ruination, by antiquarians, poets and – artists.

Turner and Constable, Britain’s greatest artists, Girtin, de Loutherbourg, Cotman, Ibbetson, Sandby, varley and many others travelled to castles throughout Britain in the search of the Picturesque and to make paintings as they were popular and sold well. Turner in particular painted many, he loved them. His Royal Academy diploma painting was Dolbadarn Castle, bigged-up to catch the eye. Castles were the perfect subject for the pre-eminent, high Romantic Movement of the early nineteenth century that embraced the heroic past. Artists are even part of the castle story, for the subsequent and related Gothic Revival architecture spawned a new wave of castle building and restoration such as Castell Coch in South Wales. Edwin Lutyens’s famous Castle Drogo, perched high on the edge of Dartmoor, was built in the early twentieth century, and in the 1940 s, Neo-Romantic artists such as John Piper and John Minton returned again to the subject.

Why were, and are, castles so attractive to artists? `ey are unusual and fascinating buildings, of irregular, strange shapes; they are full of mystery, history and association. Castles have become ruinous and their relationship with encroaching nature is an especially rich, visual seam for artists to mine. Wigmore Castle near Ludlow for instance, the home of the once mighty Mortimers, is managed by English Heritage especially as a nature reserve and the tumble-down walls and towers are so enmeshed in vegetation that it is hard to work out what the castle might have looked like. Perhaps the supreme reason for the attraction is that, as Norman Ackroyd ra pointed out to me, they were built in the most spectacular and dominant locations, and so have been irresistible to artists in search of an eye-catching composition. Castles were always meant to be highly visible. Dryslwyn Castle for example, due east and close to Carmarthen, sits on a most impressive, craq hilltop and perfectly commands the beautiful Tywi valley below. When castles were upgraded with the newest military features by later kings and barons, they rarely needed to be re-sited as

the Normans had always chosen the best possible sites – so good was their military knowhow and eye for country. Most castles therefore have been much modified over the years and are an amalgam of architecture of diferent ages.

As this exhibition illustrates, castles are also usually surrounded by hills, trees and water, all proper ingredients for an enticing pictorial drama:

`e di f erent combinations of the ruined towers of the castle with the fine trees immediately surrounding it, and with those of the foreground o f ered a succession of the richest and most beautiful compositions. sir richard grenville, 1801

Water especially was an essential part of a castle’s entity and survival plan and it is worth expanding upon this vital relationship for a singular insight into a castle’s modus operandi Now, there is nothing more enchanting and evocative than a moated medieval castle, but the present romance is far from the historic reality. Castles could be fearsome places and moats were stinking, death-trap sewers, the daily receptacle for the castle toilets (garderobe) and other nasty detritus. `e term moat derives from motte, the Norman word for a mound –the common early castle design being the motte-and-bailey. Initially the ditches were dry, but if the ground was low and marshy as at Berkhamstead, then they would fill with mud and water and their defensive properties were soon recognised and exploited; they could be designed with steep sides and filled with pointed wooden stakes. Roads were often so poor that the best way to transport goods was by river and coast. Castles such as Kidwelly and Bramber were sited at estuaries and river crossings to control access. others were built by the sea to ensure water-borne re-supply during sieges as at Harlech.

A most impressive engineering feat at Rhuddlan in the late 1270 s was the diversion and canalisation of the River Clwyd for a distance of over two miles to provide a deep-water channel from the sea to the castle so that supplies could be easily shipped from the coast. If possible, castles were sited over springs or underground streams. often one of the most expensive features, wells were a vital source of water and were marvels of medieval engineering and they could take many years to sink to the water table. Some castles incorporated sophisticated piping systems and cisterns to draw water to upper floors. Any water supply though that could be tampered with from outside the castle would invariably be poisoned with a rotting corpse by besieging forces, in order to encourage an early garrison surrender. Fire was used with devastating success against castles (hence the term ‘with fire and sword’) and well-water was a vital countermeasure in addition to a drinking supply.

Moats also prevented undermining, one of the great fears of any castle garrison and famously used by King John at Rochester in 1215. Miners would dig a tunnel under the wall which was then collapsed bringing the masonry above down with it. Defenders would place wide bowls of water in strategic places and watch for any vibration on the surface that would indicate digging below. `e only answer was to countermine and meet the enemy threat underground – a dangerous and scary ploy that was used in desperation on occasion. A castle built upon rock, as at Conwy, was of course safe from this devious tactic.

Among others, Caerphilly and Kenilworth Castles developed extensive water defences and became almost impregnable. Established as a motte-and-bailey by Henry i, Kenilworth was rebuilt by King John in 1200 on the side of a valley with a stream at its bottom. `is was ingeniously dammed in order to flood the entire valley and when the north-east walls were protected with a deep new moat, the castle became an island. It was tested in 1265 after the Battle of Evesham when Simon de Montford’s son, holed up in the castle, refused to submit to the King and the subsequent siege lasted from Easter until December. Prince Edward collected a variety of siege engines, including a great tower called Bear, and barges were sent down from Chester for deployment on the water. Abandoned by their allies and a lost cause, the starving garrison eventually surrendered on terms and were allowed to march out with full honours. `e defences though had survived everything the wealth of the kingdom could throw at them and had proved to be the business.

With the decline of the castle’s original dual function as both fortress and lordly residence from the fourteenth century onwards, the role of the moat changed and they were now employed largely for prestige purposes. Dunstanburgh Castle, famous for its last word in gatehouse-keep design, was originally surrounded by a network of artificial lakes, though these are not much in evidence today. Useful for keeping wildfowl and fish for the garrison, the predominant purpose of these bodies of water must have been for their outstanding visual impact rather than for defence. `e long and meandering pathway around the meres that lead up to the castle suggest that it was designed to exaggerate its appearance. `e multiple, mirror-like reflections of the magnificent and powerful architecture were supposed to overawe any visitor. At Bodiam too, where the castle dramatically rises from the middle of a wide moat, exactly the same efect is achieved. `e give-away here is that the moat edges are in-part banked up so that it could easily have been drained by any attacking force.

By the time of the Gothic Revival castles of the nineteenth century such as Eastnor, surrounding water, now usually a lake, was an entirely decorative feature but thanks to plumbing not quite so foul-smelling. `ese so-called castles can be frivolous, eccentric and even deluded; I well remember feeling distinctly short-changed when promised a trip to a castle as a boy, I was confronted by a big country house topped with feeble battlements. Restored castles too like Windsor or elements of Pembroke, Arundel and Caerphilly seem somehow unsatisfactory and almost fake. `ere is nothing to rival the physicality and raw environment of the real thing, however dilapidated. `e detective work required to read a ruined castle and understand how it functioned can be honed by lots of exploration. It can be addictive.

I hope that this exhibition will spark the imagination and encourage castle visiting. Look out for those small and often overlooked or fragmented architectural details that reveal the military and domestic conventions of the day and give insight into the ingenious medieval engineering achievements of the castle-builders. `ough we know few of their names today (Savoyard, Master James of St George was Edward i’s famed architect), we salute them with this exhibition.

William Wilson / Edinburgh / 1928 / etching / 131 x 165 mm

Stuart Southall collection

sebastian pether (1790–1844)

moonlight scene, southampton

oil on canvas / 1500 x 1980 mm

Southampton Maritime and Local History Collection

Southampton Castle dominates this tranquil view of the town towards its southern and western walls. Constructed in the eleventh century, the original motte-and-bailey castle was rebuilt in stone and extended several times. `e Castle was at its strongest around 1400, the key to the defences of one of England’s richest and most important seaports. However, the castle fell into disuse during the fifteenth century as the defence of the town focused on the town walls, and the castle began to sufer from neglect. only fragments of the building exist today, including some of the wall foundations and a part of the Castle Hall and vault.

c Astles A nd br It Ish l A ndsc A pe A rt c.1750–1950

sam smiles

TH E DEPICTIoN oF CASTLES IN BRITISH ART has a very long early history, from idealized presentations in medieval manuscripts, through the more accurate notations of surveyors and topographers in the Tudor era to their presentation in the landscape paintings of the seventeenth century. `e majority of these early images depict buildings in everyday use; few of them are concerned with ruined structures. However, the Bohemian artist Wenceslaus Hollar in the mid-seventeenth century and, following him, Francis Place, the first English artist to develop landscape as a specialist pursuit, included depictions of ruined castles as well as inhabited ones in their works and their example may be taken as the beginning of the modern fascination with castles.

As part of the national scene, medieval castles had the potential to be incorporated in landscape images but their inclusion was not inevitable, nor did their presence always signify the same thing. `ey might be regarded as architectural curiosities, as relics of feudalism, or as symbols of a lost chivalric sensibility. What unified these newer representations was a sense of the castle’s increasing separation from the modern world. Up until the seventeenth century castles could still be regarded as capable of fulfilling their original function and many of them were garrisoned during the Civil War. By the close of that century, however, what a castle stood for was becoming associated primarily with an epoch that was fast retreating into history. Although some were still inhabited, and could be further improved for domestic comfort, their ruined equivalents represented a world that had vanished entirely.

one of the earliest attempts to make extensive visual records of castles was Samuel and Nathaniel Buck’s survey of medieval architecture in Britain. `e prospectus was issued in 1726 and by 1742 they had recorded many of the castles in England and Wales, which appeared among over 400 designs in their series Views of Ruins of Castles & Abbeys 1 `is pioneering venture was intended to be topographical and informative and, in that respect, it is rather unjust that it would later be criticized for its artistic limitations. `e Bucks’ presentation of these buildings is admittedly prosaic but the imperative that motivated the project was to record them before they were destroyed or altered beyond recognition. As the prospectus stated, the engravings would ‘rescue the mangled remains’ of ‘these aged & venerable edifices from the inexorable jaws of time.’ 2

In the second half of the eighteenth century topography was increasingly in dialogue with landscape painting which, as a genre, would develop into something that encouraged the most ambitious creative eforts. Inevitably, the topographer’s need for accurate notation became of much less significance when aesthetic criteria became the norm for judging the quality of an image. Initially, however, the tension between these two ways of approaching landscape was much less marked and Paul Sandby’s `e Eagle Tower at Caernarfon is, in that respect, a transitional work (see page 134). often regarded as the founder of the British watercolour school, Sandby’s skilled use of the medium helped demonstrate its artistic potential. At the same time, much of his work in Wales was published as a series of aquatinted topographical views in the 1770 s and 1780 s, including the Eagle Tower.3 Much the same balance of priorities between topography and fine art practice can be seen in `omas Hearne’s watercolour of Newark Castle (see page 135). Painted in 1777, it was engraved in Hearne’s topographical publication Antiquities of Great Britain in 1796. Hearne produced several versions of the subject and a larger version of this composition was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793.

`e dialogue in works like these between artistic and topographical understandings was challenged by more resolutely aesthetic approaches. `e Revd William Gilpin was the chief theorist of the Picturesque movement, publishing a number of books in the last quarter of the eighteenth century on the appreciation of landscape and championing an aesthetic that lay between the sublime and the beautiful. Gilpin celebrated visual variety, broken forms and intricacy, and for that reason he preferred his castles, real or imagined, to be ravaged. For example, he considered that Raglan ‘owes its present picturesque form to Cromwell; who laid his iron hands upon it; and shattered it into ruin.’ 4 But there were limits. As he noted at Brecknock, for a castle to be appreciated, to be still ‘a ruin of dignity,’ some sense of what it had once been needed to remain visible. He went on,

In many places indeed these works are too much ruined, even for picturesque use. Yet, ruined as they are, as far as they go, they are very amusing. `e arts of modern fortification are ill calculated for the purposes of landscape. `e angular and formal works of Vauban, and Cohorn, when it comes to their turn to be superseded by works of superior invention, will make a poor figure in the annals of picturesque

beauty. No eye will ever be delighted with their ruins: while not the least fragment of a British or a Norman castle exists, that is not surveyed with delight.5

Gilpin’s approach was doctrinaire, prioritizing landscapes that worked as pictorial compositions. Needless to say, his unrelenting elevation of aesthetic responses was vulnerable to satire. In `e Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, William Combe made fun of it, even paraphrasing Gilpin’s remarks.6

`e eponymous and hapless hero of Combe’s poem hears how a violent thunderstorm has ruined the possessions of the villagers in whose inn he is lodging. Indiferent to their loss, he learns from his innkeeper that something of much more interest to him has also been struck by lightning.

‘ `e castle by the river side; A famous place, where, as folks say, Some great king liv’d in former day: But this fine building long has been A sad and ruinated scene, Where owls, and bats, and starlings dwell,And where, alas, as people tell,

At the dark hour when midnight reigns, Ghosts walk, all arm’d, and rattle chains.’

‘Peace, peace,’ said Syntax, ‘peace my friend, Nor to such tales attention lend.

– But this new thought I must pursue: A castle, and a ruin too;

I’ll hasten there, and take a view.’ 7

Combe’s choice of a castle as a focus for Syntax’s obsessions is thoroughly appropriate, given how often Gilpin described

castles in picturesque terms. Moreover, Syntax’s behaviour is shown to be blinkered, elevating visual appeal over social and historical understandings. But his aesthetic strait jacket is his undoing; in his search for the best composed view of the ruins he slips and tumbles into the river.

`e concentration of the picturesque on the purely visual was qualified by others who insisted that the mind’s response to the world necessarily involved a wider register. one of these was Archibald Alison whose Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste (1790) argued that aesthetic reactions were not merely responses to formal features but were prompted by the beholder’s state of mind and its train of memories. In short, the historical associations of a place could afect the beholder as profoundly as its observable features. With respect to castles, in particular, Alison declared

`

e Sublimest of all the Mechanical Arts is Architecture, principally from the durableness of its productions; and these productions are in themselves Sublime, in proportion to their Antiquity, or to the extent of their Duration. `e Gothic Castle is still more sublime than all, because, besides the desolation of Time, it seems also to have withstood the assaults of War.8

To include a castle in a work of art was therefore to engage with the past, whether that be by invoking some of the historical events associated with the building, or simply by responding to the depredations of time as medieval masonry slowly succumbed to the elements. From Alison’s point of view, anyone looking at, say, Julius Caesar Ibbetson’s painting of Carisbrooke Castle (1787), with a diminutive figure approaching the massive towers of the gateway, would have had their appreciation

`omas Rowlandson / Dr Syntax Tumbling into the Water © The British Library Board (cup.410.g.425, opposite page 71)

coloured by what they knew of the imprisonment of Charles i in this place, shortly before his execution (see page 130).

Alison’s thoughts on the sublime should also be considered. He uses it in the context of the durability of castles, capable of resisting assaults from war and time itself. In the mideighteenth century Edmund Burke had characterized the sublime as ‘the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling,’ associating it with phenomena which ordinarily would occasion terror but which could be made agreeable once the actual danger was removed.9 Alison’s usage shows how by the century’s end the word sublime had become a catch-all term that stood for exceptional phenomena of various kinds. In the visual arts it was principally associated with the exaggerated efects of rugged terrain, wild weather, soaring height and vertiginous depth that many artists had made their own. Girtin’s watercolour of Bamburgh Castle is a good example of that tendency (see page 139). `e shattered ruins cling to a rock high above the sea, the drop made apparent by the seagulls floating in the air, and the viewer is invited to imagine the precarious ascent up the stone staircase on the right as threatening storm clouds mass above.

Girtin’s contemporary, J.M.W. Turner, also found creative stimulus in castle subjects. Castles were a feature of the first oils and watercolours he exhibited at the Royal Academy in the 1790 s, all of them derived from trips he had made to the north east of England and to Wales. `ereafter the majority of his depictions of castles, over 100 of them, were painted in watercolours alone, most of them commissioned to be engraved in the various topographical series to which he contributed. `e most important of these for castle subjects was Picturesque Views in England and Wales (1827–38), over a third of whose designs contain them. Ten of the eighteen engravings in `e Rivers of England (1823 –27) also include castles. Turner’s watercolour of Norham Castle on the Tweed was one of the first to be engraved in that series (see page 138). He had first visited the castle in 1797 and it was a recurring feature throughout his career from his first watercolour of it in 1798 to his unfinished oil of c.1845. He had visited Rochester even earlier, in 1793, and returned to it two decades later to make studies for this watercolour, which was also engraved in `e Rivers of England (see page 70). Both watercolours show the extent to which the older topographical tradition had given ground to an approach to landscape painting that was as much concerned with colour and efects of light as it was with architectural exactitude.

As would be expected of a watercolour artist born in the late eighteenth century, John Sell Cotman depicted numerous castles in his oeuvre, beginning with one of his first exhibited works at the Royal Academy. Cotman’s architectural studies are characterized by their exactitude but, like Turner, his approach is insistent on the image’s coherence as a work of art, as opposed to its complete subordination to topographical accuracy. He visited Wales in 1800 and 1802, making drawings on the spot, but watercolours like this one of Powis Castle (see page 140) were worked up later and are striking in their use of relatively flat colour patterning to articulate the composition.

Josiah Whymper’s Richmond Castle in yorkshire (see page 73) dates from the year he was made a full member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours. It is a good example

of the development of watercolour painting at mid century, taking its cue from the experiments of Turner and his contemporaries and working proficiently in what had become a British speciality. As a romantic ruin Richmond Castle had already been the subject of numerous artistic interpretations, including works by Sandby, Girtin, Turner and Cotman. Whymper’s presentation of the castle, as a relatively distant object, maintains this tradition. In any case, a closer view might perhaps have compromised its romantic appearance, insofar as parts of the castle had recently been modernized to accommodate its new function as the headquarters of the North york Militia.

`e pressure of modernity was increasingly a factor determining attitudes towards these buildings. `e late nineteenth century saw a number of initiatives develop to protect the historic heritage of Britain, with the establishment of William Morris’s Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (1877) and the National Trust (1896) and the passing of `e Ancient Monuments Protection Act (1882).10 Previous generations had regarded castles as features in a landscape, redolent of history and identity but susceptible to inevitable decay if no more adequate use could be found for them. Now they were o2cially listed as monuments to be preserved. `is new context necessarily afected their artistic treatment. Heywood Sumner’s watercolour of Badbury Rings (see page 52), in Dorset finds something of its meaning in this new respect for the monuments of the deep past. His early artistic oeuvre, from the 1880 s, is associated with the Arts and Crafts movement but by the 1910s he had turned to archaeolon and this watercolour is a product of both approaches.

`e artistic presentation of castles in the modern age brings into sharp focus their increasing distance from contemporary life. `e most successful images made of them in the twentieth century were made by artists associated with the etching revival, maintaining a link with earlier representational strategies at a time when the high modernism of Cubism and other contemporary art movements seemed to propose a clear break with the past. Frederick Landseer Griggs, for example, etched numerous subjects of invented medieval buildings and towns in a deliberately nostalgic evocation of a lost world. `e Quay shows an idealized townscape in which elements of civilian, military and religious life are all visible (see page 150). `e castle on the hill is interlocked with the town it defends, asserting the integral nature of medieval society. Griggs believed strongly that the modern world was discordant and material, unlike the harmonious and spiritual culture of the middle ages. `e Quay, as with similar images by him, is essentially a rebuke to modernity.

In both technique and subject matter Philip Wilson Steer’s oil painting of Chepstow Castle (see page 69) is also deliberately traditional. Steer had abandoned his earlier quasi-Impressionist approach to modern subjects, as seen in his paintings of the 1880 s and 90 s, and repositioned himself as the heir to Turner and Constable. `is view, for example, is very similar to the one published by Turner in 1812 in his Liber Studiorum, a miniature edition of which Steer took with him when making sketching tours.11 Steer’s invocation of tradition is worth remarking. Artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries included castles in paintings that were as advanced as anything else being produced at the time. In contrast, Steer

seems to have chosen a castle subject precisely because it was traditional. `e artistic experimentation of the early twentieth century English art world tended to focus on the modern city and its new ways of life, not on these relics of the past.

McKnight Kaufer’s poster of Bodiam Castle (1932) (see page 101) reveals how the architectural heritage of castles was increasingly associated with leisure activities. `e Shell campaign selected landmarks that typified the variety and interest to be found in the British countryside, celebrating its deep history while simultaneously demonstrating how the petrol engine made it more accessible than ever. Much of McKnight Kaufer’s poster output for Shell and other companies made brilliant use of highly innovative graphic design, but when working on this commission he adopted a more traditional presentation of the image befitting its traditional subject matter.

As war threatened later in that decade, it became clear that much of the built heritage was vulnerable to damage or destruction. `e Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime ran a scheme between 1940 and 1943 in which artists would depict those places seen as crucial to national identity. Some 97 artists contributed over 1500 works to the scheme, ‘Recording the changing face of Britain’ or, more simply, ‘Recording Britain’. It was inaugurated by Kenneth Clark, who deliberately resurrected the old topographical tradition, and promoted the use of the traditional technique of watercolour. Barbara Jones’ Pendennis Castle (1943) is a good example of the results (see page 109). `e castle, originally built by Henry viii, had been equipped with new guns for coastal defence and was for that reason vulnerable. Jones depicts the historic structure and only two details, the iron fence and the radio aerial, incorporate it in the modern world.

Although a few images of castles continued to be made after the war, as for example in John Piper’s work, the topographical tradition was efectively exhausted. `e visual interest in castles has migrated from the fine arts to cinema and television, with over 140 productions using them as sets over the last 80 years. In that context, of course, the castle’s genuine historical identity is superfluous. Alnwick Castle, for example, has been the setting for King Arthur, Mary Queen of Scots, `omas à Beckett, Ivanhoe, `e Sherif of Nottingham, Dracula, Blackadder and Harry Potter among others. Clearly, the allure of castles persists. While they may no longer feature in the works of many visual artists their popular standing remains high as places to visit and as sites for imaginative engagement.

1. In 1774 a collected set of their engravings was published in three volumes, entitled Buck’s Antiquities or Venerable Remains of Above 400 Castles, &c., in England and Wales, with near 100 Views of Cities

2. Samuel Buck, ‘Proposals for the publication of … twenty-four views of castles … in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham’, 1 November 1726, copy in private collection; quoted in Ralph Hyde, ‘Buck, Samuel (1696–1779)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3850, accessed 24 Nov 2016].

3 Views in South Wales (1775), Views in North Wales (1776), Views in Wales (1777) and Twelve Views of North and South Wales (1786).

4. William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, and several parts of South Wales, &c. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770 (London: R. Blamire, 1782), p. 49

5. Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, p. 51

6. Compare Gilpin’s comments on castle living quarters in Observations on the River Wye, p. 48 with Combe’s Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (London: Ackermann [1812], ninth edition, 1819), p. 71. Gilpin: ‘on viewing the comparative size of halls and chapels in old castles, one can hardly, at first, avoid observing, that the founders of these ancient structures supposed, a much greater number of people would meet together to feast, than to pray.’ Combe: ‘I fear our fathers took more care/of festive hall than house of prayer./I find these Barons fierce and bold,/Who proudly liv’d in days of old,/To pray’r preferr’d a sumptuous treat,/Nor went to pray when they could eat.’

7. William Combe, Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (London: Ackermann [1812], ninth edition, 1819), p. 70

8. Archibald Alison, Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste, Edinburgh: J.J.G. and G. Robinson, 1790, pp. 226 –7

9. Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1757), p. 13.

10 `e Ancient Monuments Protection Act was initially concerned only with prehistoric remains. Its scope was widened with further legislation in 1900, 1910 and 1913 that brought castles within its remit.

11 River Wye, etching and mezzotint by Turner and W. Annis, published 23 May 1812. For Steer’s use of the Liber Studiorum see D.S. MacColl, Life, work and setting of Philip Wilson Steer (London: Faber and Faber, 1945) p. 80

c Astles cur Ated t he treatment of castles by the office of works and its successors

roy porter

T HE TWENTIETH CENTUR y WITNESSED A significant change in the way that many medieval castles in the United Kingdom were cared for and made available for the public to visit, enjoy and understand. For the first time, a large number of buildings and places of archaeological and historical interest were placed in the care of the state with the explicit intention of improving their care and making them available for public enjoyment. `is was a consequence of the state’s evolving interest in the preservation of buildings and places of archaeological and historical importance. Although this process began formally in 1882 with the passing of the first Ancient Monuments Act, it was the passing of the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act in 1913 and the subsequent creation of the Ancient Monuments Department in the o2ce of Works which resulted in the transformation of many castles from either recently redundant military sites or objects of antiquarian interest to curated objects made available for informed public enjoyment. During the course of the next century over 130 castles in England, Wales and Scotland would transfer into the care of the o2ce of Works and its successor bodies.2

Castles were transferred into the care of the o2ce of Works either directly from other government departments and private owners or via guardianship, a process designed to enable the transfer of a castle’s management to the o2ce of Works while its owner retained the freehold. `e practical consequences of transfer were the same in either case: the maintenance of the castle and its presentation to visitors became the responsibility of the o2ce of Works.

`e philosophy governing the o2ce of Works approach to the care of monuments was set out by its First Commissioner in 1912: … the principles upon which the Commissioners are proceeding are to avoid, as far as possible, anything which can be considered in the nature of restoration, to do nothing which could impair the archaeological interest of the Monuments and to confine themselves rigorously to such works as may be necessary to ensure their stability, to accentuate their interest, and to perpetuate their existence in the form in which they have come down to us.3

Most of the castles in the care of the o2ce of Works were ruined structures and therefore presented particular challenges and

issues related to conservation, maintenance and presentation. For Charles Reed Peers, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments from 1910 until 1933 and the head of the Ancient Monuments Department during its formative years, ruined buildings were set apart from those still in use: ‘Buildings which are in use are still adding to their history; they are alive. Buildings which are in ruin are dead; their history is ended.

`ere is all the diference in the world in their treatment. When a building is a ruin, you must do your best to preserve all that is left of it by every means in your power.’ 3

Underlying this approach was a primary concern to stabilise and ensure the long-term preservation of historic fabric without restoring lost elements or adulterating the physical evidence presented to visitors. But there was also a desire to make a castle’s remains explicable to visitors, aided by basic on-site signage and guidebooks.5 `e outcome of this efort was masonry cleared of vegetation, sometimes incorporating (usually) well-disguised structural interventions designed to stabilise inherently problematic ruined material, all set within neatly manicured lawns which allowed the plan of a castle to be fully legible.

In undertaking this work, and notwithstanding its o2cial line on restoration, the o2ce of Works set about not only the conservation of a castle’s historic fabric but often also the alteration of its physical form and setting. A useful case study, which illustrates the treatment of castles by the Ancient Monuments Department of the o2ce of Works in its early years, is Portchester Castle. Here there was a typical approach which sought to secure the preservation of the castle through physical intervention but which also went on to restore lost elements of the castle’s form. By so doing, it revealed the practical application of the o2ce of Works philosophy.

Portchester Castle had enjoyed an unusually long history of occupation and use, and it therefore presented many phases of physical evidence. Located at the northern end of Portsmouth harbour, the castle’s origins lie at the end of the second century ad, when a Roman shore fort was established in c.290, probably by the renegade emperor Carausius. Square in plan, the fort had principal entrances in its east and west walls, and its defensive circuit featured twenty hollow D-shaped bastions regularly spaced along the curtain wall, including at its corner angles. `e fort was reoccupied as an Anglo-Saxon

burh, though little survives above ground from this period. Following the Norman conquest, an inner bailey was constructed inside the fort’s northwest corner, the remainder of the fort providing an extensive outer bailey for the medieval fortification. While the Roman defences were periodically repaired, and their gatehouses rebuilt, the focus of building activity during the Middle Ages was the inner bailey, which by the 1120 s contained a tower keep (subsequently heightened), a hall, and ranges of accommodation protected by stone defences. In the reign of Henry ii Portchester became a royal castle, and its location made it a favoured embarkation point for kings travelling to the continent. Its high-water moment was perhaps the reorganisation of the inner bailey’s south and west ranges as a diminutive palace in the 1390 s, but by the turn of the seventeeth century its active use as an occasional residence by the monarch had diminished and in 1632 it was sold to Sir William Uvedale and subsequently descended through his heirs, the `istlethwaite family. `e castle served intermittently as a prisoner of war camp from the mid-seventeeth century through to the end of the Napoleonic War. At its peak, in the first decade of the nineteenth century, it accommodated some 7,000 men. During the rest of the century the castle became popular as a tourist destination, a function it still enjoyed in the early twentieth century despite its deteriorating condition.

Portchester Castle was transferred into the guardianship of the o2ce of Works on 23 June 1926 but intense consideration of the physical state of the castle and how to address its condition had first occurred a year earlier, when a visit was made by the Director of Works, who concluded that ‘Certain portions of the building are in a very serious state, and some attempt ought to be made to prevent falls before the winter.’ 6

`e Roman walls were covered with extensive ivy growth but it was not anticipated that extensive works would be required here; instead ivy removal, re-bedding of loose stones and

‘to some extent underpinning faulty foundations’ was all that was anticipated.7 of more concern was the east flank of the castle, the foundations of which had sufered from inundation by the sea.8 But the greatest concern was expressed about the condition of the medieval inner bailey, with, for example, the northeast tower presenting both loss of masonry at low level and severe structural movement. A technical report on the castle’s condition, prepared in July 1925, concluded that ‘It is impossible to form any accurate estimate of the total cost of the preservation work required upon this Monument. Its extent is very considerable, and at the moment many costly items of structural repair are urgently required, so that for a period of 5 to 6 years about £2,000 should be put aside annually for dealing with the accumulated dilapidations of the past hundred years or so.’ 9

`e situation presented by Portchester Castle was exactly that designed to be remedied by the 1913 Act. A ruined monument of national importance, which was beyond the resources of its owner to maintain, would be transferred to the care of the state and be put into good order. If this was a decision taken primarily because of what today would be called the castle’s significance, future opportunities to ofset the cost of the works through admissions income were also recognised. Lionel Earle, Permanent Secretary of the o2ce of Works, commented to the First Commissioner that ‘if proper intelligence is shown … [the castle] ought to produce a certain amount of revenue.’ 10

A massive clearance and consolidation operation was undertaken in order to realise the first priority of removing vegetation and stabilising the castle’s fabric. `e castle’s Roman and medieval building material was treated with the utmost respect, with, for example, special attention paid to ensuring that the work did not adulterate the evidence of phasing in structures such as the water gate or the inner bailey’s north wall.11 But, where

Portchester Castle: keep and western curtain wall, September 1926, before conservation by the o2ce of Works began Historic England Archive: AL0862/012/02/PA

Portchester Castle: keep and western curtain wall, 2016 author’s photo

the structural condition of the castle justified it, a thoroughly robust level of intervention was involved. In the west wall of the keep, for example, concrete beams were introduced to stitch the building together, an intervention which remains visible in the first-floor mural passage. And not all fabric was equal: in contrast to the reverence paid to earlier material, the castle’s post-Medieval fabric was generally considered of relatively little value – at best an irrelevance and at worst a confusing imposition on the evidence presented by the earlier work. Again, the keep demonstrates this view. Before the works commenced it had been noted how the keep’s interior had been rendered ‘displeasing’ by the introduction of several post-Medieval floors, that none of the existing floors were at the correct (Medieval) level, that some of the principal window openings had been altered to accommodate the new floor levels and that the interior wall surfaces were masked with whitewash and disfigured with brick insertions. `ese ‘displeasing’ features would, for the most part, be removed during the works: all the floors (and the roof) were replaced at the appropriate medieval levels and window openings restored to their historical width and depth. But at least enough value was placed on the later changes to leave many of the post-Medieval floor joists in situ as isolated – if more than slightly incongruous –features providing evidence of the keep’s later use.

Beyond the standing ruins, the works also involved largescale changes to their landscape setting. Extensive excavation was carried out to restore the medieval ground surface level inside the inner bailey and to restore the in-filled ditches and moats around the castle. Work of this scale required a large, experienced work force and this was provided by Welsh miners and unemployed people.12 Although at first glance the attitude shown toward restoration of the landscape around the castle may appear gung-ho compared with the more cautious approach to standing fabric, the activity in both areas was in fact founded on the basis that it was desirable to remove later alteration – be it masonry or the earth filling-in of former ditches – to restore the primary form of the castle.

At its conclusion this efort, which had taken several years to complete, had radically altered the form of Portchester Castle: its walls, divested of ivy and newly consolidated, now stood within sharply profiled earth and water-filled defences for the first time in centuries. Quite apart from conserving the castle as found, the o2ce of Works had removed later fabric and archaeological deposits to reveal its medieval (albeit ruined) form and had recreated aspects of its defences.

`is approach to castles in State care, exemplified by the treatment of Portchester, did not occur in isolation. other types of medieval monument were receiving similar attention, most notably perhaps the great ruined abbeys of the north, such as Rievaulx and Byland. A unifying factor in the treatment of the monuments by the o2ce of Works and its successors for most of the twentieth century was the prioritisation of archaeological interest over other aspects of their character.

`e consequences of this approach can be seen at Deal Castle.13

Built in 1539 as part of Henry viii’s device for securing the coast in the face of threat from Europe following his repudiation of papal authority over the English church, Deal was one of three neighbouring fortifications built to protect the important but vulnerable anchorage known as the Downs in east Kent.14 Built to a centralised plan, with a series of radiating lunettes and circular bastions positioned around a central tower, Deal was an exercise in artillery fortification, with rounded parapets designed to deflect shot, and multiple embrasures for the deployment of ordnance large and small as well as the traditional longbow. In the eighteenth century the accommodation at the castle was upgraded, with panelling introduced to its first-floor rooms and a tall brick extension built on its seaward side to provide a fashionable residence for its captains. over the course of the next two hundred years further alterations were carried out on the Tudor fabric of the castle, such as the conversion of original openings to doorways and sash windows, and the further sub-division of the interiors.

Portchester Castle: inner bailey’s southeast tower and across outer bailey, 19 June 1930, before restoration of the moat had occurred Historic England Archive: AL0862/017/02/PA

Portchester Castle: inner bailey’s southeast tower and across outer bailey, 2016 author’s photo

In october 1940 Deal Castle sustained damage from enemy bombing, resulting in substantial damage to the captain’s house built within it. A candid note in an o2ce of Works file written in the week that the bombing occurred reveals the evident glee felt by o2ce staf at the serious damage meted out on the postTudor fabric: ‘Gloria in excelsis. `e Huns have done what we desired but daren’t do.’ 15 `e damaged fabric was shored up but never repaired. After the war, with the o2ce of Captain suspended, the decision was taken to demolish the damaged building rather than attempt to repair it. `is allowed the restoration of the Tudor form of the castle. But the work was not restricted to the removal of war-damaged material. `e whole interior of the castle was divested of most of the features associated with its use as a residence over the previous two centuries, post-Tudor doorways were converted back into embrasures and archaeological features encountered during the works left exposed.

`e result of the work at Deal was to provide visitors with an opportunity, for the first time in two centuries, to gain an immediate sense of the Tudor form of the castle but this was achieved at the cost of important aspects of the castle’s historical character. `e loss of the later interiors left surviving post-Tudor features stranded and rather incongruous, with decontextualized sash-windows now rubbing shoulders with restored Tudor embrasures. `is approach allowed visitors to see the scars sustained by the castle’s fabric as a result of changes through time but provided little sense of why this had occurred and how the castle had been used.

Bearing in mind Charles Reed Peers’ distinction between living and dead buildings quoted above, it might be said that by the completion of its restoration Deal Castle had passed from this world to the next. `is occurred at least in part because until relatively recently, function as well as period defined how a castle should be conserved. Castles were treated primarily as examples of military architecture, their defensive character highlighted, revealed and occasionally

restored, sometimes at the cost of their broader history. `is approach reflected a wider academic understanding of what castles actually were. Broadly speaking, castles were conceived as primarily defensive structures, and their designers were understood to have prioritised defensibility over domestic planning or other considerations. In addition, it was argued that castle design was fundamentally the product of the exchange between developments in siege and defensive technolon `is meant that apparently defensive features in any particular castle could be used to place it within a broader linear narrative which set out how castles generally evolved from basic strongholds to sophisticated fortifications before ultimately succumbing to artillery technolon 16

More recent scholarship has explored other aspects of the historical significance of castles, such as their social history, their wider landscape setting and changing cultural meaning, and these are now considered worthy of equal consideration with the details of defensive planning.17 one consequence of this altered understanding of what castles were designed to do, how they were used and how they were regarded, is that their presentation to visitors is now likely to reflect these broader themes. So, for example, in its interpretation of the Great Tower at Dover Castle, English Heritage concentrates on the use of the building as part of a palatial residence by the Angevin kings, and at Portchester Castle a forthcoming presentation scheme will concentrate on the post-medieval use of the castle to house prisoners of war.

So too does an enhanced appreciation of the sweep of history embodied in the fabric and archaeolon of castles inform how they are conserved and presented. It is unlikely that current conservation practice would allow wholesale removal of postmedieval fabric in the manner undertaken in the past. And a project such as the restoration of the Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle undertaken in 2009 seems some distance away from the spare and sanitised approach adopted by the o2ce of Works a century ago. Even more so does Wigmore

Deal Castle: rebuilding the eastern lunettes, 5 May 1953 Historic England Archive: AL0631/037/01/PA

Deal Castle: eastern lunettes, 2016 author’s photo

Castle, which has been carefully conserved by English Heritage so as to retain the wild and overgrown character it possessed when it was taken into its care in 1996. In the words of English Heritage’s then chairman, the castle was consolidated in such a way that ‘it would remain a romantic ruin forever.’ 18

But many of the verities set forth in the earliest years of the o2ce of Works still hold today. Curation of castles by English Heritage still has as its primary purpose the securing of the long-term future of these monuments. Careful attention is paid to ensuring that any interventions respect character and evidential value. And if our understanding of the significance of the castles in our care is broader than a century ago, we emulate our predecessors in seeking to enable visitors to enjoy and understand these exceptional places.

1. I am very grateful to Jeremy Ashbee and Samantha Stones for reading a draft of this essay. `eir comments helped to improve it and any errors or infelicities remain wholly my responsibility.

2 `e o2ce of Works and Public Buildings could trace its origins to the reign of Richard ii. Its responsibilities descended to the following bodies: Ministry of Works and Buildings (1940), Ministry of Works (1943), Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (1962), Department of the Environment (1971). `e National Heritage Act of 1983 established the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, commonly known as English Heritage, as the successor body in England; since 2015 the English Heritage Trust, an independent charity, has been responsible for the management and conservation of the English part of the historic estate discussed in this paper. In Scotland and Wales, the properties continue to be cared for by executive agencies of the government, Historic Environment Scotland and Cadw respectively.

3. ‘Ancient monuments and historic buildings: Report of the Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the year ending 31 March 1912. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty’, London: HMSo; `e National Archives [tna] work 14 /2470. Quoted in Simon `urley, Men From the Ministry (New Haven and London, 2013), p. 133

4. W.A. Forsyth, ‘`e Repair of Ancient Buildings’, `e Architectural Journal, vol. 21, third series (1914), pp. 109 –137. Peers’ comment is found on p. 135.

5 `urley, op cit, p. 68

6 tna work 14 /414, 12 June 1925

7 tna work 14 /414, Technical Report July 1925, 2

8 tna work 14 /414, Technical Report July 1925, 3

9 tna work 14 /414, Technical Report July 1925, 10

10 tna work 14 /414, 4 August 1925

11. tna work 14 /414, Technical Report July 1925, 4 and 6.

12. John Goodall, Portchester Castle (London, 2008), pp. 39 –40 `at the excavation of the ditches could provide work for unemployed people had been anticipated in the technical report produced before the castle came into guardianship. Having observed the section of a grave being dug in the churchyard, the report’s author recommended general excavation of the castle’s interior to a depth of 3 feet 8 inches, which would ‘give employment to some 25 to 30 unemployed during the winter months for several years, provided an experienced Antiquarian could be found to supervise the works and that funds were available.’ tna work 14 /414, Technical Report, July 1925, pp. 10 –11

13. Deal, along with the other fortifications of Henry viii’s device, has long enjoyed a liminal position in castle historiography, with its function as a garrisoned fort being quite diferent to a medieval defensible lordly residence. However, its inclusion here is justified by its identification by contemporaries as a castle: notwithstanding the conceptual and typological boundaries imposed by historians, people in 1540 thought that the fortification at Deal was a castle and called it such.

14 `e other castles were Walmer and Sandown. All three were originally connected by a ditch with earthen bulwarks.

15 tna work 14 /1943, 8 october 1940

16. See, for example, R Allen Brown, English Castles, London 1976 for a celebrated exposition of this view.

17. Examples of this approach are Matthew Johnson, Behind the Castle Gate (London, 2002), Charles Coulson, Castles in Medieval Society (oxford, 2003), Abigail Wheatley, `e Idea of the Castle (york, 2004), Robert Liddiard, Castles in Context (Macclesfield, 2005), and John Goodall, `e English Castle (London and yale, 2011)

18. Taken from a speech by Sir Jocelyn Stevens made at the opening of the castle in 1999 `e speech is reproduced in `e Castle Studies Group Journal, no. 30 (2016 –17), p. 92

the c Astle In medIevA l engl A nd Aesthetics, symbolism and status

Andy k ing

I T IS C HRISTMAS Ev E , AND S IR G AWAIN, THE protagonist of the late-fourteenth century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is struggling across the desolate wilderness of the Wirral peninsula, pursuing a knightly quest. He prays to the virgin Mary to grant him shelter where he may celebrate the feast of Christmas. Looking up, he sees:

[ A] castle most comely that ever a king possessed, Placed amid a pleasance, with a park all about it.

Approaching it, he observes that:

`

e wall waded in the water wondrous deeply and up again to a huge height in the air it mounted, all of hard hewn stone to the high cornice fortified under the battlement in the best fashion and topped with fair turrets set by turns about

Many chalk-white chimneys he chanced to espy upon the roofs of towers all radiant white; so many a painted pinnacle was peppered about, among the crenelles of the castle clustered so thickly that all pared out of paper it appeared to have been.1

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – one of the great masterpieces of English literature – tells of a series of games designed to put the courtesy and chivalry of Sir Gawain to the ultimate test. Set in the ‘historical’ world of King Arthur, the castle portrayed in the poem is nevertheless built to the very heights of contemporary fashion.2 And this passage encapsulates how castles were perceived in the Middle Ages in terms of aesthetics and status: the Green Knight’s castle is presented not as a forbidding, invincible stronghold; rather, it is a work of architectural refinement so graceful that it appears to be made of paper: an island of civilized gentility in the wilderness. Above all, it serves as a symbol, lovingly depicted, of the courtly status of its lord.

`e castle might perhaps be defined as a lordly residence provided with the architectural accoutrements of defence.3 While this may seem straightforward enough, the question of what constituted a castle has in fact been a matter of considerable controversy. For most of the twentieth century, historians of castles took the view that the primary function of a castle was defensive; therefore, buildings which lacked

‘serious’ fortifications were not ‘proper’ castles.4 And this led to long-running, and often rather acrimonious, disputes over whether particular buildings should be considered as ‘real’ castles or not; perhaps the most heated of these debates has concerned Bodiam, Sussex (see page 101), which has been described as an ‘old soldier’s dream house’.5 Contemporaries, however, took a much more catholic view of what constituted a castle; thus while historians have designated buildings such as Aydon, Northumberland, with terms such as ‘fortified manor houses’, on the grounds that they are too slightly fortified to count, they are generally referred to in medieval records straightforwardly as ‘castles’. Nevertheless, while definition was of no great consequence to those who inhabited them, designation was a matter of great importance. Just how important is revealed by a royal charter obtained by the Northumbrian squire William Heron in 1340; together with other markers of lordship such as a market and fairs, the king granted that ‘of special grace, and for good service rendered … [Heron] may hold his manor house of Ford, county Northumberland, which is enclosed with a high em-battled wall, by the name of a castle … for the defence of those parts against the attacks of the Scots, the king’s enemies’.6 In other words, Heron had gone to the trouble of obtaining royal confirmation that his fortified dwelling should be called a castle. Clearly, this did not make it a stronger fortress; rather, Heron was concerned about how it should be perceived.7

`is concern is demonstrated by royal writs (dubbed by historians ‘licences to crenellate’), granting permission for lords to fortify their residences. Some such 550 licences are recorded as being issued between 1200 (when the Crown started to keep records of its writs) and 1657. But licensing was not proscriptive; many castle builders never bothered to obtain one, yet very few faced any repercussions for their omission. Indeed, only very rarely, at times of prolonged political turmoil, did the Crown actively attempt to control the building of castles – mainly in the aftermath of the civil wars of the reigns of King Stephen (‘the Anarchy’, c.1138 –c.1153) and King John (‘the Baron’s War’, 1215 –17). Rather, it appears that demand for these licences originated with the builders of the castles themselves; and they served as what amounted to a royal foundation charter, bestowing both the cachet of royal recognition of a residence as a castle, and a declaration of the status of its lord.8 `e original licence to crenellate for

Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, is still displayed there for the edification of tourists; and it probably still fulfils much the same function as it did in 1344, when it was first issued.9

Clearly then, the medieval castle was far more than just a fortress; rather, it was a structure whose symbolic and aesthetic qualities were at least as important as its military and defensive function. And castles remained a vital marker of social standing throughout the Middle Ages. Medieval scholastic tradition held that society was divided into three estates, ordained by God: the oratores, those who pray; the bellatores, those who fight; and the laboratores, those who labour (a tripartite division embodied in the idealised pilgrims, the Priest, the Knight and the Plowman of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). `e nobility were the bellatores; it is thus hardly surprising that their dwellings should have taken on a martial aspect. But more than this, castles were an embodiment of noble, knightly identity.

Castles were introduced to Britain by the Normans, the most common early form being a motte (or mound) with a tower at its summit, surrounded by a ditch, and with a bailey enclosed by a palisade and ditch. Such castles could be constructed quickly, and had an obvious defensive purpose. In the aftermath of the Conquest of 1066, such castles might, in the first instance, be intended to overawe the newly-subjected English tenants of a newly created lordship. And in this respect, a vital part of its function was symbolic: a tall tower on top of a motte served as a very visible sign of the lordship of its owner – and the fact that he could command the considerable resources and labour necessary to construct it (particularly as such labour was usually forced, so that tenants were obliged to erect these

symbols of their own subjugation). Although, conditioned as we are by surviving masonry ruins, we now think of the castle as a construct of stone, most early castles were initially constructed with wood; and many were never rebuilt in stone. Unfortunately, only the earthworks of these wooden castles now survive, but archaeological digs have revealed that they could be very elaborate and impressive buildings.

However, just as the ecclesiastical dominion of the Church was marked out in cathedrals and abbeys of stone, so secular lords increasingly marked out their earthly dominion with castles of stone. Huge stone towers such as the Tower of London, built by William the Conqueror, Chepstow, constructed during William’s reign, or Dover, built by Henry ii in the 1180 s, were intended to dominate their surroundings. `is is reflected in the very term donjon by which these towers were commonly referred to by contemporaries; it is derived from Latin dominus, meaning ‘lord’ (the English term ‘dungeon’ in turn derives from donjon, because of their frequent use as prisons).10

Great towers fell somewhat out of fashion after the end of the twelfth century, as increasingly elaborate and dramatic gatehouses came into vogue. But they continued to be built until the end of the Middle Ages. In the 1380 s, Henry Percy, newly ennobled as earl of Northumberland, marked his advance by building a magnificent palatial new great tower at his castle at Warkworth, Northumberland. And as late as the 1440 s, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, the former treasurer of the realm, built a spectacular new great tower at his ancestral castle at Tattershall, Lincolnshire, referred to in his building

Warkworth Castle: the great tower displaying the Percy lion, the heraldic sign of its builder author’s photo

accounts as ‘le Dongeon’,11 though it was constructed in fashionable brick, rather than stone.

`e fine demeanour presented by Tattershall’s bright red brickwork highlights the importance of aesthetic efect in castle design. Like the Green Knight’s castle, with its ‘towers all radiant white’, many castles were painted with whitewash –notably the Tower of London, and White Castle (Monmouthshire), rebuilt in stone by Henry ii. Gatehouses often carried colourful displays of heraldry, marking out the lord’s lineage and standing in noble society; at Warkworth, carvings of the Percy lion prominently adorned both the outside of the great tower built by the first earl of Northumberland, in the 1380 s (see previous page), and the porch of the hall (rebuilt by the fourth earl, in the 1480 s). Castles might also be decorated with statuary, such as the eagles that topped the ‘Eagle Tower’ at Caernarfon (see page 104); or the stone guards that adorned the battlements of Marten’s tower at Chepstow, and a number of northern castles such as Alnwick. `e great tower at Norwich castle, built by William ii at the end of the eleventh century, is decorated with elaborate arcading, mirroring the detail of the city’s cathedral, which was being built at the same time. Similarly, the forebuilding of the great tower at Castle Rising in the same county, built in around 1140, is decorated with blind arcading (above, left), a feature frequently found in contemporary churches. Halls became increasingly splendid, often provided with impressive traceried windows, sometimes decorated with stained glass; particularly sumptuous was the palatial hall built by John of Gaunt at Kenilworth in the 1370 s (above, right), fitting for his status as the son of Edward iii, Duke of Lancaster and titular king of Castile.

Indeed, castle halls would have been far more colourful than their bare stone ruins now suggest; the wall-painting at Belsay, Northumberland, built by Sir John de Middleton at the end of the fourteenth century, is a very rare survival of what would once have commonplace (below).

But even before a visitor reached the castle gate, the authority, gentility and good taste of its lord would have been forcibly impressed upon them. Castles were generally set in a carefullycrafted landscape, designed specifically to this end, an intention skilfully evoked by the poet’s description of Sir Gawain’s first impression of the Green Knight’s castle.12 Parks, enclosed with walls or palisades, provided a picturesque background and a venue for hunting – that most noble of pastimes (they could

Castle Rising: decorative blind arcading on the forebuilding of the great tower author’s photo

Kenilworth: traceried window in John of Gaunt’s hall author’s photo

Belsay: fragments of fifteenth-century wall painting. Such decoration would have been common in castle halls and chambers author’s photo

also provide an economic resource; in the fifteenth century, venison from the deer park at Barnard Castle, Durham, seems to have been sold as far afield as London).13 Water features provided a suitably dramatic setting, and reflections on the water’s surface enhanced and heightened the visual impact of a castle. ornamental gardens served to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the castle; James i, King of Scots, imprisoned in England after being captured in 1406, praised the ‘garden fair’ and the ‘arbour green’ at Windsor castle.14 A church or a monastery associated with a castle emphasized both the piety of the lord, and the power and wealth that enabled such a display of piety. So Ralph Cromwell demolished the parish church at Tattershall, which lay beside his castle, and refounded it as an impressive new collegiate church, to complement his new great tower. Conversely, castles were sometimes fitted into a specific landscape. It is surely no coincidence that Cromwell, a prolific builder, chose to construct his tower at Tattershall in lowland Lincolnshire – there was no better place for him to make his mark, for it can be seen from Lincoln cathedral, some twenty miles away.

one of the grandest of these designed castle landscapes was Kenilworth (Warwickshire), first constructed in the 1120 s, by Geofrey de Clinton, Henry i’s chamberlain, and a man on the make.15 It was furnished with a monumental great tower, and surrounded by carefully maintained artificial lakes, transforming it into a virtual island. Sited next to the castle were an Augustinian Priory and the borough of Kenilworth, both also founded by Clinton. `e castle and lake were surrounded by a huge park; and a large pleasance, or pleasure garden, was constructed by Henry v on the banks of the lake about half a mile from the castle. `e contemporary chronicler `omas Elmham made an allegory of Henry’s work:

`ere was a fox-ridden place overgrown with briars and thorns. He [the king] removes these and cleanses the site so that wild creatures are driven o f. Where it had been nasty now becomes peaceful marshland; the coarse ground is sweetened with running water and the site made nice. So the king considers how to overcome the di 2 culties confronting his own Kingdom. He remembers the foxy tricks of the French both in deed and in writing and is mortified by the recollection.16

Kenilworth was undoubtedly a strongly defensible fortification: it withstood a six-month siege by Henry iii in 1266. But it was also designed to impress.

Such considerations remained true even where the needs of defence were urgent. `omas, Earl of Lancaster, the cousin of Edward ii, started work on his formidable castle at Dunstanburgh, Northumberland, in 1313 –14, just a year or two after he had led a rebellion against Edward and put his hated favourite, Piers Gaveston, to death. `omas intended Dunstanburgh as a bolt-hole against Edward’s wrath. But it also reflected `omas’ pretensions, being furnished with a series of meres to highlight its dramatic setting, for the castle itself was spectacularly sited on top of a steep promontory by the sea; and the approach was carefully laid out so that visitors were presented with the most impressive views of the place. Even the name Dunstanburgh seems to have been specially coined from new, to lend `omas’ castle a spurious air of antiquity to match the venerable royal castle of Bamburgh, a few miles up the coast.17

An imagined antiquity became attached to many castles. `ere was a widespread late-medieval tradition that the Tower of London had been built by Julius Caesar. Similarly, in his Morte D’Arthur, Sir `omas Malory comments in passing of Lancelot’s castle Joyous Garde, that ‘some men say it was Alnwick, and some men say it was Bamburgh’.18 Some lords deliberately fostered the development of historical associations; when, in the fourteenth century, the Beauchamp earls of Warwick built a new tower at their castle at Warwick, they called it ‘Guy’s Tower’, after Guy of Warwick, the pseudo-historical Saxon hero of a chivalric romance.19 Such associations were intended to anchor a lord and his lineage in the historical traditions of their ‘country’, emphasizing the longstanding heritage to which they were the heirs. Castles provided a potent and enduring symbol of that heritage.

However, it was perhaps Edward i who went to the greatest lengths to evoke historical precedent. After conquering Wales in 1282–3, he began work on three gargantuan state-of-the-art castles at Harlech, Conwy and Caernarfon. All were designed to be invincible fortresses, intended to serve as fortifications to protect against Welsh rebellion. But Caernarfon, in particular, was also designed with deliberate symbolic reference to the past. `e castle was built with polygonal towers (instead of the more fashionable round towers employed at Conwy and Harlech), and the walls had bands of coloured stone, in imitation of Roman building styles. `is linked the castle with the ruins of the neighbouring Roman fort of Segontium, which was associated with tales of King Arthur, and of the Roman Emperor Constantine.20 `us Edward’s castle marked out his claim to be the rightful heir to the authority of Arthur and the Romans.

`e author of a contemporary English chronicle, `e Flowers of History, commented, ‘by God’s providence, the glory of the Welsh was transferred to the English’.21 Caernarfon castle was a powerful symbol of this transfer, set in stone. And if anyone missed the point, they could hardly miss the castle; like Conwy and Harlech, Caernarfon was one of the largest and most forbiddingly impressive buildings in Wales, dwarfing even the Welsh cathedrals – and especially (and pointedly) the castles of the Welsh princes.

`ose visiting a lord in his castle would approach it through his lands and estates. `ey would first see it, perhaps framed by a lake or mere, typically set within a landscape with the lord’s park, where he hunted; his church or abbey, where his ancestors might be buried and commemorated; and a village or town, inhabited by his tenants to provide for the castle’s needs. `e castle itself, with its martial panoply of towers and battlements, would mark out its lord’s membership of the chivalric classes, evoking the knightly achievements of his line. `e drawbridge over a deep ditch or moat would be lowered, and the portcullis raised, to allow the visitors into a gatehouse, decorated with its lord’s arms and banners. `eir horses would be stabled, and they would be ushered, perhaps across another moat and through another inner gatehouse, to a porch. Finally, after a suitable wait (depending on the visitors’ standing), they would be ushered into the presence of the lord himself, in a hall or reception chamber, perhaps in a great tower.

As the poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight puts it:

All hasped in his harness to hall they brought him, Where a fair blaze in the fireplace fiercely was burning.

the lord of that land leaving his chamber Came mannerly to meet the man on the floor.22

`is scene epitomizes the symbolic and aesthetic purpose of the castle. It provided the stage for the enactment of knightly, chivalric lordship; perhaps more than anything else, the castle symbolized what it was to be a lord.

1. `e translation is that of J.R.R. Tolkien, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London, 1975), pp. 39 –40

2. M.W. `ompson, ‘`e Green Knight’s Castle’, in Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Brown, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill, Christopher Holdsworth and Janet L. Nelson (Woodbridge, 1989).

3. John Goodall, `e English Castle, 1066–1640 (New Haven and London, 2011), p. 6

4. Charles Coulson, Castles in Medieval Society: Fortresses in England, France and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages (oxford, 2003), pp. 30 –41

5. D.J. Turner, ‘Bodiam, Sussex: True Castle or old Soldier’s Dream House?’, in England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. W.M. ormrod (Woodbridge, 1986). `e academic ‘battle of Bodiam’ is outlined by Robert Liddiard, Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500 (Macclesfield, 2005), pp. 7–10

6 Calendar of Charter Rolls 1327–41, pp. 468 –9 (my emphasis).

7. Andy King, ‘Fortresses and Fashion Statements; Gentry Castles in Fourteenth-Century Northumberland’, Journal of Medieval History, xxxiii (2007).

8. Philip Davis, ‘English Licences to Crenellate 1199 –1567’, Castle Studies Group Journal, xx (2006

07); Charles Coulson, ‘Freedom to Crenellate by Licence

– An Historiographical Revision’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, xxxviii (1994).

For an alternative interpretation, stressing the defensive role of the castle, see Colin Platt, ‘Revisionism in Castle Studies: A Caution’, Medieval Archaeolo n, li (2007). It should also be noted that there is some debate over what constitutes a ‘licence to crenellate’; some twelfth-century charters have been construed as such licences.

9. It is printed in Cadwallader Bates, `e Border Holds of Northumberland, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2nd ser., xiv (1891), p. 297; King, ‘Fortresses and Fashion Statements’, pp. 374

5

10. Note that the term ‘keep’ was used to describe castle towers only from the sixteenth century.

11. Goodall, English Castle, p. 354.

12 oliver H. Creighton, Designs upon the Land: Elite Landscapes of the Middle Ages (Woodbridge, 2013).

13. David Austin, ‘`e Castle and the Landscape’, Landscape History, vi (1984), p. 75

14. Creighton, Designs upon the Land, pp. 169 –70

15. Kenilworth is a much studied castle; see in particular Richard K. Morris, Kenilworth Castle (2nd edn, London, 2010); Matthew Johnson, Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance (London, 2002), pp. 137–42; Goodall, English Castle, passim

16. Translated by M.W. `ompson, ‘Reclamation of Waste Ground for the Pleasance at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire’, Medieval Archaeolo n, viii (1964), p. 223

17. Alastair oswald and Jeremy Ashbee, Dunstanburgh Castle (London, 2007); Andy King, ‘Lordship, Castles and Locality: `omas of Lancaster, Dunstanburgh Castle and the Lancastrian A2nity in Northumberland, 1296

1322’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th ser., xxix (2001).

18 Malory, Works, ed. Eugène vinaver, 3rd edn (oxford, 1977), p. 724 (spelling modernized). Malory was familiar with Alnwick and Bamburgh having accompanied Edward iv’s army which besieged them in 1462

19. Goodall, English Castle, pp. 297–300

20. Abigail Wheatley, ‘Caernarfon Castle and its Mytholon’, in `e Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales, ed. Diane M. Williams and John R. Kenyon (oxford, 2010).

21 Flores historiarum, ed. H.R. Luard, Rolls Series (3 vols, 1890), iii, 59

22. Tolkien, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, p. 41

`en

buIldIng c Astles In the AIr gothic revival castles

Anne Anderson

FoLL oWING THE GREAT FIRE oF 1834, THE Palace of Westminster was rebuilt in a late Gothic idiom that was deemed to embody our national identity. `e Gothic was not only the true Christian style; it was also the true British style. Simultaneously the French and Germans embraced the Gothic as their national style; it was also their birthright, personifying the spirit of the North, while the south was identified with Classicism. `anks to Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–52) in Britain and Eugène Emmanuel viollet-le-Duc (1814 –79) in France, Gothic became the most prominent revived architectural style; it was no longer reserved for churches but used for railway stations, factories, warehouses and even pumping stations. It was literally re-formed for contemporary needs. Equipped with the latest technologies, including gas-lighting and central heating, Gothic-style buildings were modern; opting for the Gothic style did not mean turning one’s back on progress.

However, the Gothic Revival did more than encourage the use of medieval architectural forms. Medieval culture ofered an antidote to the turbulence and uncertainty of the early nineteenth century. Chivalry, a moral system that united a warrior ethos with piety and courtly manners, was grasped as a means to instil the ethical values which underpinned the Age of Empire: God, King and Country. `e best elements of a medieval knight-errant were absorbed into the code of the gentleman, a code of conduct that instilled bravery and courtesy. It was the poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott (1771

1832) that shaped such conduct. Ivanhoe (1820), `e Talisman (1825) and Quentin Durwood (1823) ofered a Walter Scott version of the Middle Ages. Set against a background of castles and abbeys, ‘passions were violent, feuds relentless, battles frequent, loyalties unbreakable, and loves lasted for ever’.1 He captured his reader’s imagination with vivid imagery, as current audiences are held spellbound by the ‘blood and thunder’ of the television series Game of `rones. Scott described castles with drawbridges and portcullises; smokeblackened armour-clad halls; tilts, tournaments and knights with ladies’ favours pinned to their helmets; heroes numbering Richard Coeur de Lion, Robin Hood and his merry men; and Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. ‘Merry olde England’ expressed virtues which seemed lacking in modern life, bravery, loyalty, hospitality, a respect for women and ‘refusal to take advantage of an enemy except in a fair fight’.2 `e dashing

Quentin Durwood not only set a standard that was imitated in countless novels but was also a model for young men in real life.

`e ‘Rules for the Gentlemen of England’ were entrenched in Sir Kenelm Henry Digby’s `e Broadstone of Honour, first published in 1822. A later edition carried the subtitle ‘`e True Sense and Practice of Chivalry’.3 Like Pugin, the most ardent Gothic Revival architect, Digby’s conversion to Catholicism shaped his world vision. For Digby, the past was superior to the modern age. True chivalry and the Catholic Church were bound together; civilisation had declined since the Reformation and rise of the middle class, who put their faith in money-making. `e enemy was avarice and the pursuit of wealth. Digby’s mission was to revive the practice of chivalry, to instil a virtuous code of behaviour; the modern gentleman could still be a knight. It was a question of character not birth or even intellect; anyone who possessed the right qualities was chivalrous. But it was easier, even expected, of men of good birth, as they were required to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious ancestors.

Being proud of one’s ancestry certainly contributed to the fashion for castle restoring and building that began around 1750; even modest country houses could be upgraded to castles. During the 1820 s Lord Durham turned Lambton Hall, County Durham into Lambton Castle, Lord Brougham castellated and Gothicised Brougham Hall, Cumbria and Colonel `omas Wildman remodelled Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. John Matthew Russell restored Brancepeth Castle, County Durham, with the aid of his brother-in-law Charles Tennyson, between 1818 and his death in 1822. A Baron’s Hall was created in one of the old towers; its crowning glory was a stained-glass window commissioned by Tennyson commemorating the Battle of Neville’s Cross, which took place near Brancepeth in 1346. In 1835, upon inheriting his father’s estate, Charles immediately changed his name to Tennyson d’Eyncourt, while Bayons Hall, Lincolnshire became Bayons Manor, a modest Regency house quickly transformed into a home fit for a sixteenth-century gentleman. However, Bayons soon assumed the air of a castle, a battlemented central tower rising above the manorial roof in 1837. An enceinte, a defensive line of wall-towers and curtain walls, approached by a drawbridge and fortified gatehouse, created the illusion of a fortification. Inside, a medieval Great

Hall, embodiment of feudal authority, was recreated, complete with screens, minstrels’ gallery and open-timber roof. `e Great Hall where all classes of society came together for feasting and entertainments lay at the heart of ‘Merry olde England’.

`e Great Hall at Newstead, is said to be the first convincingly recreated great hall of the nineteenth century.4 At Knebworth, Hertfordshire, Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s words of welcome were inscribed around the Great Hall:

Read the rede of this old roof tree …

Hearth where rooted friendships grow

Safe as altar even to foe

Home where chivalry and grace

Cradle a high-hearted race.5

`e Gothicising of Knebworth went quickly, completed 1844

45, as it was all done with stucco, the exterior bristling with towers, pinnacles and gargoyles.

It seemed natural to build a new castle in Scotland, Wales or Ireland. Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd, North Wales, inevitably takes the form of a Norman keep; reconstructed by Samuel Wyatt in the 1780 s it was transformed by `omas Hopper from 1822 to 1837. Admired by Christopher Hussey, who considered it ‘the outstanding instance of Norman revival’, Penrhyn’s sombre style creates the semblance of a medieval fortress despite the ground-level drawing room windows.6 Robert Adam (1728

92) was responsible for quite a few Scottish castles: Wedderburn (1771–75), Culzean (1772–90) Seton (1789) and Dalquharran (1789 –92). Although the picturesque demanded asymmetry, Adam’s castles are resolutely symmetrical, invariably a central block flanked by

corner towers. `is pattern was followed at Taymouth Castle (1806 –18), Perthshire, one of the grandest neo-medieval houses in Scotland, built for the Campbells of Breadalbane by the Elliot brothers. Here continuity dictated the Gothic style; the new castle was built on the site of the much older Balloch Castle. `e already lavish interior was given a make-over for the state visit of Queen victoria in 1842; her consort Albert, being steeped in German Romanticism, took chivalry very seriously. At the Bal Costumé of 12 May 1842 they appeared as Edward iii and Queen Philippa; in his History of Chivalry (1825) Charles Mill declared ‘the sun of English chivalry reached its meridian in the reign of Edward iii’.7 Painted by Edwin Landseer in their carefully researched costumes (1842, Royal Collection Trust), victoria and Albert also hoped to revive chivalry in modern Britain.

Building in the Gothic style established a direct link with one’s medieval forebears, legitimising political, social and economic power; acting as visual shorthand, heraldic devices bristled above fireplaces or caught the eye as stained glass panels. Heraldry, which had been invented for the knights, was the perfect vehicle for displaying the antiquity of one’s lineage. Judicious marriages helped new money to assimilate, leading to the ‘quartering’ of coats of arms. Each quartering displays the arms of a separate family thereby demonstrating the alliances forged through matrimony; Sir Samuel Brydges probably went too far, his shield made up of some 360 quarterings. At Knebworth a double flight of stairs, surmounted by lions bearing armorial shields, leads up to the State Drawing Room which was transformed by the decorator John Crace, under the influence of Pugin, to honour the illustrious Bulwer Lytton ancestry; the ceiling represents Elizabeth Bulwer Lytton’s forty-

Penrhyn Castle, north Wales © Indigo Goat

four armorial quarterings, while the frieze depicts the arms of the families from which she traced her descent from Edward iii and the legendary Welsh king, Cadwallader.

`e ‘richest commoner in England’, William Beckford, whose origins were rather dubious, decorated King Edward’s Gallery at Fontill Abbey, Wiltshire (1796-1813), with seventy-two coats of arms, representing Edward iii and the Knights of the Garter from whom Beckford claimed descent. An arch-romantic Beckford penned a Gothic novel, Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1782), which capitalised on the vogue for all things oriental. Alongside Horace Walpole’s `e Castle of Otranto (1764) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) Vathek stands in the first rank of early Gothic fiction. Unfortunately ‘Beckford’s Folly’, as Fonthill was dubbed, did not stand the test of time; its great tower-spire, which rose to an unstable 90 metres (300 feet) finally collapsed in 1825

At Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire (1812–20), the heraldic focus is the Gothic drawing room decorated according to Pugin’s designs in 1849. A splendid chimney-piece, which reaches to the ceiling, is painted with the family tree. Conceived by the architect Robert Smirke for John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers (1760 –1841), the castle was intended to look like a medieval fortress guarding the Welsh borders. `is illusion was made possible by using cast-iron roof-trusses and floor beams. Charles Locke Eastlake did not approve of such shamfortresses:

It is a massive and gloomy-looking building, flanked by watchtowers, and enclosing a keep. To preserve the character at which it aimed, the windows were made exceedingly small and narrow. `is must have resulted in much inconvenience within … `e building in question might have made a tolerable fort before the invention of gunpowder, but as a residence it was a picturesque mistake.8

It is surely no coincidence that a spurt of castle building followed in the wake of the French Revolution of 1789 and the onset of prolonged hostilities with France. Wordsworth’s Happy Warrior (1807), who was able to transmute the horrors of war to ‘glorious gain’, epitomised the pride and hero-worship evoked by British victories.9 Walter Scott’s Abbotsford Castle (1811–24), near Melrose, was one of a large group of castles conceived by William Atkinson between 1803 and 1824: ‘All over the British Isles brand-new castles were rising above the trees and battlemented lodges, bridges and stables were being built to go with them’.10 At Abbotsford, Scott emulated the life of a Scottish laird. Here he was able to stage ‘Scott the gentleman of good family and connections, Scott the antiquary and collector of armour, Scott the lover of … soldiers and border castles’.11 Abbotsford shaped the taste of the nation, ‘a microcosm of its age as well as of Scott’.

`

ese new castles were inspired by numerous motives, ranging from the aesthetic, as they were picturesque and romantic, to personal vindications of hereditary power and authority. English landscape designer Humphrey Repton (1752–1818), saw the potential for new business, bringing in the architect John Nash (1752–1835) to assist. For Repton the visual argument was compelling. Luscombe Castle, Devon (1799 –1800), built for the banker Charles Hoare, created a ‘picturesque efect … by blending a chaste correctness of proportion with bold irregularity of outline, its deep recesses and projections producing broad masses of light and shadow, while its roof is enriched by turrets, battlements, corbels and lofty chimneys’.12 Architect Peter Frederick Robinson (1776 –1858) was captivated by romantic associations, as a castle led the mind ‘back to the days of our feudal system … we almost expect to see the ancient Baron surrounded by his followers ascending the valley’.13 However, during the Regency era the Gothic style was often only skin

Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire © Philip Pankhurst

deep; Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, the seat of the Dukes of Rutland rebuilt to designs by James Wyatt between 1799 and 1816, bears a superficial resemblance to a medieval castle, its central tower reminiscent of Windsor Castle but inside only the Guard Room, Staircase and Library are Gothic. Belvoir, which means ‘beautiful view’, was almost destroyed by a fire in 1816, its reconstruction by Sir James `ornton being completed in 1832.

George iii had many reasons for rebuilding Windsor Castle, which was rich in medieval and chivalric associations. Between 1800 and 1814 over £150,000 was spent on Gothicising the state apartments at Windsor, both inside and out. For this work George iii relied on Robert Adam’s rival, James Wyatt (1746 –1813), whose knowledge of the Gothic style rested on his designs for Fonthill Abbey. `ese renovations provided a backdrop to St George’s Day 1805, when twenty-five Knights of the Garter were installed in time honoured-tradition. Apparently it was his majesty’s wish ‘that as many of the old customs should be kept up as possible’; the pomp and ceremony was ‘calculated to cherish that chivalrous spirit which burned in the breasts of our ancestors’.14 `is ritual, performed at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, was calculated ‘to fan the flame of loyalty and patriotism’. George iv, who had never got on with his father, got his own back by efacing much of his father’s work at Windsor. However, he also realised the value of medievalism as a symbol of tradition and authority, as seen at his own remodelling of Windsor Castle. Although the King’s favourite style was Louis Quatorze, the state sequence of grand staircase, armoury, Waterloo Chamber and St George’s Hall, laden with arms, armour and heraldry, was duly chivalric and feudal. `e new works were entrusted to Jefrey Wyatt, a nephew of the late surveyor James Wyatt; George iv authorized his change of name to Wyatville and later conferred a knighthood upon him.

Wyatville also succeeded his uncle at Ashridge House, Hertfordshire (1806

17), the seat of the Earls of Bridgewater. `e new house was commissioned by John William Egerton, 7th Earl of Bridgewater (1753

1823), upon the site of a thirteenth-century Priory; the Gothic style clearly ofered a measure of continuity. `e undercroft of the monastic refectory, featuring a rib-vaulted ceiling, was repurposed as a beer cellar. `e castellated parapet and perpendicular flat-arch and ogee windows are typical of the early Gothic revival; inside the Great Hall, the staircase tower and the chapel are Gothic, the main reception rooms being George iv’s favoured Louis Quatorze style. However, drawing on his restoration of Henry vii’s Chapel at Westminster, Wyatt’s Gothic details give Ashridge a convincing fifteenth century appearance. Ashridge anticipates the archae-ological correctness that is associated with the victorian Gothic revival.

Although Kenelm Digby maintained that ‘tournaments and steel panoply’ were not essential to chivalry, such re-enactments undoubtedly brought old traditions back to life. George iv’s coronation, which attempted to outclass the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor, saw the revival of feudal dresses, as well as feudal grandeur. As well as keeping up ‘the old customs’, including the King’s Champion of horseback, the guests at the coronation wore pseudo-Elizabethan cloaks, rufs, slasheddoublets, hose and plumed caps. `is pageant provoked `e Eglinton Tournament of 1839, a re-enactment of a medieval joust and revel staged by Archibald William Montgomerie,

13th Earl of Eglinton and Winton at his seat in Ayrshire. `e tournament was intended to compensate, in some measure, for Queen victoria’s coronation which had been dubbed the ‘Penny Crowning’. `e Whig government replaced the costly traditional medieval-style state banquet in Westminster Hall in favour of a procession for the benefit of the public. Although there was some popular support for this austerity measure, there were also many complaints; the failure to observe traditional rituals, notably the throwing down of the gauntlet by the Queen’s Champion, was perceived as an attack against the monarchy. Lord Eglinton hoped to honour such rites of passage by staging a full scale re-enactment claiming ‘I have, at least, done something towards the revival of chivalry’.15 Such obeisance countered the threat to the old guard; it was a ‘symbol of Tory defiance, of aristocratic virility, of hatred of the Reform Bill’.16 `is ‘living re-enactment of the literary romances’ was inspired by Scott’s Ivanhoe; the Hon. Grantley Berkeley (1800 –81) was seized with an extraordinary desire to enter the lists, thinking only of ‘ a Queen of Beauty, brave deeds, splendid arms, and magnificent horses’.17 `e prospect of the Marquess of Waterford, dubbed Knight of the Red Cross and Charles Lamb, Knight of the White Rose, accompanied by their personal retinue parading in medieval costumes and entering the lists proved irresistible, the spectacle attracting around 100,000 spectators. Unfortunately on the day it was washed out by torrential rain, the knights literally stuck in the mud. For satirists, the ‘knight under an umbrella’ encapsulated this humiliating disaster. yet undaunted the Earl refused to give up; the sun eventually shone, the procession took place and the jousting ended in genuine fisticufs, as Lord Waterford and Lord Alford lost their tempers and began fighting in earnest. Although the Eglinton Tournament is considered one of the most infamous follies of the victorian era, it struck a chord in the popular imagination.18 `e tournament entered the public consciousness through commemorative memorabilia, such as the Eglinton Tournament jugs marketed by Ridgeway Son and Co.

Despite being condemned as sham, new castles continued to spring up. However, they were becoming more authentic; Peckforton Castle (1844 –50), described by Mark Girouard as the ‘most complete and archaeologically correct nineteenth century castle yet to be built in England’ rose on a hilltop in Cheshire.19 Its architect Antony Salvin (1799 –1881) gained a reputation as a restorer of old castles and for building in the Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean styles. For John Jervis Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache (1805 –90), who needed a new family seat, Salvin reverted to the Gothic style. Built on a massive scale, the Norman-style castle, has been described as the last serious fortified home built in England, although Edwin Lutyen’s Castle Drogo (1911–30) also shares this epithet. Peckforton has a dry moat, gatehouse, portcullis, external windows that are little more than arrow slots, and large towers. In 1851 `e Illustrated London News declared it ‘seems to exhibit the peculiar beauties of Carnarfon Castle without its inconveniences’, while Sir George Gilbert Scott considered it ‘the largest and most carefully and learnedly executed Gothic mansion of the present’; it was ‘the very height of masquerading’.20

However, the days of masquerading were coming to an end; antiquarian by inclination, Pugin and viollet-le-Duc drew

on medieval sourcexs, criticising their precursors for their lack of fidelity to ancient models. Although they promoted an authentic medievalism, their desire for colour and rich ornament still led them to create flights of fancy. Although Pugin is best known for his churches, he also created several spectacular private residences for extremely wealthy clients. With Pugin dying prematurely in 1852, these projects were invariably finished by his son Edward. `ese romantic Gothic palaces were highly theatrical, their roof lines brimming with towers and turrets; Carlton Towers, Goole, with its striking clock tower, nearly bankrupted Henry, 9th Baron Beaumont; John, the sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury created a new family seat at Alton Towers, Shropshire, while Scarisbrick Hall, the ancestral home of the Scarisbrick family since King Stephen (1135

54) boasts a 100-foot tower, which is visible from many miles around. Not to be out done, William Burges’ (1827–81) Clock Tower at Cardif Castle stands at 46 metres; the accommodation comprised a suite of bachelor’s rooms – a bedroom, a servant’s room and the Summer and Winter smoking rooms. It commemorated the coming of age of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute (1847–1900). Bute’s passion allied with Burges’ fanciful imagination led to the recreation of Cardif Castle (c.1868 –95) and Castell Coch (c.1872–82), the finest surviving expressions of victorian Gothic Revival domestic architecture. Bute’s colossal wealth, largely derived from the Bute Docks, allowed him to retreat from the ugliness of modern life into a fantasy castle that drew inspiration from Chaucer, Shakespeare and Arthurian legend. `e fireplace in the banqueting hall recounts the exploits of Robert the Consul, the nobleman credited with having built the Norman keep; his dutiful wife is leaning over the parapet and waving goodbye with her handkerchief, a truly victorian gesture.

Gifted to the City of Cardif, the Castle and Castell Coch survived the vicissitudes of the twentieth century, notably death duties. other spectacular Gothic mansions have not been so lucky. Eaton Hall, inherited by the 2nd Earl Grosvenor in 1802, was Gothicised by William Pordon. `e earlier house was encased and surrounded by ‘every possible permutation of the gothic style’; including turrets, pinnacles, arched windows, octagonal towers, and buttresses, both regular and flying.21 `e interior was as lavish as the exterior, its pseudo fan vaulted ceilings composed of plaster rather than stone; one critic found it ‘the most gaudy concern I ever saw’ and ‘a vast pile of mongrel gothic which … is a monument of wealth, ignorance and bad taste’.22 `e ‘vast pile’ continued to grow, as Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, commissioned Alfred Waterhouse to add a private wing, clock tower and chapel. Although Nikolas Pevsner declared this ‘outstanding expression of High victorian originality’ was ‘the most ambitious instance of Gothic Revival domestic architecture anywhere in the country’ such protestations could not save it.23 only the chapel, clock tower and stables survive; the bulk of the mansion was demolished in 1963.

1. Mark Girouard, `e Return to Camelot Chivalry and the English Gentleman (New Haven and London: yale University Press, 1981), p. 35

2. Ibid., p. 36

3. In 1828 –29 it was reissued in four parts, Godefridius, Tancredus, Morus and Orlandus

4. Girouard, `e Return to Camelot, p. 76

5 Knebworth House, Hertfordshire Home of the Lytton Family since 1490 (Derby: Heritage House Group, 2005), p. 20

6. Christopher Hussey, ‘English Country Houses: Late Georgian 1800–1840’, Country Life, 1988, p. 181

7. Charles Mill, History of Chivalry or Knighthood and its times, vol. 2 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, orme, Brown and Green, 1825), p. 2

8. Charles Locke Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1872), p. 70

9. Girouard, `e Return to Camelot, p. 42.

10. Ibid., p. 44

11. Ibid., p. 40

12. Hussey, English Country Houses: Late Georgian, pp. 60 –61

13. P.E. Robinson, ‘Designs for ornamental villas’, Design, vi, 1827, p. 15

14. N.H. Nicolas, History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire, vol. ii, (London: John Hunter, 1842), appendix, pp. xx–xxi.

15. Simon Goldhill, `e Buried Life of `ings, How Objects Made History in Nineteenth Century Britain (Cambridge: CUP, 2015), pp. 172 –3

16. Girouard, `e Return to Camelot, p. 93

17. Grantley F. Berkeley, My Life and Recollections, vol. ii (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1865), pp. 126 –7

18. Ian Anstruther, `e Knight and the Umbrella: An Account of the Eglinton Tournament, 1839 (London: Geofrey Bles Ltd, 1963)

19. Girouard, `e Return to Camelot, p. 103.

20. Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde, Edward Hubbard, Nikolas Pevsner, `e Buildings of England: Cheshire (New Haven and London: yale University Press, 2011), pp. 524 –27

21. Diana Newton and Jonathan Lumby, `e Grosvenors of Eaton (Cheshire: Jennet Publications 2002), p. 22

22. Ibid., p. 24

23. Nikolas Pevsner and Edward Hubbard, `e Buildings of England: Cheshire (New Haven and London: yale University Press, 2003), p. 208

lInes oF deFence t he castle and the etching revival

steve marshall

THE ETCHINGS INCLUDED IN THIS CATAL o GUE and exhibition are drawn from the collection of Stuart Southall. over the last fifteen years Stuart has amassed some 4,500 prints, primarily etchings and almost entirely monochrome. `is now represents one of the largest print collections in private hands in the UK and we are fortunate that he is so willing to share it through exhibition and publication. Stuart traces his interest in the graphic arts back to his teenage years and an aptitude for drawing in pencil and ink that at one time might have pushed him towards a career in architecture. `e predilection for architectural subjects among the artists of the etching revival may go some way to explaining his passion for the medium, but a collection of this size naturally has a far wider scope. We have selected some thirty-five etchings by notable artists and by those who are now largely forgotten.

Before examining the place of the castle in the etcher’s output it is worth explaining the phenomenon that was the ‘etching revival’. Etching originated in the sixteenth century and for many critics reached a peak of artistry and technique in the work of Rembrandt (1606

69). However, in Britain by the nineteenth century it was seen as the preserve of amateurs, copyists and journeymen illustrators. `e campaign to restore its reputation was led by Sir Francis Seymour Haden (1818 –1910) and work produced by Haden and his brotherin-law James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 –1903) from the late 1850 s was to prove hugely influential. Primarily etched on the spot, their plates had an immediacy that captured fleeting efects of light and atmosphere and presented a truthful representation of the subject. `eir method also precluded a highly detailed rendering of the scene. For Haden the selection and, by implication, omission of line was a vital ingredient of the artistic process and when this was combined with skilful draughtsmanship it placed etching on an equal footing with painting as a legitimate creative medium.

Haden worked tirelessly to develop the concept of an etching revival: etching in Britain had fallen into decline after the seventeenth century but was now being revitalised. `is argument drew a direct line from the seminal work of Rembrandt, via French etchers working in the plein air tradition of the Barbizon School, to the style of print created by Haden and Whistler, ignoring the heavily worked plates prevalent in British etching at the time. In reality Haden was not responsible for a revival

as such, but a reinterpretation of what an etching could and should be.1 He was instrumental in establishing the Society of Painter-Etchers in 1880 for ‘the promotion of the Art of original Engraving in all its forms’.2 `e gathering momentum was also reflected in new exhibitions dedicated solely to etching, the establishment of etching classes at the major art schools and the eventual acceptance of original etchings for display at the Royal Academy.

`e buyers for these prints were to be found among the middle classes, blessed with disposable income and the aspirations to match, but perhaps lacking the funds to buy paintings by leading artists. Etchings were cheaper but were not unique works of art. However, rarity and value could be conferred by limiting editions, through subtle diferences in the printing and by publishing small numbers of variant states. `e combination of a resurgent medium and a willing market resulted in an etching collecting craze: a pastime that embraced connoisseurship and promoted social interaction between collectors. While this benefited publishers and dealers it also provided a lucrative opportunity for the etchers themselves. By the 1920 s etching became a virtually guaranteed source of income to any artist with the necessary skills to join the bandwagon.

Unfortunately the boom would not last. `e eforts to instil value and uniqueness backfired as the etching was increasingly seen as a speculative investment. Limited editions by the most famous artists sold out immediately but could be found shortly afterwards selling at auction for vastly inflated prices.3 While the speculators prospered, the artists received nothing from these re-sales.4 By 1927 prices had already begun to fall and the Wall Street Crash of october 1929 saw the bottom drop out of the etching market altogether. Almost overnight demand dried up and a generation of artists who had made a comfortable living by the medium were left with the choice of taking up painting or turning to teaching. While a few etchers persevered into the 1930 s and 1940 s the golden age was well and truly over.

Today interest in etchings has been rekindled and they are once again discussed, exhibited and collected. For those new to the medium there is a staggering number of artists to be discovered and a wide range of subjects to enjoy. A recurring theme is architecture. `is was partly as a result of Haden’s promotion of good draughtsmanship as the basis of truly artistic works:

I NTAGLIo – All of the printmaking processes covered here are intaglio methods where the artist cuts lines into a plate (usually copper) and it is these lines which hold the ink, so the cuts made appear black on the finished print. `is is the opposite of relief printing (e.g. wood engraving, linocut) where the ink is applied to the upper surface and everything cut away appears white on the print.

E NGRAv ING – `e engraver cuts lines directly on to the copper plate using a burin which makes a V-shaped incision. `e engraver pushes the burin along the plate scooping out tiny slivers of metal, changing direction by moving the plate. By varying the pressure the engraver controls the width of the line. Ink is applied to the plate and any surplus wiped away so that it only gathers in the incised lines. Paper is then laid over the plate and run through a printing press which pushes the paper into the inked lines.

E TCHING – `e copper plate is covered with a thin layer of wax, known as the ‘ground’. `e etcher then cuts lines into the ground with a needle tool. It requires far less pressure to cut into wax than to cut directly into the metal so the etcher is able to work much more freely, almost as if drawing with a pencil. Once the cutting is done the plate is immersed in an acid bath. `e acid will eat into the copper plate where it has been exposed from the wax by the etcher’s needle. `e longer the plate is left in the acid the more deeply the lines will be ‘bitten’, becoming deeper and broader. In this way the etcher can control how darkly the lines will appear. If some areas of the plate need to be darkened further the etcher can varnish over the areas they wish to keep intact before re-immersing the plate, this is called ‘stopping out’. `e finished plate is printed in much the same way as an engraving.

DR y P oINT – For a drypoint the artist cuts directly into the copper plate with a steel needle. `is allows the artist to work quickly and directly from the subject, rather than first creating a drawing. Unlike the engraver’s burin, which scoops out the metal, the drypoint needle merely pushes the cut metal to either side of the line creating a ‘burr’. Instead of the sharp lines of etching or engraving the burr gives a much richer, blurry line as the ink gathers on the rough burr as well as in the line itself. Since the artist has to force the needle through the metal they cannot make lines with the same freedom as in etching, so drypoint prints tend to be marked by shorter, simpler lines. Many artists combined drypoint with etching or engraving to give them a wider tonal range.

AQUATINT – A tonal printmaking method with similar principles to etching, so named because it creates an e f ect like watercolour painting. Resin is dusted onto the plate which is then heated to make the grains melt and adhere to the surface. `is covers the plate in tiny globules of resin. When the plate is immersed in an acid bath the acid bites around these dots. On the print this gives dark lines surrounding little spots of white. As in etching the longer the plate is left in the acid the broader and darker these lines become. Aquatint therefore relies very heavily on stopping out to control the gradations in tone.

M E zzo TINT – `e plate is prepared by going over the whole surface with a toothed rocking tool, working in all directions to raise a burr across the entire area. `ese tiny lines hold the ink and if printed un-worked would render an intense black. `e artist sketches out the composition and begins scraping away the burr. Black areas would be left untouched, elsewhere the more the burr is scraped away the lighter the tone produced. In the lightest areas the original flat surface of the plate would be reached through burnishing. As with aquatint, the mezzotint is a tonal method, made distinctive by rich dark areas and the soft edges between the various tones.

cityscapes and elaborate buildings allowed the etcher to show of their drawing skills in complex and detailed compositions.

`ere is though a danger that such exercises can become admirable but sterile. `e castle on the other hand gave the artist something a little diferent: often situated in spectacular positions, castles provided focus and drama in a landscape setting.

`e works illustrated in this catalogue represent a very small sample of the many etchings which explored the rich potential of the subject.

one of the most celebrated and commercially successful etchers was Sir David young Cameron (1865 –1945). Cameron studied in Glasgow and Edinburgh and early influences included Haden, Whistler and the French etcher Charles Méryon (1821–68). Cameron was prolific, producing over six hundred plates of primarily architectural and landscape subjects, the brooding Ben Ledi (1911) with its strong blacks and simple, striking composition is often seen as the pinnacle of his achievement. `e castle is a recurring motif in Cameron’s work and in a sense provides a bridge from his earlier architectural studies to his atmospheric landscapes. `e Gargoyles, Stirling Castle (1898) is a view of the south facade where foreshortening concentrates a mass of architectural detail into a few centimetres’ width (see page 167). Window grilles, fluted columns and the eponymous gargoyles are clearly delineated with a restrained but telling use of line. Cameron was drawn to gargoyles and grotesques, an interest which culminated in `e Chimera of Amiens (1910). `is sense of the Gothic also informs some of Cameron’s early castle etchings such as Tillietudlem (1889) and Rowallan’s Towers (1893) where the buildings are viewed through a mass of dark vegetation. Later castle subjects are marked by the sparse and somewhat bleak approach of his Highland landscapes. Craigievar (1908) shares the sepulchral tones of Ben Ledi, while Inverlochy Castle (1914), Castle Moyle (1932) and Tantallon (1932) are even more stark in their minimal use of line: the structures brood, forlorn and abandoned, in almost featureless surroundings.

Frederick vango Burridge (1869 –1945) studied etching with Sir Frank Short (1857–1945) at the Royal College of Art and was to become Principal at the Central School of Art and Design. Short’s love of Rembrandt was passed on to many of his students and the influence can be seen in Burridge’s romantic landscape subjects. Harlech Castle (1891) (facing page) is a case in point where the strong contrasts between dark and light, the handling of the foliage and the weather efects are reminiscent of Rembrandt’s `e `ree Trees (1643). Harlech’s position overlooking Tremadog Bay is dramatic and Edward i’s fortress retains an aura of power. Burridge shows the castle as an extension of the rocky outcrop, enduring in the face of the elements. Intriguingly Burridge made a tiny (25 x 35 mm) version of this etching in 1922 to be displayed in Queen Mary’s doll’s house.

`e Royal Academy’s original stance that etching and engraving were only fit to be exhibited when used to reproduce paintings was no barrier to Henry Macbeth-Raeburn (1860 –1947) who produced a wealth of mezzotint copies of famous portraits. However, he also produced original landscape etchings. Among his castle subjects are Winchelsea from Camber Castle, which shows one of Henry’s viii’s coastal forts and Sunrise, Dunvegan Castle, Skye, a beautifully rendered etching and drypoint print showing the castle emerging from the shadows as dawn breaks. `e Horn

Frederick vango Burridge / Harlech Castle / 1891 / drypoint and etching / 237 x 258 mm

Stuart Southall collection

John Charles Robinson / Corfe Castle, Sunshine after Rain / 1878 / etching / 155 x 277 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Percival Gaskell / Corfe Castle / mezzotint / 220 x 293 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Store (1911) (see above) makes use of the warm, velvety tones of drypoint to contrast the dim interior with the brightness beyond. `e Tower of London dominates the opposite bank, a symbol of historic strength now superseded by the economic power of trade represented by the bustling river tra2c.

`e picturesque ruins of Corfe Castle have long been a popular subject for artists. Two distinctive treatments included here demonstrate the range of possibilities available to the intaglio printmaker. Sir John Charles Robinson (1824 –1913) was a curator at the victoria & Albert Museum and Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures. He was also a personal friend of Haden who encouraged him to take up etching. Corfe Castle, Sunshine after Rain (1878) embodies Robinson’s interest in the atmospheric efects of changing weather conditions (see facing page, top).

`e castle is bathed in sunbeams, dark clouds are retreating, and in the foreground there is a palpable sense of nature’s enern and abundance. It is perhaps the sheep and thatched cottage, combined with the dramatic lighting, which bring to mind the visionary paintings and etchings of Samuel Palmer (1805

81). `e vigorous mark making that gives this print such intensity is in stark contrast to George Percival Gaskell’s (1868 –1934) carefully controlled mezzotint Corfe Castle (see facing page). Like Burridge, Gaskell had studied under Short at the Royal College of Art. of Gaskell’s predilection for castles Malcolm Salaman wrote ‘when he seeks inspiration in architecture it is invariably some romantic and picturesque old castle that dominates the landscape, and then with the infinite tonal harmonies and contrasts of mezzotint he achieves his pictorial expression’.5 Six castles could be found among the works shown at the Lefèvre Galleries in 19236 including etchings of Harlech Castle (see page 128) and `e Enchanted Castle and mezzotints of Chepstow Castle and Harlech Castle

While Haden’s concept of ‘learned omission’ and spontaneity informed the approach of many etchers, the painstakingly worked plate still had its advocates. `e etchings of Samuel Palmer, produced late in his career but reprising the ardour of his Shoreham period, inspired a coterie of students at Goldsmiths’ College: Graham Sutherland (1903 –80), Paul Drury (1903 –87), Edward Bouverie Hoyton (1900 –88) and William Larkins (1901–74). Larkins discovered an impression of Palmer’s etching `e Herdsman’s Cottage (1850) in a shop in Charing Cross Road. Sutherland later recalled: ‘I was amazed at its completeness, both emotional and technical. It was unheard of at the school to cover the plate almost completely with work, and quite new to us that the complex variety of the multiplicity of lines could form a tone of such luminosity’.7 Ironically Larkins, the discoverer of Palmer, was the least afected by pastoralism, the subject of much of his work being urban scenes, particularly in East London where he had grown up. A trip to Wales in the early 1920 s inspired several prints including Manorbier Castle (1924) (see page 125). `is was the artist’s second attempt at the composition bringing the castle out of the surrounding landscape through clever use of light efects.8 `e walls facing the sun are lightly etched while for those in the shade the rendering of each individual stone gives the appearance of shadow. `e castle is a dignified presence, looming benignly over the surroundings shown in a mass of hatching which conveys texture and tone. `e print is dotted with examples of Larkins’s love of quirky details, a courting couple sitting by the millpond, the ghostly figure of a mounted knight with lance by the bridge, flying geese and tiny buildings which emphasise the mass of the castle above. A castle also makes an appearance in Roadmen (Work) (1925) (see page 152) possibly based on Kidwelly a few miles along the coast from Manorbier. Larkins gave up etching after the crash and turned to commercial

Henry Macbeth-Raeburn / `e Horn Store / 1911 / drypoint / 200 x 253 mm Stuart Southall collection

Frederick Landseer Griggs / `e Cresset / 1915 / etching / 161 x 245 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Frederick Landseer Griggs / `e Barbican / 1920 / etching, 163 x 172 mm Stuart Southall collection

art, one of his claims to fame being the design of the Black Magic chocolate box. Bouverie Hoyton’s Kidwelly Castle (see page 83) is a more Whistlerian take on the subject although it also displays the detailed hatching and texture which the Goldsmiths’ group derived from Palmer.

Another Palmer-inspired artist who also encouraged the younger devotees was Frederick Landseer Griggs (1876

1938). Griggs began etching as a teenager but, after studying architectural draughtsmanship, first made his name as an illustrator of the Highways and Byways guide books. His dissatisfaction with the reproduction of his drawings pushed him back towards etching and this, coupled with his conversion to Catholicism, resulted in a series of works quite unique in the history of British art. Griggs spoke of his early works as ‘a series of views – ideal views – of such remains of an earlier and better England as might be found remaining – where the conditions had been kind enough’.9 Churches and abbeys, often in pre-Reformation splendour, were key subjects for Griggs but his interest in medieval architecture meant that castles and fortifications also appear in his work. `e Cresset (1915) (see facing page, top) takes its name from the basket lantern seen above the gateway. `is imaginary scene is dominated by the imposing bridge, heavily hatched even in the lighter areas to give it a sense of mass. Griggs would sometimes revisit early works and `e Barbican (1920) (see facing page) is a re-working of `e Cresset `e plate has been cut down to left and right and a huge tower has been added to the bridge. `is creates a much darker and

indeed ominous efect, reinforced in a third state by the inclusion of traitors’ heads impaled above the gateway. Sarras (1926 –28) was Griggs’s own favourite (see above),10 taking its title from the city to which Galahad takes the Holy Grail in Le Morte d’Arthur. It is an imaginative tour de force, dominated by three huge Gothic churches encircled by an elaborate defensive wall, with a castle receding into the distance on the right. Apart from a shepherd and his flock the city appears deserted, conjuring a melancholy atmosphere present in an number of Griggs’s etchings.

Griggs became a masterful printer, a process which was almost as important as the creation of the etching plate itself. `ese were skills he was happy to share with other artists including Sutherland, Drury and Joseph Webb (1908 –62). Webb came to etching just as the revival went from boom to bust but he was to persevere with the medium into the 1940 s. His best known etchings are either pastoral scenes informed by Palmer or works of the imagination featuring monumental structures. `e latter owe something to Griggs, but are the product of Webb’s unique vision influenced by the mystical and occult precepts of `eosophy. It is not surprising then that Webb was drawn to ancient buildings and that castles feature in a number of his works including Chepstow from the Cli f (1928) (see page 124), Chepstow (1928), Pembroke or `e Great Keep (1929) (see page 87), Carew (1929) and Windsor Castle (1936) (see overleaf). `e two states of Chepstow (see overleaf) give us an idea of Webb’s working methods and show how the printing of proofs

Frederick Landseer Griggs / Sarras / 1926 –28 / etching / 217 x 400 mm Stuart Southall collection

1928 / etching (early state) / 240 x 404 mm

Joseph

/ 1928 / etching (later state) / 235 x 397 mm

Joseph Webb / Chepstow /

Stuart Southall collection / © Beryl Gascoigne & Jane Furst

Webb / Chepstow

Stuart Southall collection / © Beryl Gascoigne & Jane Furst

Joseph Webb / Windsor Castle / 1936 / etching / 200 x 322 mm Stuart Southall collection / © Beryl Gascoigne & Jane Furst

Emerson Harold Groom / Pembroke Castle / etching / 243 x 346 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Leslie Ward / Chepstow Castle / 1935 / etching / 170 x 163 mm

Stuart Southall collection / © estate of the artist

at stages during an etching’s development helped the artist achieve a balanced composition. `e earlier state shows the river and a portion of the sky yet to be completed, while in the later state the trees in the foreground have been more heavily etched to darken the foliage. `e comparison also reveals the great changes achieved through the careful inking and wiping of the plate. `e second state is a much more harmonious composition, the tonal changes complimenting one another, whereas in the earlier state some of the foreground detail seems confused and the castle’s outline is lost in the heavyhanded treatment of the sky. `e completed composition has an oddly archaic character that seems to hark back to early topographical engravings.

As for the landscape painter so too the topographical etcher had to travel to seek out new and inspiring subject matter. Among the many possibilities presented by the domestic landscape castles retained the allure held since the first picturesque tourists ventured forth in the eighteenth century. Bournemouthbased artist Leslie Ward (1888 –1978) found much to inspire him in nearby Purbeck including Corfe Castle which featured in a watercolour (see page 118) and several etchings.11 He also travelled widely in search of the harbour scenes and ancient buildings which so inspired him. `e bright and airy view of Chepstow (1935) (see facing page, top) is almost unrecognisable from Webb’s eerie ruin. Londoner Emerson Harold Groom (1891–1983) also made the trip to Wales to record Pembroke Castle (see facing page). Much of this subtly worked study is taken up by the castle pond, reduced to a mere channel at low tide, the densely etched castle rises imposingly above, seemingly fused with the rocky clif and clinging vegetation. Frugal mark-making on the church, tide mill and smaller buildings establishes the primary subject and gives an

impression of spatial depth. E. Willis Paige (1890 –1960) was based in Bristol, teaching at the Municipal School of Art, and does not seem to have exhibited much beyond the city.12 He did travel farther afield in search of material, making at least three etchings of Dover Castle, one of the gatehouse, one viewed from sea level called Dover Harbour (c.1927) and an unusual view from the east Dover Castle (c.1927) (see above). Willis Paige was a naturally gifted draughtsman and these understated works demonstrate a light and assured touch, although the eastern composition is not completely successful in distinguishing the receding lines of defence. For Sufolk-born Leonard Squirrell (1893 –1979) the landscapes and historic buildings of East Anglia were a constant joy, but he too travelled far and wide, gaining a reputation as one of the greatest topographical watercolourists of his generation. He was also a talented etcher, his style as both painter and print-maker based on accomplished but unfussy draughtsmanship. As a lover of the British countryside and its monuments Squirrell was naturally drawn to castles, represented in this catalogue by the products of trips to northern England and Scotland: a watercolour of `e Dovecote, Dirleton Castle (1959) (see page 168), a drypoint of Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness (see page 170) and the etching and aquatints Morning in Durham (1931) (see page 63), Alnwick Castle, Northumberland (see page 85) and Edinburgh from Calton Hill (see page 164). Squirrell commented that ‘the whole art of aquatint is a matter of brushwork’13 and his mastery of watercolour clearly made for an easy transition to the demands of the medium as demonstrated by these delicately atmospheric prints.

Henry Rushbury (1889 –1968) became an influential member of the capital’s art establishment and was Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools from 1949, but it was a chance meeting with Francis Dodd (1874 –1949) which had started his career as an

E. Willis Paige / Dover Castle / c.1927 / etching / 145 x 249 mm Stuart Southall collection

Kenneth Steel / Bamburgh Castle / 1933 / line engraving and drypoint / 191 x 281 mm Stuart Southall collection

Kenneth Steel / Stirling Castle / 1934 / line engraving and drypoint / 303 x 357 mm Stuart Southall collection

etcher. Dodd saw Rushbury sketching London’s Essex Gate and suggested that he take up drypoint, even giving him a copper plate and diamond point tool. Drypoint was to become his preferred medium, cityscapes and notable buildings his prime subject matter. His friend Randolph Schwabe (1885 –1948) wrote that Rushbury’s prints and watercolours ‘carry on, with a personal, delicate flavour, the best traditions of the English school of landscape and architectural draughtsmanship’.14 `e drypoints are indeed breathtaking feats of control, handling immensely complex subjects with meticulous cutting, combining great detail with artful lighting efects. Castles also feature among Rushbury’s output, he seems to have particularly enjoyed subjects where stonework rises almost organically from rocky outcrops as seen in Les Baux (1922), Lindisfarne (1924) (see page 113), Porta Maggiore, Orvieto (1925) and Stirling Castle (1945) (see page 166). In his diaries Schwabe suggests that after the crash Rushbury was one of the few etchers who did not have to turn to teaching to supplement his income, but by 1932 he too was looking for pupils as money and commissions were scarce.15 At first sight the work of Kenneth Steel (1906 –70) has similarities, in terms of subject and approach, with that of Rushbury, but on closer inspection their prints have a quite distinct character. `is is partly because Steel’s chosen medium was engraving rather than etching, for him a natural progression from early work in pewter and silverware. A comparison between Steel’s engraving and drypoint of Stirling Castle (1934) (see facing page, top) and Rushbury’s drypoint of the same subject reveals a superficial similarity in composition. However, Rushbury’s use of largely vertical lines on clif and castle, with horizontal hatching for darker tones is distinct from the wider range of fine lines used by Steel. `ese are cut in diferent directions to express texture on the castle walls and Steel relies more heavily on drypoint for the darkest shadows. It is intriguing to see how the two artists have exploited their chosen medium: Rushbury’s print has a more consistent tone while Steel’s has the greater contrast between light and shade so that the surfaces appear more varied. `is is particularly apparent in Steel’s Bamburgh Castle (1933) (see facing page) where the textural hatching gives the stonework an eccentrically irregular appearance. Perhaps this was what his London dealer alluded to when stating ‘much of his work has a curious fantastic quality’.16

one could conclude that a ‘curious fantastic quality’ is exactly what made the castle such an appealing subject to generations of British artists. Castles and ancient monuments had long inspired landscape painters and featured heavily in the print series published by Turner and others in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. `e majority of etchers were certainly working in this tradition, sidestepping modernist ideas emerging before and after the First World War. Nevertheless the artists of the etching revival exploited the unique possibilities of their medium to write a significant, if sometimes overlooked, chapter in the history of British landscape art.

1. Chambers, Emma, An Indolent and Blundering Art? `e Etching Revival and the Redefinition of etching in England 1838-1892 (Ashgate, 1999), pp. 7–8

2. Hopkinson, Martin, No Day Without a Line: `e History of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers 1880-1999 (oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1999), p. 14 After receiving the royal charter in 1888 it became the Royal Society of PainterEtchers, the name was extended to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1898 and finally became the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1991

3. David young Cameron’s North Italian Set was published at £30 in 1896 and one set sold in 1919 for £1,290. Cameron is said to have given up etching for a time in dismay at his work being used as a commercial investment. See: Harvey-Lee, Elizabeth, `e Seductive Art: `e British Passion for Etching, 1850-1950: Scottish Etchers and Etchers working North of the Border 1890s-1940s (2001), no page numbers.

4. Frederick Grigg’s etching `e Almonry (1925) was published at 4 guineas (Griggs got 3 guineas) but on the open market it sold for £30 and within two years it was selling for £135. See Moore, Jerrold Northrop, F.L. Griggs (1876–1938): `e Architecture of Dreams (Antique Collectors’ Club, 2008), p. 179

5. Salaman, Malcolm C., ‘`e Prints of Percival Gaskell re’, `e Studio, vol. 61, issue 253, May 1914

6. Lefèvre Galleries, Catalogue of an exhibition of etchings by Robert Spence re , Jno. R. Barclay, J.H. Dowd & etchings, mezzotints & aquatints by Percival G. Gaskell rba re, February 16th–March 16th 1923

7. Sutherland, Graham, ‘ `e visionaries’, introduction to `e English vision: etchings and engravings by Edward Calvert, 1799–1883, William Blake, 1757–1827, Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881, Graham Sutherland, b. 1903, Frederick Griggs and Paul Drury (William Weston Gallery, 1973) p. 2

8. Cooke, Gordon, William Larkins: Etchings of the East End in the 1920s and other scenes (Robin Garton, 1979), p. 9

9. Moore, op. cit., pp. 85 –6

10. Wright, Harold J.L., `e Etched Work of F.L. Griggs ra re fsa (`e Print Collectors’ Club, 1941), publication no. 20, p. 24

11. Davies, Peter and Marshall, Steve, An English Idyll: Leslie Mo f at Ward Paintings and Prints (Sansom & Company, 2015), pp. 10, 40

12. Stoddard, Sheena, City Impressions: Bristol Etchers 1910–1935 (Redclife Press, 1990), p. 63

13. Walpole, Josephine, Leonard Russell Squirrell rws re: Etchings and Engravings, (Baron Publishing, 1984), p. 33

14. Schwabe, Randolph, ‘`e Etchings of Henry Rushbury’, `e Print Collector’s Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, December 1923, p. 406.

15. Clarke, Gill (ed.), `e Diaries of Randolph Schwabe: British Art 1930–1948 (Sansom and Company, 2016), pp. 73, 109

16. James Connell & Sons, Exhibition of the work of Kenneth Steel: Drypoints, engravings, watercolour drawings, 23rd February 1934

c AtA logue

steve marshall except where noted

Josiah Wood Whymper, Richmond Castle, Yorkshire [detail]; see page 73

Fort IFIc At Ions

ALTHoUGH THE CASTLE PRoPER DID NoT ARRIvE IN BRITAIN

until after the Norman Conquest, fortifications had been a feature of the landscape for thousands of years. Excavations at Crickley Hill in Gloucestershire and Hambledon Hill in Dorset have revealed that fortified enclosures were built, occupied and violently assaulted as early as the Neolithic period (4000

2500bc).

`e most impressive pre-Roman defences are the majestic earthworks of the Iron Age. often sited in naturally defensible positions on high ground and commanding panoramic views of the surrounding country, these hill forts provided refuge from rival tribes and invaders. Among the most dramatic are Maiden Castle in Dorset and British Camp in Worcestershire. `e earthen banks would once have been topped by wooden palisades and the entrances blocked by stout wooden gates.

`ese forts proved little obstacle to the invading Romans who built their own defences to pacify the population. `eir most striking legacy is Hadrian’s Wall running for 73 miles from coast to coast near the Scottish border. Punctuated by milecastles and garrisoned by troops in sixteen forts, the wall was designed to keep the barbarians at bay. Later the threat from coastal raiders led the Romans to build a chain of forts along the southerly coasts evident today in the stone walls of Burgh Castle in Norfolk and Richborough in Kent.

It seems each new invader overcame existing fortifications before having to build their own. `e Saxons gradually established their rule in Britain but in the vikings faced their own formidable threat. By the ninth century all the Saxon kingdoms except Wessex had fallen. King Alfred defeated the Norsemen in battle and then protected his people by organizing a network of forts called burhs so that no-one would be more than twenty miles from a defensible refuge. `e earthwork banks at Wareham in Dorset and Wallingford in oxfordshire are notable survivals of Alfred’s project.

It was expedient to make use of surviving defences and walls left by the Romans were often used by later settlers. `e Romans built the fort at Portchester around ad290, surrounding it with stone walls and distinctive D-shaped towers. `ese walls were re-used for the Saxon burh established by King Edward the Elder and then for the medieval castle which still stands today.

Fiona mcIntyre -b.1963

british camp hill Fort, malvern

2016 / oil on linen / 600 x 1300 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

British Camp is an Iron Age hill fort located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon in the Malvern Hills and composed of extensive earthworks around the base of the central hill otherwise known as the citadel. I was struck by the grid-like structure of this ancient man-made landmark so I painted it as a geometric patchwork of colour. It was the year of the blood moon so I combined this powerfully evocative motif with the hill fort as Paul Nash had done in his prophetic landscapes of the same hills. A sense of time passing was implied by dividing the sky into night and day, thereby echoing the changing relationship of man within this landscape.

Fiona McIntyre

Hambledon Hill and Winklebury Camp are Iron Age hill forts, about ten miles apart, in Dorset and Wiltshire respectively. I have a particular interest in the chalk downland of this area, where the rounded hills and steep-sided coombes have precluded intensive agriculture, and reminders of remote human history are consequently still apparent. Much of my art is a response to this seemingly timeless landscape, and over the last decade I have been drawn to observe several hill forts such as Eggardon and Cadbury Castle, as well as those featured here.

Winklebury is a massive promontory that thrusts out from a chalk ridge at the head of the Ebble valley, in Cranborne Chase. I made a watercolour of it on location one winter, when the first plough lines had been cut through the stubble field, and I used this to lead the eye to the distant hills. I liked the contrast of field patterns with the strong shape and tones of the hill. I subsequently used the watercolour study as the basis for the linocut, and cut three separate blocks from which to print the four colours, each being superimposed at the printing stage.

Howard Phipps

Wood engraving, also a relief printmaking process, is the medium used for my interpretation of Hambledon Hill. one of the most impressive defensive settlements in Dorset, it dominates the surrounding Stour valley landscape. `e ramparts here ofer strong sculptural forms, and the fall of light across surfaces and planes fascinates, especially in winter when the light is low, enabling me to selectively emphasise the most dynamic shapes apparent in the subject. Transposing a drawing or watercolour study to a wood engraving enables me to intensify these efects on a relatively small scale.

Engraving a boxwood block using traditional tools, with names such as graver, scorper and spitsticker, make possible a wide variety of tones capable of describing form as well as fine detail. In a way the engraver is working in reverse, for he begins with a black rectangle and is essentially drawing with light, creating a chiselled repertoire of textures and lines, each of which will appear as white in the final print, for it is the surface of the block which will eventually receive the ink. Proofs are taken by applying pressure to paper, laid upon the block, using my 1862 Albion hand press.

Howard Phipps

heywood sumner (1853–1940)

1914 / watercolour / 444 x 606 mm private collection

Badbury Rings is situated to the north west of Wimborne Minster. Although one of Dorset’s lowest-lying earthworks, the location was clearly chosen for its naturally rising ground and the clear lines of sight extending for miles in all directions. `e defences comprise three rings of banks and ditches surrounding a domed interior. Archaeological excavations suggest the fort was developed during the later Iron Age and may well have been in decline before the Romans arrived.

Heywood Sumner was closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, producing designs for William Morris and others. Sumner settled in the New Forest in 1904 and gradually turned his back on the art world to concentrate on archaeolon. He produced two volumes cataloguing the earthworks of Cranborne Chase (1913) and the New Forest (1917) marked by beautifully drawn and embellished plans. `is stylised watercolour clearly sets out the arrangement of the rings and archaeological features such as barrows, enclosure banks and a Roman road. In the distance, beyond Poole Harbour, Corfe Castle can be glimpsed nestling in a gap in the Purbeck hills.

A bird’s eye view of badbury r ings l ooking south

housesteads roman Fort

Hadrian’s wall is one of the most famous legacies of the Roman occupation and is now a World Heritage Site. It was built on the orders of Emperor Hadrian after ad122 to keep out the barbarians beyond and was in use for nearly three hundred years. Gates were placed along the wall guarded by milecastles, in between these were observation towers. `e wall was defended by garrisons of infantry and cavalry based at forts placed at seven-mile intervals. Housesteads lies about halfway along the wall. It housed an infantry regiment of eight hundred men and was occupied until the end of the fourth century.

Alan Sorrell’s reconstruction shows the neat, symmetrical layout of the fort with the commander’s house, headquarters and granaries in the centre, flanked by long barrack accommodation for the soldiers. A gatehouse was placed in each wall and interval towers provided additional protection. `e wall itself can be seen disappearing into the distance along the top of the ridge, while to the south of the fort is the vicus or civilian settlement that grew up around it.

Alan sorrell (1904–74)

1959 / watercolour / 400 x 570 mm

Historic England Archive

A Roman fort was established at Portchester by ad290, part of a building programme intended to fend of attacks by Saxon raiders. `e flint and pebble walls of this original fort still stand today and were incorporated into later defences on the site. `e ready-made fortifications were certainly adopted at the beginning of the tenth century for a West Saxon burh fort built to keep viking raiders at bay. When the Normans took their turn to invade a castle was established here shortly after 1066 `e keep and inner bailey seen in Sorrell’s reconstruction was added by 1140

Alan Sorrell studied at the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Rome Scholarship in Decorative Painting. `e trip encouraged his interests in history and mural painting. During the Second World War he joined the RAF but was soon enlisted to work on camouflage for the Air Ministry, flying over airfields to see how visible they were from the sky. `is bird’s eye view seems to have had a major influence on his later work as a reconstruction artist. Today Sorrell is principally remembered as a pioneering archaeological illustrator, producing artist’s impressions of ancient buildings for publication and for the Ministry of Works, English Heritage, Cadw and Historic Scotland.

Alan sorrell (1904–74)

portchester castle as it might have appeared in 1415

motte-A nd -bAIle Y c Astles

CASTLES HAD A DUAL FUNCTIoN, PART FoRTRESS, PART LoRDLy residence. `ey were introduced into Britain by the Normans in 1066. In England defences were communal and state controlled due to King Alfred’s victory over the vikings whereas in France they were fragmented because the vikings had remained undefeated, and a new military or feudal society centred on local magnates and their private defences (castles) had been conceived and developed for survival. In return for grants of land knights had to ofer 40 days a year military service to the king.

`e English were horrified by these alien and oppressive constructions that locked down territory and made their lives a misery; castles were the principal means of conquest of a large country by a small army. Following the Battle of Hastings the Normans embarked on the most extensive castle-building programme ever seen in Western Europe, establishing more than 500 in a few ensuing decades’ – and that was just the start. `e total now recorded exceeds 1,500

`e term moat derives from motte, the Norman word for a mound, the common early castle design being the motte-and-bailey as represented in the Bayeux Tapestry. `e lesser model, a simple palisade surmounting a bank with a ditch is known as a ring work. Both were constructed of earth and timber – cheap and plentiful materials, and they were quick to build for an army on the move. A wooden tower stood behind a palisade on top of an artificial mound, the excavations forming a surrounding ditch – the moat. Below the motte, the larger bailey was an area defended by bank and ditch and housed the support services.

Water was an essential for the comfort and survival of a castle’s garrison. Castles were often sited over springs or underground streams and wells became a vital source of water. Fire could be used with devastating success against wooden castles (hence the term ‘with fire and sword’) and well-water was a vital counter measure in addition to a drinking supply.

When time and funds permitted many castles were re-built in stone, the dominant element being the rectangular great tower, donjon or keep. `ey vary greatly in detail but conform to a common pattern, square or rectangular, tall, and the walls are frequently reinforced with small buttresses or pilasters. At the corners were small towers. `e lower part of the keep was usually devoid of openings, the entrance being on the first floor and approached by a flight of steps set at right angles to the entrance to stop battering ram attacks. `e entrance was often given extra protection by the construction of a fore-building which might include a drawbridge or a portcullis. Donjons were known for their immense strength: they were symbols of lordship, prestige and power.

Tim Craven

motte-and-bailey castle inspired by the bayeux tapestry

2016 / crewel wool on linen / 300 x 420 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

`e last motte-and-bailey castle shown in the Bayeux Tapestry represents the one built at Hastings. `e embroidery I have created is based on this scene. `is is not a copy but my representation of the original. I have used slightly diferent shades of coloured thread to give it a deeper, vivid hue, and I have used the colours more consistently than can be seen in the original. Although I have used the same stitches that are found throughout the hanging – laid work, stem stitch and chain stitch – I have alternated them more extensively. Finally, I wanted to show the ‘workings’ of this scene, how this image was created, so the embroidery on the left shows the same image from the reverse.

I feel that the back of embroideries are often much more interesting than the front. People expect to view the front of an embroidery, the tidy image and the story it portrays; however, the back is far more telling, giving us a glimpse into the working mind of the embroiderer. `is side explains how threads were used and what order the picture was worked in, and therefore the mind-set of the worker. Most of the areas had their outlines sewn first and their fillings second, except for the hill which was filled in first and then outlined. So here we can see the worker(s) concentrating on finishing their section of work and not wasting materials. `ey made things more interesting by alternating the order in which they stitched things but they were not interested in the image they were creating. `is was a commission to be completed.

Alex Makin

Alexandra makin-b.1977

winchester castle

Inspired by the Bayeaux Tapestry, I have created an embroidery to show my idea of how Winchester Castle may have originally looked. It holds a prominent position in English history. `e earthworks and early castle were built within a year of the Norman Conquest. `e castle may have been constructed by William fitz osbern, Earl of Wessex and close counsellor of William the Conqueror. He was one of the major castle builders for the Normans as they asserted control over England and Wales. At the time, the castle was one of the greatest strongholds in England, and for over a century it served as a seat of government and housed the Royal Treasury.

`e castle was extended and rebuilt under Henry iii, who added the Great Hall. In 1302 Edward ii and his second wife, Margaret of France, narrowly escaped death, when the royal apartments of the castle were destroyed by fire. `e castle was held by Royalist forces during the English Civil War, and when the fortress finally fell in 1646, oliver Cromwell ordered its destruction. `e site was later acquired by Charles ii. It was his intention to build a grand royal palace, called King’s House, elaborate enough to rival the palace of versailles in France. Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned but plans were abandoned by James ii of these early buildings only the Great Hall of Henry iii survives.

Diana Craven

diana craven-b.1953

Alan sorrell (1904–74)

totnes castle

1965 / watercolour / 450 x 630 mm

Historic England Archive

Sorrell’s reconstruction of Totnes Castle perfectly illustrates the layout of a motte-and-bailey castle. To the left is the manmade motte originally topped with a timber tower but shown here with a later stone shell keep. Below is the bailey enclosed with a wall and containing a chapel and other domestic buildings. `e first castle at Totnes was a wooden motte-and-bailey construction probably built soon after a Saxon rebellion at Exeter was crushed in 1068.

`e motte was expanded and a stone shell keep added by the de Braose family in the early thirteenth century. `is watercolour shows the castle as it may have appeared in the fourteenth century after the stone keep was remodelled and the curtain wall rebuilt in stone. It is a fine example of Sorrell’s work, marked by precise draughtsmanship and a characteristically muted palette.

2016 / oil on board / 925 x 1025 mm

Totnes Castle sits on top of its steep hill town, on the River Dart, Devon. originally built by a lieutenant and feudal baron of William the Conqueror, probably in timber, it was rebuilt in stone in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It was fortified during the Wars of the Roses; fell into disrepair following the English Civil War; and is now a monument and garden park.

Growing up in Totnes, its castle has always been in my sights – from attending a nursery school at the foot of the motte, to family visits, and not forgetting `e Castle Arms. Challenged now to make a study of the castle, I track its public character brought into focus as the summit and icon of the town, an undulating earthwork topped by a ground-down keep: ancient, revered, out of use. `e bleak shell keep is remembered in twilight, in its park: ochres, ivory black, Davy’s Gray and raw umber.

Ffiona Lewis

Ffiona l ewis- b.1964 norman keep, totnes l ookout

artist’s collection / © the artist

James bateman (1893–1959)

cattle market

1937 / oil on canvas / 914 x 1118 mm Tate Collection, presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1938 © Tate, London, 2017

`e castle at Lewes was built shortly after William’s victory at Hastings, one of five new motte-and-bailey castles designed to impose Norman control over Sussex. Lewes Castle is unusual in that a second motte was constructed with the bailey stretching between them. Sometime around 1100 the original timber towers were replaced by stone shell keeps. one of these has been lost but the other still stands and can be seen in Bateman’s painting: the wall of the shell keep to the right and two angular towers added in the fourteenth century rising above.

James Bateman was primarily a painter of agricultural subjects and rural landscapes. He trained with the Artists Rifles during the First World War and was later wounded while on active service. Bateman was an o2cial War Artist during the Second World War. `is characteristically detailed and afectionately observed scene contrasts the noise and bustle of modern life with the quietly detached dignity of the ancient castle beyond.

mary Anne Aytoun-ellis- b.1966

l ewes castle remembered

2017 / egg tempera and watercolour on paper mounted on board / 60 x 450 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

I have lived in Lewes most of my life and its Norman castle has fascinated me since childhood. Begun in 1067 it is built on an artificial mound of chalk blocks on the highest point of the town and is one of only two castles in the country with two mottes.

Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis

clun castle

2015 / casein on canvas / 508 x 662 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

A motte-and-bailey castle was built at Clun in the late eleventh century on a natural craq headland by a bend in the River Clun in south Shropshire, positioned to guard against Welsh incursions. In the early thirteenth century, William Fitzalan built the now ruinous four-storey keep that dominates a site which also includes three other mounds and the remains of towers and walls. `e keep is curiously of-centre, possibly to allow the foundations greater reach and to avoid too much weight and thus instability on the mound. Typical of late Norman keeps, it displays pilaster buttresses and roundheaded windows; it is however, something of a compromise between comfort and security.

Clun Castle saw action in the Barons’ war of King John’s reign but was later abandoned by the Fitzalans in favour of their more luxurious Arundel Castle. In the 14th century, the family converted the castle into a hunting lodge and added pleasure gardens. To add insult to injury, it was slighted in 1646 to prevent its being used as a base for a Royalist uprising.

one of Roger Mortimer’s knights, Edmund Hakelut, opportunely discovered the large sum of £1,568 at the castle in 1328.

`is stash had been the property of the poor old Earl of Arundel recently executed as an enemy of the all-powerful Mortimer.

`e latter efectively deposed Edward ii and ruled England with Queen Isabella for three years until he in turn was overthrown by the young Edward iii in 1330.

Tim Craven

l eonard squirrell (1893–1979)

morning in durham

1935 / etching and aquatint / 240 x 328mm

Stuart Southall collection / © Estate of Leonard R Squirrell rws re All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

After the victory at Hastings the Norman invaders were faced with the task of pacifying the kingdom. To stamp their authority on England the Normans had built some five hundred castles by 1087 yet outbreaks of rebellion were common and a major one in Northumbria in 1069 was met by a brutal reprisal known as the ‘Harrying of the North’. King William ordered the building of castles to consolidate his power in the north including a motte-and-bailey castle constructed at Durham in 1072 `is was to be a secure home for the Bishops of Durham although it did not avail Bishop Walcher who was killed in an uprising in 1080

In Leonard Squirrell’s serene aquatint all this upheaval and bloodshed is long forgotten. `e castle dominates the horizon but a mood of calm pervades a quiet morning in the city. In time a shell keep was built on the castle mound, but the one shown here dates from the 1830 s when sleeping quarters for university students was a greater priority than defence.

Eighteen months ago I moved to Lostwithiel. one of the town’s outstanding features is the Norman-built Restormel Castle which stands high on the hill overlooking the town. In truth, when Tim Craven asked me to paint a castle for the exhibition he was planning, it seemed the obvious choice. I’ve known about the castle for a long time, often visiting with my children when they were young; on one memorable occasion we all went to a medieval re-enactment there. I painted the castle from the road opposite, one of my favourite views.

`e eleventh century castle, one of the oldest and best preserved motte-and-bailey fortification in Cornwall, was re-built in the thirteenth century on artificially steepened slopes behind a 17 metre moat by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall to make a splendid home and deer park. Despite a long history its only military action was in 1644 when Charles i ousted the Parliamentarian troops during the Civil War. obviously it is in ruins now but you can still map out the keep, gate, great hall, and even the kitchens and private rooms. `e castle now belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall.

Annie Ovenden

Annie o venden- b.1945 restormel castle, l ostwithiel, cornwall

2016 / oil on board / 405 x 585 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

F.A. stewart

carisbrooke castle from mount Joy

c.1831 / oil on canvas / 680 x 891 mm

A castle was first built at Carisbrooke around 1100, probably a timber motte-and-bailey with a square footprint, the motte sited in the north corner. By the 1130 s the castle had been redeveloped with a stone curtain wall and a shell keep (basically a stone wall around the top of the motte that housed a few lean-to buildings). During the Hundred years War with France (1337–1453) the Isle of Wight was raided a number of times and Carisbrooke was besieged in 1377. `e French were persuaded to retire after their commander was killed and one thousand marks changed hands.

Stewart’s painting shows the keep atop its mound with the Royal Standard flying above to mark the visit of the Duchess of Kent. To the left is the curtain wall terminating at the southeast tower. Below can be seen the east bastion added at the end of Queen Elizabeth i’s reign when the castle was refortified to meet the threat of Spanish invasion and assault by artillery.

Carisbrooke Castle Museum

Frances macdonald (1914–2002)

tomen-y-bala

1942 / watercolour / 387 x 473 mm

Today little remains of many early Norman castles. `ey were either superseded by bigger and better defences or abandoned once the invaders’ power was secure. `e odd survival still exists such as the motte at Bala, now a topographical curiosity and view point. `e castle at Bala seems to have been in use into the thirteenth century and the settlement that developed around it was granted a charter in 1310 to establish it as an economic as well as administrative centre.

Happily today the mound looks rather less forlorn than when Frances Macdonald painted it in 1942. Her visit was part of a commission from the Scheme for Recording the Changing Face of Britain (1940 –43). Although the catalyst for the project was the danger of wartime destruction, the greater threat to these ‘places and buildings of characteristic national interest’ was seen as modernization, development and neglect.

Victoria and Albert Museum / given by the Pilgrim Trust

charles cundall (1890–1971)

t he tower of l ondon

1930 / poster / 1016 x 635 mm

London Transport Museum Collection / © TfL

After his coronation on Christmas Day 1066 William had three castles constructed at London to keep the unruly population under control.

`ese were most likely basic wooden motte-and-bailey castles, one of them making use of the settlement’s surviving Roman walls. It was here that a great statement of Norman power began to rise from the 1070 s, a huge keep that became known as the White Tower.

`is enormous stone tower, combining defensive strength with impressive royal apartments, paved the way for the next generation of castle building.

Charles Cundall’s poster exaggerates its height, but gives a sense of how the great keep must have dominated and intimidated Saxon London. As a painter Cundall is probably best known for panoramic crowd scenes at social occasions and sporting events. He was also one of the few full-time, salaried o2cial War Artists during the Second World War.

c Astle development A nd sIeges

A CASTLE C oULD BE CAPTURED B y ATTACK ov ER , UNDER oR through the walls, by siege and starvation or through treachery. Like any arms race, castle design developed in response to siege warfare advances from the eleventh century to the concentric defences of the late thirteenth century.

By the mid-1100 s the keep-tower was seen as too passive: the castle needed to become more dominant and aggressive. Curtain walls enclosing larger baileys were now built thick and high with wall walks protected by battlements. Projecting mural towers gave added protection and firepower. `ese innovations were the result of developments in weapon technolon and of the introduction of the accurate and deadly crossbow. Interlinked fields of fire across the wall faces were a great deterrent to the attackers. Wooden fighting platforms or brattices overhung the tops of towers to protect the base of the walls. `ese were later replaced by a French invention known as machicolations – narrow, projecting stone parapets with holes cut in the floor.

`e bases of towers were splayed out to give greater strength and stability and to act as a ricochet for missiles thrown from above. Rectangular towers with sharp angles vulnerable to giant picks and with blind spots were replaced with stronger, circular and polygonal designs. `e weakest part of the castle was the entrance, so ever larger gatehouses with flanking towers, incorporating multiple portcullises, heavy gates, arrow loops and murder holes provided maximum defence. Accommodation for the castle constable and guard was often sited above the entrance. To give further protection, outer stone works known as barbicans funnelled would-be attackers into exposed spaces.

As most medieval weapons were relatively short-ranged, one of the principal arts of castle defence was to keep the enemy at the maximum possible distance. If projectilethrowing siege engines such as the ballista, mangonel or trebuchet could also be kept at a distance their accuracy and impact were reduced. Moats became wider and could be anything up to ten metres deep, preventing attackers from getting close to the base of castle walls, keeping at bay picks, battering rams, scaling ladders and belfries (mobile towers to carry infantry attacks over the walls). Besiegers had to fill in moats and ditches under fire from the castle’s crossbows, a dangerous occupation, before launching an attack with any hope of success. Small discreet gates, known as posterns and often sited at the back of a castle, enabled the garrison to sally out and beat-up a surprised enemy, attack being both chivalric and the best form of defence. Moats also prevented undermining, one of the great fears of any castle garrison and famously used by King John at Rochester in 1215. Miners would dig a tunnel under the wall which was then collapsed bringing the masonry above down with it. Castles built upon rock were safe from this danger.

Tim Craven

chepstow castle

After his coronation William i rewarded his supporters with grants of land. one of his staunchest allies and closest friends William fitz osbern was given the earldom of Hereford and asked to build castles to secure the Welsh border. one of these strongholds was Chepstow, built along a narrow strip of land between a steep valley and clifs above the River Wye. At the heart of the new fortification was a donjon with a long rectangular design, which can be seen at the centre of Steer’s painting. `e original tower was two storeys high with a basement storeroom and large audience chamber above.

Steer’s composition is inspired by an engraving from J.M.W. Turner’s Liber Studorum published in 1812, but based on drawings from 1798. In Turner’s picture the sun is setting and while Steer’s work also shows the day drawing to its close, it is much brighter in mood, marked by complex variations of light and shade suggested with brushwork and a use of colour inspired by French Impressionism.

philip wilson steer (1860–1942)

1905 / oil on canvas / 765 x 918 mm

Tate Collection / presented by Miss Mary Hoadley Dodge, 1909 © Tate, London, 2017

Joseph mallord william turner (1775–1851)

rochester, on the r iver medway

1822 / watercolour / 152 x 219 mm

Tate Collection / accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856 © Tate, London, 2017

A simple motte-and-bailey castle was built to protect the crossing over the Medway soon after the Norman victory in 1066. Something on an entirely diferent scale emerged from 1127 when Henry i instructed the Archbishop of Canterbury to build a new tower within the castle walls. `e massive new keep took nearly ten years to build and was the tallest of its type in Europe. In 1215 it enabled rebels defending the castle against King John to withstand a siege for two months. John resorted to undermining the south-east turret, which collapsed bringing down parts of the walls on either side. Even then the rebels fought on before finally being starved into submission. `e keep was eventually repaired, the old square turret being replaced by a round one.

Turner’s painting is based on drawings made at Rochester in 1820 and was published as a mezzotint in `e Rivers of England series (1823 –27). Turner’s love of castles is reflected by their appearance in ten of the eighteen river subjects. Even Turner’s champion Ruskin noted the artist’s apparent lack of interest in the rivers themselves. Indeed Rochester is one of the few that focus on bustling activity on the river itself. `e castle and cathedral are veiled in mist, providing a picturesque backdrop to a prison hulk, `ames barges and the other sailing vessels thronging the Medway.

Alan sorrell (1904–74)

kenilworth castle

1959 / watercolour / 420 x 600 mm Historic England Archive

`e first castle at Kenilworth was built in the 1120 s by Henry i’s chamberlain Geofrey de Clinton. Such was the castle’s strategic importance that Henry ii took it under royal control in the 1170 s. By this time a stone tower and its bailey were reached via a causeway across the surrounding lake. King John built the outer bailey walls and towers, added a barbican and heightened the keep. In the fourteenth century the inner buildings were redeveloped by John of Gaunt (fourth son of Edward iii) to create sumptuous new apartments. Sorrell’s reconstruction shows the castle as it might have appeared in 1575 when Elizabeth i visited. By this time Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester had added a new gatehouse, apartments for the Queen and a formal garden.

Kenilworth has the distinction of being subject to the longest siege on British soil. In June 1266 disinherited and desperate supporters of Simon de Montfort were besieged by the forces of King Henry iii. However, the catapults and trebuchets of the royal forces were foiled by the superior range of those belonging to the defenders who also repeatedly sallied forth to disrupt the work of their attackers. `e strength of the castle and the determination of its garrison held the assault at bay for six months, but in the end dwindling supplies and disease forced them to surrender.

r ichard ernst eurich (1903–92)

r ichmond castle

c.1950 s / oil on canvas / 355 x 610 mm private collection / © estate of the artist / photo: Paul Carter

A castle was first built at Richmond around 1070 `e stone outer walls date from the 1080 s and are the most complete elements of an eleventh-century castle surviving in England. `e castle was laid out in a triangular shape but unusually had no motte or tower keep. `e great keep was built over an existing gatehouse after 1171 and was surrounded by a barbican adding an extra layer of defence and incorporating a new gateway into the castle. Richmond was the strongpoint and administrative hub of the Honour of Richmond, a huge estate controlled at times by the Dukes of Brittany and the Crown.

Eurich’s view from the south places the emphasis on the castle’s position above the River Swale and the remains of Scolland’s Hall. `is contained the great hall (where the castle’s household ate and slept), the lord’s private solar and storage rooms on the floor beneath. Also visible is the entrance to the cockpit that contained the castle’s gardens. Eurich was born a few miles south in Bradford and knew the yorkshire landscape and its attractions well. In 1934 he settled at Dibden Purlieu near Southampton. `e Solent at Lepe would become a recurring subject in his later life. During the Second World War he was an o2cial War Artist for the Admiralty.

Josiah wood w hymper (1813–1903)

r ichmond castle, Yorkshire

1857 / watercolour / 475 x 875 mm

UK Government Art Collection

Whymper’s panoramic vista shows that even in the nineteenth century the huge tower at Richmond dominated the landscape for miles around: a mighty statement of its former owners’ power. Its position beside a gorge cut by the River Swale was also naturally defensible. In more peaceful times the castle fell out of use and by 1538 was derelict. However, this was to give it a new lease of life as a picturesque ruin, popular with visiting artists.

Whymper was following in the footsteps of Girtin, Turner and Cotman by presenting the castle as a romantic feature in the surrounding landscape. Whymper was an extremely successful wood engraver and illustrator who also exhibited with the New Watercolour Society, becoming an associate in 1854 and a member in 1857.

John hawkesworth (1920–2003) t he keep, dover castle

1950 / pen, ink and watercolour / 485 x 592 mm

UK Government Art Collection / © Estate of John Hawkesworth

`e great tower was an important feature of many twelfthcentury castles. `e magnificent example at Dover was the last of its type, built during the 1180 s by Henry ii who had already raised square towers at Peveril, Scarborough and Newcastle. Dover’s huge and elaborate keep was extremely costly, a majestic construction fit to house a royal residence and impress visiting dignitaries.

Hawkesworth’s drawing shows the great tower viewed from the west surrounded by the walls and buildings of the inner bailey. In medieval times these would have included a great hall, royal chambers, a chapel, stables, a brewhouse and bakehouse. `e buildings shown here are barracks dating from the eighteenth century. John Hawkesworth intended to pursue a career as an artist but moved into film design and is now remembered as the writer and producer of television series such as Upstairs, Downstairs, `e Duchess of Duke Street and `e Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

orford castle

1970 / lithograph / 654 x 508 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

orford Castle was one of my earliest lithographs. It stands on a grassy knoll overlooking the shingle wilderness of orford Ness. Looking up at it from close to, its simple triangular keep seems bleak and impregnable, but the two contrasting kinds of stone it was built with enliven its appearance.

David Gentleman

John charles moody (1884–1962)

barnard castle

drypoint / 277 x 403 mm

Stuart Southall collection

`e position of Barnard Castle was clearly chosen for the steep clifs above the River Tees and its command of a strategic crossing point. A timber castle was built here by Guy de Baliol in the twelfth century. His son and grandson, both Bernard (hence ‘Bernard’s Castle’), rebuilt the castle in stone after 1125. It was besieged in 1216 by revolting Northumbrian barons: Hugh de Baliol had remained loyal to King John. It changed hands a number of times during the Wars of the Roses and was once again assaulted in 1569 by rebel barons who planned to oust Elizabeth i in favour of Mary Queen of Scots. A mutiny by some of the defenders forced the garrison to surrender, but the rebellion was soon foiled.

Moody’s etching provides a rather fanciful view of the castle using foreshortening to pull some elements together while exaggerating others to balance the composition. `e remains of the tall Mortham Tower loom over the river, also visible is the ruined Constable Tower that once guarded the main entrance to the castle. Moody began etching in the early 1920 s and became President of the Society of Graphic Artists. Among his other castle subjects are two etchings of Ludlow and one of Corfe. He also produced posters for LNER and British Railways.

Augustus william enness

ludlow castle

oil on canvas / 637 x 767 mm

Southampton City Art Gallery

(1876–1948)

`e feudal hierarchy of Norman England was established soon after the conquest. When William i gave lands on the Welsh border to his supporter William fitz osbern and asked him to defend them, it was natural for osbern to delegate some of those powers to his supporters. `e de Lacey family thus took control of southern Shropshire and built the first stone fortifications at Ludlow around 1075. Initially the castle took the form of a simple ringwork with four towers and a gatehouse. After 1139 a great tower was built over an existing gateway (as at Richmond) and around 1180 an outer bailey was added.

`e castle has a colourful history. It was captured by King Stephen in 1139 and by Simon de Montfort in 1264 during his rebellion against Henry iii. It later passed into the hands of the notorious Roger Mortimer who took part in a rebellion against Edward ii, became the lover of Queen Isabella and was efectively the ruler of England before he was executed by Edward iii. Ludlow was also an important base for Richard, Duke of york during the Wars of the Roses. In the Civil War the Royalist garrison surrendered after a brief siege in 1646 Enness’s painting shows the castle bathed in autumnal sunshine, the great tower standing proud in the centre, to the right is the round Mortimer Tower.

norman Ackroyd- b.1938

January sunrise, ludlow, dinham weir

2003 / etching / 375 x 600 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Ludlow Castle in Shropshire occupies a crag high above the river Teme and was the main garrison of the Marcher Lords overseeing the then important borders between England and Wales.

Norman Ackroyd

Aytoun-ellis- b.1966

prayer (inside l ewes c astle)

2016 / egg tempera and watercolour on paper mounted on gessoed board 290 x 230 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

`e idea for ‘Prayer’ came from a month spent painting in the magnificent fourteenth-century barbican as a temporary studio with spectacular views of the water meadows.

`e summer light filtering through the window at very early morning never failed to impress me.

mary Anne

Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis

Ffiona l ewis- b.1964

motte-and-bailey, Framlingham mere

2016 / oil on board / 925 x 1025 mm

artist’s collection / © the artist

Framlingham Castle sits above its market town in gentle Sufolk farmland. After Henry ii destroyed the original castle in the late 1170 s, it was rebuilt in stone, becoming a luxurious home with extensive pleasure gardens, boating meres, and parkland for hunting. Unusually, there was no keep, but a curtain wall housing a grand hall, extensive buildings, and gardens.

In 2009, Framlingham became my local town, and its castle ramparts a prominent feature of my daily routine - for the shops and car parks, markets and allotments. Sitting above an otherwise quite flat landscape, it can be seen from miles around; an iconic image in local literature. It rises directly from field and mere, strips of colour across the landscape. Earthwork and flint and sandstone sandwiched between mere and sky; book ended by reduced wooded copses – a shining Naples yellow and titanium white curtain emanating in a twilight sombre strip of umber and ochre land.

Ffiona Lewis

dinefwr castle, llandeilo, carmarthenshire

you can see the castle’s ruined towers from a great distance, emerging from the surrounding woods at the top of the hill. It is pleasantly romantic, tamed by the park setting below. But to get to it you have to dive into the woods and lose all sight of it as the trees close in over the winding road to the top. Suddenly it is there. Quite a diferent proposition. Suddenly it towers above you a menacing prospect in spite of its drawn teeth, the result of the dilapidations caused in the centuries since it was built in about 1150

I looked up and felt its powerful nature even now. It deserved to be painted in a merciless way, revealing its innate strength and threatening character. No softening trees, no dreamy mists. It stands stark in the bright revealing sunlight. `is was painted in the studio from oil pastels done on the spot.

Nick Schlee

nick schlee -b.1931

2016 / oil on board / 800 x 1020 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

charles tunstall small (1888–1959)

k idwelly castle

1920 s/30 s / linocut / 225 x 299 mm UK Government Art Collection

Kidwelly Castle was originally constructed around 1106 by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, a keen builder who is also associated with castles at old Sarum, Sherborne, Malmesbury and Devizes. `e original fortification was probably a simple wooden ringwork with a timber palisade built on an earthen bank. `is castle may well have been captured and burnt by the Welsh around 1159 and again in 1215

Small’s linocut shows the impressive gateway completed in 1422 Above the entrance, between the towers, are machicolations that allowed the defenders to target those attacking the doorway below. Small produced a number of linocuts of abbeys and castles including Richmond, Farleigh, Denbigh and Harlech. He also depicted Framlingham Castle on a railway poster for LNER. Small was known as an expert in wrought ironwork and Tudor architecture.

edward bouverie hoyton (1900–88)

k idwelly castle

Kidwelly seems to have had a stone curtain wall by early thirteenth century but its surviving stonework and the construction of the inner bailey date from around 1280 `e new towers and walls of the inner bailey were squeezed into the existing outer wall to give a concentric design that provided a second layer of defence, giving defenders a field of fire across the outer ward and curtain wall. `is reflected the latest thinking in castle design, also seen at Caerphilly and Beaumaris. `e improvements seem to have worked as Kidwelly’s small garrison successfully resisted a siege in 1403 during owain Glyn Dwˆr’s rebellion.

Bouverie Hoyton’s view is almost identical to Small’s: a favoured angle also used by Turner in a watercolour of 1835 It shows the gatehouse with two of the inner bailey towers clearly visible to the right. Further right, in deep shadow, is the Chapel Tower and on the extreme left one of the towers added to the curtain wall around 1280. Bouverie Hoyton was one of the etchers who studied at Goldsmiths’ College and were much influenced by Samuel Palmer (1805 –81). `e style of detailed hatching in the lower portion of the print is shared by fellow student William Larkins (1901–74) and probably owes a debt to Palmer’s visionary late etchings.

Stuart Southall collection / © Norma Blewett

It was Wigmore Castle’s undisturbed appearance that first struck me, unlike many of the more preserved ruins with their clipped lawns and shiny noticeboards. Part buried and overgrown, it is a ‘wrecked castle gone to earth’ (Rose Macaulay, Pleasure of Ruins), a romantic ruin – from a distance only just distinguishable from the surrounding landscape.

Built by the Normans in 1067 as part of a chain of castles designed to protect the English border with Wales, Wigmore was a major centre of power for around 500 years. In 1601, after conflicts and political upheaval, the castle fell into the hands of the Harley Family who partly demolished it during the civil war to prevent seizure by the Royalists. When English Heritage undertook to conserve the site in the 1990 s it was largely overgrown, having remained undisturbed for centuries; earth and accumulated debris had built up around many of the walls and trees and shrubs had taken hold. `e site had also become the habitat for species of rare animals and plants including the lesser horseshoe bat and ploughman’s spikenard.

When drawing I look for images that might resonate in some way and Wigmore Castle seemed to do that; it has a sense of place, of deep time, bearing the scars of past conflicts. `e keep wall’s strong physical presence and tonal variations of the stone and undergrowth has enabled me to build up layers and depth in charcoal to give a sense, I hope, of the castle’s impact and history.

Celia de Serra

l

eonard

squirrell (1893–1979)

Alnwick castle, northumberland

etching and aquatint / 198 x 338 mm

Stuart Southall collection / © Estate of Leonard R Squirrell rws re All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

Alnwick’s position near the Scottish border provided for an action-packed history. In 1093 the castle was besieged by King Malcolm iii of Scotland and again by King William the Lion in 1174. From 1309 the Percy family developed it into one of the key border strongholds: a motte, topped with a shell keep, flanked by two baileys. `e Percys strengthened the curtain walls and built seven new mural towers, they also added octagonal towers at the entrance to the keep and built an immensely strong gatehouse and barbican. `e castle changed hands a number of times during the Wars of the Roses, apparently without bloodshed.

Leonard Squirrell shows the castle rising above the Lion Bridge designed by Robert Adam during the 1770 s around the same time that he was carrying out major renovations to turn the castle into a luxurious residence for the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. Squirrell was an East Anglian artist who worked mainly as a printmaker, watercolourist and pastellist. Castles were a favourite subject and here he captures Alnwick’s romantic atmosphere with delicate shifts in tone that are typical of his aquatint prints.

david gentleman-b.1930

dunstanburgh castle

1973 / lithograph / 572 x 775 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Dunstanburgh, built in the fourteenth century, is Northumberland’s largest castle. As a subject, it’s prettier: isolated and lonely but beautiful. Here, the foreground details of the rocky shore at low tide – boulders, rock pools, limpets – seemed as much part of the scene as the distant castle.

David Gentleman

pembroke or t he great keep

1929 / etching / 248 x 349 mm

Anyone who has visited Pembroke will realise that Webb’s view of the castle is largely a work of imagination. Although the castle does sit on a rocky outcrop in the curve of a tidal inlet there is no towering hill or bridge like those shown here. In fact this etching owes much more to etcher Frederick Griggs’s (1876 –1938) fantastical Arthurian city of Sarras (1926 –28) (see page 39).`e artist later burnished out the castle and hill entirely to create a new print `e Great Bridge (1929). Webb was certainly original, his works veering between Palmer-like pastoralism and imaginary buildings of Gormenghastian proportions.

As the title suggests, the etching does show Pembroke’s distinctive cylindrical keep. `e castle was founded in 1093 but from 1189, under the control of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, it was transformed into a mighty stone fortress comprising an inner bailey and the four-storey keep with its domed stone roof and double tier of battlements. An outer bailey surrounded by a curtain wall with round towers was added around 1250. Among Pembroke’s claims to fame are its record of never having fallen to the Welsh, being the birthplace of Henry Tudor (Henry vii) and being attacked by both sides during the Civil War.

Joseph webb (1908–62)

Stuart Southall collection / © Beryl Gascoigne & Jane Furst

the per Fect c Astle

By THE BEGINNING oF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURy THE vARIoUS

components of castle design were well established. `e inclusion of a mighty tower keep was no longer considered essential, instead the key elements were now the walls lined with flanking towers and strongly defended gatehouses. What marks out the castles of the thirteenth century, particularly those built by Edward i in Wales, is how these ingredients were combined with scientific planning to create some of the greatest fortresses in the whole of Europe. In most cases existing castles were developed and improved but others were begun afresh informed by the latest defensive strategies.

New castles were still sited to make use of natural features such as a rocky platform that hindered attackers and made undermining impossible. Edward i’s castles at Conwy and Caernarfon are good examples of this, their long and narrow pattern dictated by the lie of the land. `is layout precluded a separate inner bailey as a second line of defence, instead the huge mural towers provided formidable protection for the outer wall and gates, allowing archers and crossbowmen to target attackers outside and inside the castle. `ey were also so large and strong that they efectively acted as a series of keep towers that could be individually defended if the walls were breached.

Where the site allowed, the builders of the thirteenth century strove for perfectly designed defences in the form of concentric castles. Among the most impressive are those built by Edward i at Rhuddlan, Harlech and Beaumaris as he strove to impose English rule over a discontented Welsh population. `e concentric ‘castle within a castle’ consisted of a walled outer ward within which were the mighty walls and towers of the inner ward, tall enough and close enough for the defenders to fire over the heads of their compatriots on the outer wall below.

`ese magnificent constructions were also an expression of English power, symbols of imperial conquest by a king determined to rule over the whole of the British Isles. `ey demonstrated an economic might that could support such monstrously expensive creations, dwarfing anything previously built by the Welsh. At Caernarfon Edward’s imperial pretensions were physically embodied in banded stonework, polygonal towers and Roman eagles that recalled Emperor Constantine’s walls at Constantinople.

valerie t hornton (1931–91)

t he tower of l ondon

1979 / etching and aquatint / 370 x 580 mm

Julian

`e Tower of London is a fine example of an existing castle being developed over an extended period, in this case by the Kings of England. William the Conqueror built his great tower within an enclosure first set out around 1067 `is was significantly expanded by Henry iii taking the castle walls out to the line of the present inner wall and surrounding them with a moat. It was perhaps inevitably Edward i who went further, turning it into a truly concentric castle, filling in his father’s moat, building the existing outer wall and a wider moat (now dry) beyond. `ese formidable defences only required minor adjustments in the centuries that followed.

`ornton’s view from the west shows the concentric lines of defence rising up towards the White Tower: the outer wall first with the wall of the inner ward emerging above. on the far left is the Beauchamp Tower built by Edward i `e turrets of the White Tower are just visible above the roofs of the Queen’s House.

valerie `ornton was a painter and printmaker who was particularly drawn to architectural subjects but also made occasional forays into abstraction. She trained at the Byam Shaw School of Art and Regent Street Polytechnic before travelling to Paris to study etching and engraving at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 studio.

Francis collection / © estate of the artist

david cox (1783–1859)

dover castle

watercolour / 164 x 248 mm

British Museum / © `e Trustees of the British Museum

Cox’s watercolour shows the magnificent castle at Dover laid out on the hillside above the harbour. `is would have been one of the first sights to greet visitors arriving in England and was an impressive statement of royal power. Henry ii spent vast sums building the great tower and inner curtain wall and probably started the outer wall too. In 1204 King John lost Normandy to the French and suddenly a hostile power lurked just a few miles across the Channel. As a result over £1,000 was spent on improving the castle. `e work was completed just in time to withstand an attack in July 1216 by French forces supporting a barons’ rebellion sparked by John’s rejection of Magna Carta. `e siege lasted until october and although the French successfully undermined the gatehouse the garrison fought of the assault and patched up the breach.

In Cox’s painting the great tower still dominates. To the left and below is the Constable’s Gate built by Henry iii to remove the weak point exploited by the French attackers. on the far right is the Roman lighthouse and the tower of St Mary in Castro’s Church. `is watercolour is representative of Cox’s interest in capturing atmospheric and lighting efects in preference to recording the levels of detail common in many of his contemporaries’ work.

Alan sorrell (1904–74)

goodrich castle

1959 / watercolour / 445 x 625 mm

Historic England Archive

Goodrich Castle occupies a strategically important crossing point on the River Wye, one of the gateways between England and Wales. ‘Godric’s Castle’ was in existence by 1101 but the castle we see today is the result of major rebuilding by the de valence family in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries using the latest ideas in castle design. Sorrell’s painting shows what the castle may have looked like in the fifteenth century. on the far right is the D-shaped barbican that defended the entrance to the castle, probably based on one built for Edward i at the Tower of London around 1275. A causeway leads to the unusually asymmetrical main gatehouse. `is entrance was protected by a drawbridge, two gates, two portcullises, murder holes and arrow loops.

Directly ahead is the massive south-east tower with its high spur buttresses exuding an aura of power, a feature shared by the slightly later south-west tower. In between rises the keep, a twelfth century feature incorporated into the later building work. Goodrich had a largely peaceful history and survived intact until the Civil War. Such was the castle’s strength that the besieging Parliamentarian force had to resort to undermining and building a giant mortar ‘Roaring Meg’ that brought down the north-west tower, precipitating the Royalist surrender.

corfe castle in the beauteous Isle of purbeck

1940 / tempera on panel / 565 x 605 mm

Corfe Castle’s great keep was probably built by Henry i and completed around 1105. At that time it was encircled by a single curtain wall and was not expanded to its current layout until the thirteenth century. Corfe became a favourite castle for King John and he added the curtain wall and towers of the west bailey (the triangular enclosure on the left of the painting) as well as a Gloriette of luxurious royal apartments within the inner ward (seen to the right of the keep). `e layout was completed by Henry iii and Edward i who replaced the wooden palisades of the outer bailey with stone walls and built the twin-towered gatehouse.

Isabel Saul studied at Bournemouth Municipal School of Art and worked as a painter, printmaker, illustrator, ceramicist and designer. She had a fascination with medieval and Renaissance art that informed her preference for historical subjects, such as this slightly fanciful recreation of Corfe in Tudor times. It does remind us of the castle’s original magnificence which, with its whitewashed walls, would have been visible for miles around.

Isabel Florrie saul (1895–1982)

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth

rena gardiner (1929–99)

corfe castle

1991 / linocut / 229 x 305 mm

Julian Francis collection / © estate of the artist

Rena Gardiner’s linocut shows Corfe’s famous profile silhouetted against the sky. `e scrubby bushes in the foreground and the choice of black as the colour for the castle give it a menacing air, in keeping with some of the more unsavoury aspects of the castle’s history. `e powerful keep was an awesome defensive structure but also housed royal apartments and served as a secure treasury and prison. Henry i had his brother Robert, a rival for the throne, imprisoned there between 1106 and 1107. King John kept his niece Eleanor locked up in relative comfort in the Gloriette but her knights were thrown into a dungeon and left to starve to death. He also imprisoned and executed various enemies at Corfe.

Rena Gardiner settled in Wareham around 1954, setting up a printing workshop in her garage. She began producing a series of lovingly crafted artist’s books, many reflecting her love of the Dorset landscape. Corfe Castle became one of her favourite places and in 1963 she published a thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated guide to the castle that prompted a string of commissions for guidebooks to historic buildings.

david gentleman-b.1930

r huddlan castle

1987 / lithograph / 511 x 635 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

As you approach Rhuddlan Castle, built by Edward i in the thirteenth century, the first things you see are the two towers of the twin gatehouse, still solid enough despite their shakylooking foundations. For the stone textures on this print I diluted the lithographic ink into a watery tusche, rather like watercolour, and let it dry slowly on the zinc plates, and then overprinted them in several diferent stone colours – greys and yellows.

David Gentleman

dominique charles Fouqueray (1869–1956)

harlech castle, wales

`e castles built in Wales by Edward i were statements of imperial power created to reinforce military and political authority over the native population. `e castles at Harlech, Conwy and Caernarfon were all begun in 1283. Harlech boasts a spectacular location at the top of a rocky crag once lapped by the sea: all three castles could be supplied by ship in the event of a siege. Harlech’s concentric defences consist of an outer wall and ward surrounding the massive walls of the inner ward: rectangular in shape with a huge drum tower at each corner and a gatehouse of intimidating proportions to meet the only practical direction of attack.

Fouqueray’s poster shows the castle viewed from the south. Looming over the town are the huge walls and corner towers of the inner ward, those at the back each topped with a turret. `e tops of two cylindrical staircase turrets at the rear of the gatehouse can also be seen. Fouqueray was a French painter, engraver and illustrator who created all the artwork for Shell’s first poster campaign in 1925, which encouraged motorists to explore Britain’s landmarks using Shell fuels.

david gentleman-b.1930

harlech castle

1970 / screenprint / 686 x 686 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Harlech Castle stands in a commanding position overlooking town and coast, one of Edward i’s eight castles built to subdue the rebellious Welsh. Caerphilly Castle, built in the thirteenth century by Gilbert de Clare, is by contrast on low-lying flat land, surrounded by water-filled moats which formed its concentric layers of defence. `ese screen-printed images are diferent in approach from my castle lithographs, for instead of being seen as part of a landscape, the castles are presented here as isolated structures made up of solid blocks and cylinders, three-dimensional and geometric like sandcastles or architects’ models. Surface details and colours are omitted and the castles are simplified down to the basic elements out of which they must have originally been conceived.

David Gentleman

david gentleman-b.1930

caerphilly castle

1971 / screenprint / 686 x 686 mm

artist’s collection / © the artist

Castles make good subjects. `ey were built to impress and they’re fun to wander round looking for striking points of view. Now, despite their oppressive military origins, they have mostly grown comfortably picturesque, romantic and old. `ey’re often isolated and distant – on a hill, like orford, Rhuddlan or Harlech, or like Dunstanburgh on a clif by the sea. Seemingly static and unchanging, they change in diferent lights: sunlight can dramatise the angles of their keeps and the curving surfaces of their round towers; grey days can emphasise the striking silhouettes of their ruins on the skyline. Tramping round them helps one to understand how and why they were built.

David Gentleman

caernarfon castle i

`e defeat of a Welsh rebellion in 1282 was swiftly followed by the building of the three new castles at Caernarfon, Harlech and Conwy. `e work was supervised by Master James of St George, a mason and military engineer from the Savoy region of France. `e development at Caernarfon consisted of the castle and a new town (an English enclave) enclosed by stone walls. `is massive building project was carried out by hundreds of workers brought from England. However, in 1294 before the castle was finished, a new uprising saw the castle attacked, the town walls thrown down and the interior put to the torch. `e rebellion was crushed and work resumed but it was not until 1330 that the castle was completed to the extent we see today.

John Piper’s view from the south-west gives a sense of the castle’s magnificent scale, showing the coloured banding and polygonal towers intended to emulate the imperial Roman splendour of Constantinople. Piper had always been drawn to architectural subjects, but usually preferred to seek out the more obscure churches, country houses, castles and follies. He viewed the watercolourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as reliable guides to what was worth painting. `is approach made him the perfect recruit for the Recording Britain Scheme in 1940 and when invited to make drawings of Windsor in 1941 he first revisited watercolours of the castle made by Paul Sandby nearly two hundred years earlier. Castles proved a renewed source of inspiration for the prints Piper made in the 1970 s and 1980 s which also included lithographs of Clytha, Kidwelly and Laugharne and screenprints of Framlingham, Ludlow, Stokesay, Carew and Eastnor.

John piper (1903–92)

walter ernest spradbery (1889–1969)

windsor

1930 / poster / 1016 x 635 mm London Transport Museum / © TfL

A motte-and-bailey castle was established at Windsor shortly after the Norman conquest, indeed the Conqueror’s motte, flanked by two baileys, remains at the heart of the castle today. Henry ii added a new shell keep and royal lodgings and also enclosed the upper and lower baileys with new towered stone walls. Edward iii spent lavishly on buildings of unprecedented splendour to provide a suitably majestic home for the King of both England and France and his new chivalric order of the Garter. `e emphasis was on grandeur and comfort rather than defence: the castle had efectively become a fortified palace.

Walter Spradbery’s view from the `ames is dominated by the Round Tower. Although this sits on William i’s motte and is a development of the shell keep originally built by Henry ii, it is largely the work of George iv who added some thirty feet to its height. Ironically he wanted Windsor to look more like a castle again to reflect his power as ruler of a world-spanning empire. Spradbery was a teacher, watercolourist and printmaker, but is best known as a prolific poster designer for London Transport. His first design was accepted in 1911 and he established himself two years later with a series of arresting posters in bold, flat colours including Burnham Beeches and another view of Windsor. `is later poster is typical of his warm, idyllic treatments of landscape subjects on the outskirts of London.

declIne And

ch Ange oF stAtus

F RoM THE

ELE v ENTH T o

THE THIRTEENTH CENTURIES , THE vital military chess pieces were the knight and the castle. Whoever held the castles controlled the kingdom: a medieval scholar lyrically describes castles as being the bones of England. Castles were the cornerstone of feudal society and their military decline from the fourteenth century is related to a change in society, rather than, as is popularly believed, the advent of gunpowder. Early cannon were inefective, very expensive and di2cult to move though castles were quick to add gunports (oilettes) to their defences.

With the country becoming safer, new castles began to let their guard down. New design features, such as at Nunney and Donnington, imported from France by knights returning from the campaigns of the Hundred years War, heralded a change of emphasis. `e castle now became a status symbol, exemplified by the opulent palace built by Edward iii at Windsor Castle to honour his new and chivalrous order of `e Garter. As at beautiful Bodiam Castle, all the usual features might remain such as gatehouses, battlements, towers, moats and machicolations. Castles still looked the part but they were all mouth and no trousers; the walls were thinner and the windows larger and lower down. Moats were now employed primarily for aesthetic purposes, the reflections of the magnificent architecture in the wide shimmering waters greatly enhanced the visual spectacle and thus potency of the castle for any visitor.

Neglect and decay during the fifteenth century also contributed to the decline of the castle, as the crown’s resources were inadequate for their proper maintenance. `e last great medieval castle to be built in Britain was at Raglan during the 1430 s.

`e development of efective siege cannon would soon render the medieval castle all but obsolete as a safe haven: hitherto impregnable stone walls and towers could be reduced to rubble in short order. Many castles saw military action and withstood siege warfare during the Wars of the Roses. Bamburgh was the first castle in Britain to be defeated by artillery after the Earl of Warwick’s nine-month siege in 1464. But when near-lasting peace was established with the advent of the Tudor dynasty in 1485 the need for dependable defences appeared to be superseded.

`e old castles were draughty, uncomfortable dwellings and the Tudor court hankered after the mod-cons, comfort and sophistication of the European Renaissance. Priorities were now clearly on the domestic front tipping the balance of the castle’s original dual role as fortress and residence. By the late fifteenth century, quadrangular castles like Farleigh Hungerford were developing into the Tudor country mansion complete with the new long gallery and fashionable large glass windows. Some still incorporated moats as a gesture to security and crenellation as a decorative motif and a nod to tradition and status.

In the sixteenth century the only form of castles built or developed were those intended for coastal defence and were specifically designed to mount artillery. `ese Device or Henrican forts were exclusively military buildings for national defence built in large numbers along the south coasts to ward of attacks from France and Spain. `ese were superseded by the sleek and functional Martello Towers of the Napoleonic era.

Tim Craven

edward mck night k auffer (1890–1954)

bodiam castle

Although Bodiam Castle, begun in 1385, looks every bit the medieval super fortress with its symmetrical design, mural towers, gatehouse and moat, it is in fact something of a fraud. `e walls are thin, the moat is held in by a bank that could easily be broken and drained, the chapel has a large window on the outer wall – an easy point of entry for a determined attacker, and the postern has no gatehouse to defend it. So it has been argued that the exterior is largely for show, a suitably imposing enclosure for the comfortable apartments arranged between the walls and the inner courtyard. Bodiam is an expression of its upwardly mobile owner Sir Edward Dallingridge’s wish to secure his place among the aristocracy as a wealthy knight and loyal supporter of the king, but perhaps most importantly as the owner of a castle.

McKnight Kaufer is one of the most celebrated poster designers of the 1920 s and 1930 s. He worked for a number of organizations but created 140 posters for London Transport. Here he depicts the southern wall of Bodiam with the postern projecting from the central tower. He produced several Shell posters in this dark and forbidding style, including `e New Forest and Stonehenge `ey seem unlikely to encourage motorists to explore the subjects but reflect the enlightened view of publicity manager Jack Beddington (1893 –1959) in allowing his artists to freely express themselves.

1932 / poster / 760 x 1140 mm

Shell Heritage Art Collection / © Simon Rendall

untitled

2016 –17 / oils and pigmented ink jet on canvas

1350 x 1500 mm

artist’s collection / © the artist

Since the nineteenth century many castles, large and small, have raised funds as tourist attractions, selling postcards and tea towels. Bodiam Castle was built on the spoils of mercenary souvenir hunting in France during the Hundred years War between England and France in the fourteenth century. Sir Edward Dallingridge, former Knight of King Edward iii, used the cash he raised from pillage and plunder in France to build Bodiam in 1385 in Sussex, ostensibly as defence against invasion by the belligerent French. Dallingridge’s real motives can only be guessed at since Bodiam is landlocked, surrounded by trees, over 10 miles from the coast, as Rankle suggests in this painting. `is self-serving knight built Bodiam Castle not only to make a grander statement than the Dallingridge manor house it replaced, but he made every efort to suppress the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which erupted not least in opposition to the high taxes levied to pay for the war from which Dallingridge had handsomely profited.

Judy Parkinson

Alan rankle -b.1952

painting xxii ( bodiam)

g.m. rolls

view of raglan castle

watercolour / 248 x 351 mm

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth

Raglan was one of the last castles built in England or Wales. Sir William ap `omas bought the manor of Raglan 1432 and probably began work on the castle soon after. His work is seen today in the south gate and hexagonal great tower, surrounded by its own moat. His son Sir William Herbert continued the project from about 1460 on an altogether grander scale adding a magnificent gateway, courts on either side of the great hall and an apron wall around the great tower.

As the kingdom entered more stable and peaceful times many aristocrats were abandoning their castles for fashionable new houses. However, at Raglan a succession of owners were able to develop the castle to keep pace with the latest expectations of comfort, space and light while retaining the spectacular appearance of their ancestral home. Sadly an artillery duel during the Civil War siege in 1646 and the subsequent plundering of the castle for stone and timber left Raglan as the ivy-clad ruin that appears in Rolls’s painting.

peter Jarvis-b.1953

old wardour castle

2016 / watercolour over pencil with body colour highlights

437 x 596 mm

artist’s collection / © the artist

on visiting Wardour Castle in September 2015 I was instantly captivated by its magnificence. Sitting proudly on a gentle mound that slopes down to a large lake beyond, it dates back to the late fourteenth century. At this time it would have been lightly fortified with a wide ditch, drawbridge and portcullis defending the main entrance. `e midday sunshine helped define the partially ruined stonework and I tried to capture this with pencil and watercolours in my sketchbook. `is, together with several photographs, was su2cient reference to create this watercolour study. My passion is combining suggested detail with atmospheric lighting and how light falls across a surface. As this view is very square-on, the cast shadows are instrumental in describing shape and form giving a sense of depth within the structure.

Peter Jarvis

wilfred stephens

t he bee hives, stokesay castle, ludlow

1933 / etching / 176 x 121 mm

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth

`e fortified manor house at Stokesay is another expression of upward social mobility. It was built from 1285 by Laurence of Ludlow, a town-dwelling wool merchant seeking the status given by land-ownership and an impressive country residence. `e seal was set on these ambitions when the king granted a licence to crenellate or fortify his new home in 1291 `e original building consisted of a tower and curtain wall enclosing a courtyard, hall, solar, kitchen and storerooms. While by no means an impregnable stronghold Stokesay nevertheless ofered the owner some security from raiders, bandits and thieves. Later owners would ensure it became known as Stokesay Castle to further their social aspirations. In the seventeenth century the already questionable defences were further weakened by the replacement of the original stone gatehouse with an elaborately carved timber-framed building.

`is etching shows the medieval north tower with its overhanging ‘jettied’ second floor. Beyond are the hall and solar block with the south tower rising behind. Wilfred Stephens seems to have been based in Bournemouth, producing a number of landscape and architectural etchings during the 1920 s and 1930 s. He was a member of the Bournemouth Arts Club and a contemporary of fellow etcher Leslie Mofat Ward.

Nunney Castle is about ten miles away from where I live. I have enjoyed visiting it frequently over thirty years, in diferent seasons and at diferent times of day. `is view was inspired by a nocturnal visit, though the detailed drawing for the castle was made in the daytime. I viewed it from the north east, looking at quite close quarters across the moat. `e two east towers predominate and you can also see inside the castle where the north wall has collapsed. I chose a moonlit view partly to explore the dramatic efects that can be achieved when you add aquatint to etching. But I was also moved by the plight of the castle. It must have been such an exquisite structure when it was first built, like something out of the Tres Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. Now it is an evocative reminder of times past.

Will Vaughan

If castles are seen as being in decline during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, their importance did not diminish along the border with Scotland where warfare and raiding was an almost constant feature after Edward i’s failure to conquer his northern neighbour. Durham Castle needed to be defensible and in a state of readiness until well into the sixteenth century. yet even here the Bishops of Durham were increasingly spending their funds on hall, kitchen and chapel rather than new defences. In 1836 the castle was handed over to the university and major rebuilding works followed, the castle’s shell keep being redeveloped as student accommodation by Anthony Salvin who also carried out restorations and refurbishments on the castles at Windsor, Norwich, Newark, Carisbrooke and Alnwick.

Kenneth Steel’s engraving shows the castle rising above the River Wear with the city below and the cathedral beyond, an echo of the castle’s form. Steel dissects the development of this print in his students’ guidebook Line Engraving (1938), commenting ‘Durham is one of the happiest hunting-grounds for the artist … `e city itself seems to possess an atmosphere which is unique. Everything in its precincts seems to have that touch of fantasy which marks it with a romantic element’.

kenneth steel (1906–70)

durham

1935 / line engraving and drypoint / 303 x 352 mm Stuart Southall collection

sorrell (1904–74) deal castle

1959 / mixed media / 400 x 570 mm

Historic England Archive

During Henry viii’s reign fears of invasion by French or Spanish foes prompted the building of a series of coastal forts intended to guard potential landing points. `e structures were designed as artillery forts, strong and squat, with curved walls to withstand fire from enemy ships and armed with cannon that could fire in all directions. Although usually named as castles these forts were purely military structures and did not combine defence with residential accommodation as had their medieval forebears.

Sorrell’s reconstruction painting shows Deal Castle as it might have looked when completed in 1540. `e fort is surrounded by a dry moat that could be covered by musketeers or archers in the lower bastions. Another tier of six bastions or lunettes rises above topped by a central tower that controlled access to all the levels. `e compact, tiered design was intended to allow the garrison to concentrate their fire and required fewer men to defend it.

Alan

barbara Jones (1912–78)

pendennis c astle, Falmouth

Pendennis Castle was built between 1539 and 1545 and with St Mawes Castle was designed to cover the entrance and anchorage of the Fal estuary. It consisted of a cylindrical tower surrounded by a circular gun platform and could be garrisoned by one hundred men. In 1597 a Spanish invasion attempt here was only prevented by bad weather and doubts about the fort’s efectiveness saw the addition of an outer ring of earthworks, embrasures and bastions. In the event the only action Pendennis saw was during the Civil War in 1646 when it was besieged by Parliamentarian forces. `e defending force of around 1,000 men held out for three months before they ran out of food and were granted an honourable surrender.

Barbara Jones was a painter, designer, illustrator and muralist whose career was launched by her work for the Recording Britain project. Jones was interested in quirky buildings, relics and popular art so Recording Britain proved to be an inspiring and rewarding way to supplement her wartime income. She was the most prolific contributor and one of the most accomplished artists involved. `is view of Pendennis from the west shows the tower and its forebuilding rendered in Jones’s distinctive watercolour style, reminiscent of the work of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden.

t homas rowlandson (1756–1827)

hurst castle

c.1791 / watercolour / 124 x 235 mm

Isle of Wight Council Heritage Service / Rowlandson collection purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund

Hurst Castle was built between 1541 and 1544 at the end of a long shingle spit, sited to defend the western entrance to the Solent. It consisted of a central tower flanked by three bastions. Although it could accommodate over seventy guns, in 1547 it had just twenty-six manned by a garrison of twenty-four men.

`e building and defending of Henry viii’s coastal forts was an expensive business conveniently funded by income raised from the dissolution of the monasteries and in Hurst’s case also helped by stone and lead taken during the forced demolition of Beaulieu Abbey.

`omas Rowlandson was a prolific watercolour painter and caricaturist known for humorous and sometimes ribald observations of Georgian life. He made several sketching tours to the Isle of Wight, most notably that of 1784 published as A Tour in a Post Chaise. A later visit, made in 1791, inspired two views of Hurst Castle. `is one shows the entrance to the fort guarded by a rather insubstantial outer gate and bridge. To the left is one of the bastions while in the foreground soldiers are lounging on captured French guns.

t homas rowlandson (1756–1827)

hurst castle

c.1791 / watercolour / 124 x 235 mm

Isle of Wight Council Heritage Service / Rowlandson collection purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund

Rowlandson’s interior view shows members of the garrison relaxing with their families, some of whom lived nearby on Hurst spit. By the time the French Revolutionary War broke out Hurst Castle was little changed from the fort built by Henry viii. However, from 1861 fresh invasion fears led to a complete remodelling to help protect the Solent and access to the Portsmouth naval base. Two huge wing batteries were added on either side of the original fort to house a new generation of rifled muzzle-loading guns. `e fort was later re-armed and garrisoned in both world wars.

samuel howitt (1756–1822)

Yarmouth castle

c.1791 / watercolour / 230 x 330 mm

Isle of Wight Council Heritage Service / Rowlandson collection purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund

Another of Henry viii’s artillery forts, yarmouth Castle was built in 1547 to protect yarmouth harbour on the Isle of Wight. It was armed with fifteen guns manned by a garrison of twenty men. Its square design was quite diferent to the circular forts built previously and it also boasted an Italian-style arrowhead bastion on its landward side, the first to be introduced in this country. In common with many of Henry’s forts yarmouth Castle was repaired and refortified at various times in its history. In Elizabeth i’s reign the threat from Spain saw half the courtyard filled in to provide a more efective gun platform. Howitt’s drawing shows the angled buttresses and additional battery built on the neighbouring quay during the course of the seventeenth century.

Howitt was married to Rowlandson’s sister Elizabeth and accompanied his brother-in-law on the tour to the Isle of Wight in 1791. His watercolour style is very similar to Rowlandson’s but he was a fine practitioner of the art in his own right. He is best known today for a wealth of watercolours and etchings of sporting and natural history subjects.

lindisfarne

During the Tudor period England’s northern border was threatened by Scotland’s alliance with France; the resulting conflicts led to a review of the north’s fortifications. When the military engineer and surveyor Sir Richard Lee visited Lindisfarne in 1565 he found just the remains of a platform and rampart. `e fort that survives today was largely developed for Elizabeth i, although an upper storey was added in seventeenth century. It was briefly occupied by Jacobite rebels in 1715 and was garrisoned until the early nineteenth century.

Perched at the top of Beblowe Craig, Lindisfarne Castle is an undeniably romantic sight. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was converted by Sir Edwin Lutyens into a holiday home for the owner of Country Life magazine. Henry Rushbury was invited to paint at the castle by new owner oswald Falk in September 1923. `e visit also resulted in a drypoint for which this was a working proof, marked by ink lines, wash and scrapings indicating additional work to be performed on the plate. It is dedicated to the print expert Harold Wright, perhaps in thanks for the catalogue of Rushbury’s prints he wrote for Print Collector’s Quarterly in December 1923.

henry rushbury (1889–1968)

1924 / drypoint, pencil and ink / 304 x 365 mm Stuart Southall collection / © estate of the artist

‘

untitled painting xxiii ( lindisfarne)

2016 –17 / oils and pigmented ink jet on canvas

1500 x 1350 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Castles summon up the stuf of fairy tales, fortifications and fabrications, standing tall in their designated aims to be both ofensive and defensive at the same time. `ey are symbols of power from where raids are launched and they exist as secure depositories of stratagems and secrets. `e word ‘castle’ comes from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum meaning ‘fortified place’. `e word entered the English language, with somewhat unfortunate timing for the English, just before the Norman Conquest.

Lindisfarne embodies themes of border control and religious bans both of which galvanise us today, and Rankle alludes to these contemporary fears in this work. Lindisfarne Castle rises out of Holy Island in the North Sea close to where England and Scotland meet. In 635 St Aidan founded a monastery on Holy Island and it would remain a holy site through viking invasions and the Norman Conquest. In the mid-sixteenth century the English, under King Henry viii, protected the border against the hated Scots, and when the King took against Catholics the site was fortified using stones from the dismantled priory.

`ese paintings are part of an ongoing series of works about castles and their iconic relevance to modern times,’ states Alan Rankle. ‘I first addressed this theme working in a studio at St Quentin la Tour, a twelfth century maison forte in the region of the Cathars in South West France in 1986 `ese recent subjects Bodiam and Lindisfarne are, like many castles, built to dominate stunningly beautiful landscapes, which to contemporary observers provide a reassuringly picturesque context to the barbarism enacted within and without their walls.’

Judy Parkinson

2016 / charcoal on paper / 640 x 1080 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Martello Towers were built to defend the east and south coasts of Britain against the French during the Napoleonic wars. No invader tested their strength but later their presence was efective in controlling smuggling. `ey are beautiful and simple structures; no show-of turrets or drawbridges. `e Tower walls are tapered to help deflect cannonballs. `e walls are much thicker on the sea side, sometimes up to 13 feet deep. `e Towers are oval despite appearing round. Some are built right up against the waves and others in open marshland.

I love the remote stretch of coastline from Shingle Street to Bawdsey. `ere are four Martello Towers within view of each other here. Martello W sits on the edge of a rapidly eroding clif. Grasses and wild flowers surround it in the summer. When winter comes the sea will hammer at the clif base. How much longer will it survive?

Annabel Gault

Annabel gault- b.1932

martello tower

the cI v Il wA r

THE CASTLE AS STRoNGHoLD WAS DUE oNE LAST HURRAH

`e religious and political turmoil of the mid-seventeenth century duly led to a tragic civil war between Charles i and Parliament in 1642. In a land where dangers proliferated whether from local rival forces, clubmen, or the marauding field armies of the `ames valley, north and south west, the castle once again became a valuable military asset and many were garrisoned by both sides as strategic bases. However they were no longer the impregnable strongholds of the past as modern siege cannon could quickly reduce their high walls to rubble.

Most medieval castles in England have a Civil War story to tell; the extraordinary efects of a massive explosion at old Wardour Castle near yeovil for instance can still be seen today. `e thin-walled and glamorous fourteenth and fifteenth century castles proved how poor they were in defence and soon surrendered when their walls came crashing down to cannon fire as at Nunney near Frome in 1645

When the war turned against the king after 1643 many castles became the last refuge of desperate Royalist enclaves. Castle and town walls were often back-filled with soil and rubble to dissipate the efects of canon and new low, star-shaped earth fortifications were added around perimeters such as at Newark. At Pontefract, the Royalist garrison in an extraordinary display of bravado and determination held the whip hand for months and repeatedly sallied out and beat up the wretched besiegers who deserted in droves. But even they succumbed when all hope of relief was extinguished and starvation set in. Seemingly impregnable, remote Harlech Castle was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender to Parliament in the First Civil War, in March 1647

Cromwell has much to answer for with regard to the state of many English and Welsh castles. `ey had become rallying centres for repeated Royalist uprisings and through their destruction, Parliament was determined to keep a lid on any potential rebellion. `e locals though were ordered to pay for the gunpowder to blow them up, which caused dissent. Pontefract proved so well built that it proved almost impossible to destroy and far too expensive. Numerous castles thus sufered the fate of slighting, the knocking down of just one wall to make the place indefensible; though some including Corfe Castle were tragically wrecked almost beyond recognition.

Tim Craven

l eslie moffat ward (1888–1978)

corfe castle from the west hill

watercolour / 605 x 738 mm

In common with several great British castles the Civil War saw Corfe’s transformation from an intimidating fortress to a picturesque ruin. When war broke out in 1642 command of the Royalist garrison was taken up by Mary, Lady Bankes. Parliamentarian forces began a rather half-hearted siege in June 1643 but the castle’s strength was proved as around eighty soldiers plus Mary, her family and their servants held out for six weeks until their attackers withdrew. A second attempt to capture the castle was made in December 1645 and even then it was only through treachery that the Parliamentarians finally gained entry in February 1646. Determined that the castle would not be used again, Parliament ordered it to be slighted: some parts were undermined, others blown up with gunpowder.

`e great beneficiaries of this destruction were Britain’s artists for whom the noble ruins remain a compelling subject to this day. Bournemouth-born Leslie Ward was a great lover of relics from the past, whether dilapidated buildings, outmoded sailing craft or ancient landscape features. Purbeck was a favourite subject for his prints and watercolours and Corfe features in a number of these. Here the ruins take pride of place within a sunny panorama celebrating the beauty of the castle and the Purbeck hills.

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth / © estate of the artist

corfe castle (close to)

After completing my studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London I moved back down south to my birthplace, to paint the Dorset landscape. For over twenty years I have painted Corfe Castle from every conceivable angle, never growing weary of it.

Attacked by oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads, the walls and battlements were besieged and bombarded with cannon fire. Today only remnants survive, these ruins having acquired a beautiful, elegant structure, the two main columns imposing a strong authority. `e destruction of the castle has sculpted the stone walls and towers producing more organic shapes that have settled in their habitat, lying where they fell. Jagged stone made smooth through centuries of English weather.

Robert Amesbury Brooks

robert Amesbury brooks-b.1964

robert Amesbury brooks-b.1964

corfe and village (side view)

2015 –16 / oil / 1120 x 1420 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Corfe Castle to me is worthy of celebration not just because of its historical presence but also its significant monumental order within the landscape of surrounding village and hillsides. From all observational points you are struck with awe and wonderment. An idea I have aimed to convey from greater distances: incorporating the enfolding Purbeck landscape of rolling hills and trees, to closer more personal compositions.

Colour too plays a huge role, especially combinations of warm and cool colour relationships playing of one another. `e greyish local Purbeck stone set harmoniously against a back drop of vibrant greens and cool blues. A palette as varied and changeable as the seasons, this poses a challenge which I feel is part of the beauty of painting.

Is there any clear way of seeing or understanding fully anything we look at? I have battled with this idea for so long. `ere is so much to think about when painting, but having a clear idea with positive aims always inspires and bring positive results. To me Corfe Castle has always been this source of inspiration.

Robert Amesbury Brooks

tim

craven- b.1953

donnington castle

2016 / casein on canvas / 610 x 914 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

High above and to the north of Newbury in Berkshire, Donnington Castle commands a major central crossroads in southern England. It was built in 1386 by Sir Richard Abberbury the Elder, who had received a licence to crenellate from Richard ii and its design was influenced by the latest French fashions. `e castle was purchased by Geofrey Chaucer’s son `omas in 1398 as a home for his daughter Alice.

Donnington Castle saw considerable action during the English Civil War and was held for King Charles. Star-shaped earthen defences were built around the base of the castle to enhance its defensive capabilities and provide gun-emplacements, and these are still evident today. At the Second Battle of Newbury in october 1644, the castle’s cannon commanded by Sir John Boys, subdued oliver Cromwell’s famous Ironsides cavalry in the valley below. `e three Parliamentary field armies present at the battle failed to defeat the smaller, surrounded Royalist force led by the King. `is debacle was formative in the eventual re-organisation of the Parliamentarian armies into one elite professional force in 1645, the New Model Army. `e castle was later besieged, rather half-heartedly, by local Roundhead units. Boys managed to hold out with a tiny garrison for 18 months before being allowed to withdraw to oxford. In 1646, Parliament demolished the castle to prevent it becoming a focus for a royalist revolt and so sadly only the magnificent twin-towered gatehouse remains standing today.

Tim Craven

graham Arnold-b.1932

t he woman of hopton castle

Hopton Castle stands on a small mound in a secluded valley in the Welsh Marches. Built, probably, in the thirteenth century it is more a fortified tower than a true castle. `e castle is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Parliamentarians ofered safe passage by Royalists after a long siege only to be brutally slaughtered when they surrendered.

I first saw Hopton Castle on a stormy moonlit night. one moment lost in darkness, the next flooded with moonlight. A few days later I returned and resolved to make a detailed drawing of this magnificent ruin and then complete a large painting. As I was beginning my drawing a woman appeared, standing beside the empty doorway. When I looked again she had gone. I continued drawing for an hour or so when she suddenly appeared again – this time I tried to speak to her but she withdrew into the castle. I ran up the mound into the ruined castle but found no sight of her. She had seemed to be wearing clothes of no particular style or date.

I had planned to paint a woman living as many years before the castle was built as was I after, about 750 ad. To understand the extraordinary appearance of this woman I wondered if my imagination had completed the scene as I had intended. She did not reappear but I was able to use my memory (or dream) to paint her in the clothes she was wearing when she stood before me, wanting, so clearly, to be part of the picture.

Graham Arnold

1992 / oil on board / 914 x 1219 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

chepstow from the cliff

1928 / etching / 300 x 400 mm

`e castle at Chepstow developed from a great tower flanked by two baileys originally built in the eleventh century. William Marshal added an innovative new gatehouse with two round flanking towers and a barbican in the lower bailey. Later owners developed the great hall, built an upper barbican and the formidable Marten’s Tower. However, none of this would save the castle from Parliamentarian guns during the Civil War. In 1645 it took just three days for artillery to breach the walls forcing the garrison to surrender. In 1648 Chepstow’s Royalist governor took refuge in the castle once again. Four cannons destroyed battlements and guns and breached the wall, while mortar shells rained on the interior. With their defences shattered the Royalists surrendered once more.

Webb’s etching emphasises the ruinous state of the castle, taking an oblique view from the west looking past the upper barbican towards the great hall and the buildings of the lower bailey beyond. `e distinction between the natural lines of the rock and the ravaged buildings of the castle becomes blurred, adding to the rather forbidding Gothic atmosphere. Joseph Webb began etching in 1927 and was influenced by the work of Frederick Griggs; they shared an interest in fantastical buildings both real and imagined.

Joseph webb (1908–62)

Stuart Southall collection / © Beryl Gascoigne & Jane Furst

william martin l arkins (1901–74)

manorbier castle

1924 / etching / 100 x 104 mm

Stuart Southall collection

William de Barri began building the stone walls, hall and tower at Manorbier in the twelfth century. His elder sons added a gatehouse, new towers and also improved the walls and living quarters, while his youngest son Gerald is acclaimed as one of the greatest writers of the times. Gerald of Wales, as he became known, described Manorbier as a fortified manor house rather than a castle but was unashamedly proud of his birthplace: ‘in all the broad lands of Wales, Manorbier is the most pleasant place by far’. `e castle only saw action twice, once during a family inheritance dispute in 1327 and then in 1645 during the Civil War. `e castle was garrisoned by Royalists who dug ditches across the entrance and prepared musket loops. However, when faced by the prospect of an attack by Parliamentarian cannon the garrison surrendered without a fight.

Larkins shows the curtain wall, hall and watergate viewed from the valley that leads down to the sea. He has chosen not to include the crenellations but depicts a watermill and pond mentioned in Gerald of Wales’s twelfth-century description.

Larkins studied at Goldsmiths’ College with fellow etchers Graham Sutherland, Paul Drury and Edward Bouverie Hoyton. Although he introduced the group to Samuel Palmer’s pastoral etchings his primary subject matter was London’s East End. At the end of the etchings boom he worked as a film maker, designer and commercial art director.

pauline bullard- b.1940

nunney castle, somerset

2015 / mixed media on paper / 570 x 670 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

I am a resident of Nunney for many years, and there is a stunning view of the castle’s east side from my garden. I have made a series of sketches and paintings of the castle from diferent viewpoints at diferent times of the day, throughout the year and in diferent atmospheric weather conditions: the sombre efect of rain, delicate traces of snow blurring its outlines, sunrise and sunset, shadows, night fall and stars. `e ruined northwest side of the castle evokes an historic query demanding to be visualised, imagined whole again. `e broken elements, shadows and dark spaces provide in my painting a structure on which I can attempt to make visible past events, the history and uniqueness of the castle. `e surface of the painting is marked to suggest a sense of longing to find the historical known but also the eerie unease of the ruin, the gaps and absence constitute, in the words of James Riley, ‘more actively by what is missing than by what is present’. I am particularly interested in the surface quality of the finished painting with which to capture the organic, ruined structure of the castle. `is dramatic ruin of a castle is a fascinating, revealing subject.

Pauline Bullard

henry rushbury (1889–1968)

Amberley castle, sussex

1916 / drypoint and engraving / 191 x 301 mm

Amberley was originally a hunting lodge for the Bishop of Chichester. In the twelfth century the original timber building was replaced by a stone hall. It was further developed in the fourteenth century becoming known as the Bishop’s summer palace. In 1377 Bishop Reede successfully applied for a licence to crenellate and the palace was enclosed by stone walls with square corner-towers and a gateway flanked by semicircular towers. During the Civil War Amberley was one of a number of Royalist strongholds in the south that were attacked and dismantled by Parliamentarian troops under the orders of Sir William Waller.

Rushbury depicts the north wall with a degree of artistic licence that exaggerates its height and some architectural features. `is is the third and final state of the print but in the previous versions the wall extends further towards the farm on the right: Rushbury was not about to let such details get in the way of an atmospheric composition. He emphasises an austere, haunted quality that belies the luxurious aristocratic home on the other side of the wall.

Stuart Southall collection / © estate of the artist

george percival gaskell (1868–1934)

harlech castle

etching / 175 x 250 mm

`e strength of Edward i’s castle at Harlech was tested on many occasions including two sieges by opposing forces during owain Glyn Dwˆr’s uprising and an attack on its Lancastrian defenders during the Wars of the Roses in 1468. During the Civil War the castle was defended for the king by Colonel William owen. A siege by Parliamentarian forces began in June 1646 and was to last until March 1647 when the surviving garrison of thirty-four men surrendered. Harlech was the last of the Royalist strongholds to fall, its defeat marking the end of the Civil War. Parliament’s forces were ordered to make the castle untenable but an instruction to demolish it was fortunately not carried out.

Gaskell was fond of castles and was adept at capturing their romantic potential using aquatint and mezzotint to achieve dramatic lighting efects. For this view of Harlech, probably dating from the early 1920 s, he turned to etching. `e viewpoint and composition is almost identical to that chosen by Paul Sandby for a watercolour of 1776. Sandby’s painting shows the sea still lapping at the castle’s base but by the time of Gaskell’s visit it had retreated, providing an extended view of houses and roads dwindling towards the mountains of Snowdonia.

Stuart Southall collection

castle courtyard

2016 / mixed media / 250 x 200 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

`e original castle at Laugharne was established by 1116. A peace treaty was agreed there in 1171-72 between Henry ii and Rhys ap Grufudd, but on Henry’s death in 1189 Rhys seized the castle and probably burnt it down. It was captured again by Llywelyn the Great in 1215 and in 1257 taken and burnt by Llywelyn ap Grufudd. After this latest disaster the de Brian family set about strengthening the castle, creating the basic structure known today. In Tudor times Sir John Perrot made alterations that focused on improving the castle’s appearance and accommodation rather than its defences. In 1644 Laugharne was briefly captured by Royalists who surrendered after a short siege that left the castle much damaged by cannon and then slighting.

`e castle then fell into decay, leaving a romantic ruin. During the Second World War Dylan `omas worked in the garden’s gazebo, writing elements of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog

`e castle for me is a wonderful dramatic subject with its setting against the estuary. `e tower afords an opportunity for a fascinating perspective of looking over to the punctuation of light coming through the broken windows on the opposite walls.

Kate Cochrane

At the beginning of the Civil War the Royalist garrison surrendered Carisbrooke without a fight. It then became a prison for important Royalist captives, the most famous being the king himself. Charles had escaped from Hampton Court in November 1647 and sought sanctuary from the governor of the Isle of Wight. However, instead of the hoped-for support, Charles found himself imprisoned. Initially he was kept in comfort in the Constable’s lodging and the hall, the eastern outwork was even converted into a bowling green for his amusement. once it became clear that negotiations with Parliament were going nowhere the regime was tightened up, particularly after two escape attempts, one of which left the king stuck between the bars on his bedroom window.

Ibbetson shows the castle’s gatehouse, a thirteenth-century tower flanked by two drum towers added in 1335-36 when the castle was threatened by French raids. During the eighteenth century the castle was sometimes used as a residence for the island’s governor so the accommodation was maintained but other parts of the castle were allowed to fall into decay. When Ibbetson visited at the end of the eighteenth century the blank-windowed, ivied gateway made a rather grim prospect, a picturesque ruin imbued with a sublime frightfulness.

Julius caesar Ibbetson (1759–1817)

carisbrooke castle

c.1790 / oil on canvas / 420 x 525 mm

Carisbrooke Castle Museum

Jeremy

August mist, corfe castle

2003 / acrylic, jesmonite and wood attached to birch panel

After England’s Civil War oliver Cromwell decided Corfe Castle was a Royalist stronghold that had to be eliminated, so nearly a year was spent in mining the foundations and packing them with gunpowder; and in 1645 when the roar that echoed through the valleys of Purbeck subsided, the castle emerged from the smoke and dust exactly as we see it today.

I have been walking the purbeck monocline, the ridge of chalk that runs from old Harry rocks to Bats Head, for over fifty years and the Corfe gap is a punctuation mark in that journey, I always stop and stare down at the ruins coming from east or west. `e first impression of the ruins of the castle is di2cult to describe. After ten centuries they still possess all the features that went into the making of a medieval fortress. `e large conical hill on which the castle is perched is a natural formation of hard chalk. on either side of the castle are hills which form even better view points, and from which the castle itself looks like some old fortress of faery lore.

While the silhouette of Corfe Castle is identifiable in August Mist the visual language of the painting includes richly worked surfaces. I have tried to create a strong sense of light, suggested not only by contrasts of value and hue, but also by the use of surface efects, such as rubbing pigment into gessso, and layering translucent washes in such a way that light seems to come both from a source external to the picture space and from within the surface of the picture itself.

Jeremy Gardiner

gardiner-b.1957

the c Astle redIscovered

DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUR y GRoWING CURIo SIT y about Britain’s past was combined with a scientific approach in keeping with the philosophies of the Enlightenment then taking hold in Europe. Samuel Buck’s systematic recording of England’s ruins, begun in the 1720 s, was a pioneering catalogue of the country’s ancient monuments. With the aid of his brother Nathaniel and various artists and engravers a survey of England was completed in 1738 and one for Wales in 1742. `ey published 428 views of monasteries, abbeys, castles and other ruins to create a uniquely valuable historic record.

For much of the century Britain was at war with France, making continental travel perilous. `is added to the attraction of the British landscape for artists and travellers alike. Paul Sandby was one of the first artists to explore Wales and the publication of his watercolours as aquatints in the 1770 s helped define the itinerary for future tours of the country. Naturally castles loomed large among his subjects, notably Chepstow, Manorbier, Harlech and Caernarfon.

By this time a diferent kind of tourist was discovering the joys of the landscape. In 1768 William Gilpin had defined the picturesque as ‘that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture’. He published a series of tours that instructed the ‘traveller with pencil’ in capturing and adapting what nature provided to create picturesque compositions. Such pictures needed a point of focus and Gilpin’s declaration ‘is there a greater ornament of landscape, than the ruins of a castle?’ explains the frequency with which ruined towers and battlements adorn his work.

`e tours made by Gilpin, Sandby and their contemporaries also changed perceptions of the type of landscape that was suitable for a painting. once the rugged, mountainous vistas of Wales would have been considered abhorrent, now they were hailed as romantic and picturesque. `e castle’s acceptance as appropriate subject matter was sealed by the theory of the sublime which held that feelings of terror inspired by raging elements, ominous mountains and eerie ruins actually provided a frisson of pleasure when the source of fear was not real. `e castle also found itself centre stage in the Romantic watercolours of Girtin and Turner.

An unlikely late flowering of the English topographical watercolour tradition is found in the Recording Britain project (1940 –43) which aimed to give artists employment during wartime and to capture ‘views, places and sites likely to be spoiled or destroyed in the near future by building encroachments or other causes’. Recording Britain largely focused on marginal, local and vernacular subjects that were particularly at risk but nevertheless included over thirty depictions of castles.

samuel buck (1696–79) and nathaniel buck ( fl.1724–59)

the north view of carisbrooke castle, in the Isle of wight

1733 / engraving / 230 x 405 mm

Samuel Buck had accompanied William Stukeley, secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, on two of his tours and was encouraged by the Society to publish twenty-four views of yorkshire’s antiquities in 1726 `ose of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire followed in 1727 by which time Buck had decided on an altogether more ambitious project – a national record of castles, monasteries and ruins. His intention was to capture these historic monuments before they were obliterated by ‘the inexorable jaws of time’.

`e southern counties were tackled between 1732 and 1736 `is view of Carisbrooke from the north was published in 1733 and shows the Norman motte and its shell keep, the medieval gatehouse on the far right and the Elizabethan artillery bastions below. `e scale of the project was such that Buck enlisted the help of his brother Nathaniel and employed engravers and specialist artists to improve their drawings and add features such as figures and boats.

Carisbrooke Castle Museum

paul sandby (1730–1809)

t he eagle tower, caernarfon

gouache / 640 x 962 mm

Southampton City Art Gallery

Paul Sandby began his career as a military draughtsman and for a while worked in oils before a change of medium that would later see him hailed as the ‘father of English watercolour’. During the 1760 s he produced an acclaimed series of drawings of Windsor marked by meticulous draughtsmanship and delicate use of colour. In 1771 and 1773 he made sketching tours to Wales. `ese were published as a series of aquatints in 1775 and 1776, a pioneering project in terms of the new print medium but also in terms of the subject matter, which few artists had then tackled.

`e Eagle Tower at Caernarfon was a favourite subject and appears in several of Sandby’s aquatints, a similar composition to this painting can be seen in Twelve Views in North and South Wales published in 1786. His view of the castle from across the water disguises the extent of Edward i’s stronghold but allows the inclusion of the curving river and the mountains of Snowdonia beyond. `e tower was named after the stone eagles that adorned its turrets, believed to be part of Edward’s attempts to use a local legend to link his castle with Imperial Roman rule and strengthen his claim to Wales.

t homas hearne (1744–1817)

newark castle

1777 / watercolour / 203 x 253 mm

British Museum / © `e Trustees of the British Museum

In 1777 Hearne and the engraver William Byrne began their own project recording Britain’s historic monuments entitled `e Antiquities of Great Britain, published between 1778 and 1806 `eir survey of monasteries, castles and churches helped to confirm that Britain’s monuments were as worthy of attention as those from the classical world.

Hearne visited Newark in 1777, making at least three watercolours of this composition. It is thought that this is the version that was engraved for `e Antiquities of Great Britain in 1796. It demonstrates Hearne’s fine draughtsmanship but also shows that he was interested in more than simple topography: his depiction of gentle sunlight and cloud shadows creates an atmosphere of tranquil decay. `e stone castle at Newark was built by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln in the twelfth century. A Royalist garrison was besieged three times during the Civil War, eventually surrendering in 1646 after which the castle was partially slighted. Its greatest claim to fame is that King John died of dysentery there in october 1216

william gilpin (1724–1804)

l andscape with castle

1796 / ink and wash / 185 x 270 mm

William Gilpin was the great promoter of the picturesque, a term that he had defined in his Essay on Prints in 1768. He elaborated on the theme in a series of books, published between 1782 and 1809, which took the form of tours to various parts of the country. Gilpin’s observations on the landscape would help travellers to develop what they saw into suitably picturesque compositions. Although Gilpin was keen to praise nature, he drew a distinction between what looked good in situ and what looked good in a painting. To find the picturesque the artist would need to be selective and willing to add or subtract various components to achieve the desired efect.

A logical step from this was to create works entirely of the imagination, inspired by elements seen on tour and organised in pleasing arrangements. `is ink and wash drawing is an example of Gilpin’s imaginative work, where the castle often plays a key role. As he explains in `ree Essays on Picturesque Beauty (1794): ‘among all the objects of art, the picturesque eye is perhaps most inquisitive after the elegant relics of ancient architecture; the ruined tower, the Gothic arch, the remains of castles, and abbeys. `ese are the richest legacies of art. `ey are consecrated by time; and almost deserve the veneration we pay to the works of nature itself’.

william gilpin (1724–1804)

l andscape with ruined castle

1798 / etching and aquatint / 225 x 294 mm

Hampshire Cultural Trust

`is aquatint was published in Six Landscapes from Drawings by the Reverend Mr Gilpin in 1799. While it has some similarities with illustrations in Observations on the River Wye (1782) the scene is again of Gilpin’s construction. `e ruins of a castle appear in the foreground, framing a view towards distant towers and walls that may represent another decayed fortification, a mountain looms beyond. As he explained in `ree Essays on Picturesque Beauty ‘`e imagination can plant hills; can form rivers, and lakes in valleys; can build castles, and abbeys’.

Gilpin’s writings helped to create a craze for picturesque tourism. `is fashion is alluded to in several of Jane Austen’s novels and inspired William Combe and `omas Rowlandson’s satirical character ‘Dr Syntax’. Gilpin worried that his fame as a man of the picturesque was to the detriment of his reputation as a churchman: he had become vicar of Boldre, near Lymington in 1777. However, his picturesque ‘amusements’ did help to fund the school he founded for the poor children of his parish in 1791

Joseph mallord william turner (1775–1851)

norham castle, on the r iver tweed

1822–23 / watercolour / 156 x 216 mm

Turner first drew Norham Castle during a tour of 1797 and returned to the subject on several occasions, the most famous being Norham Castle, Sunrise (c.1845) an impressionistic masterpiece showing the sun rising over a mist-shrouded castle. `is watercolour was prepared for reproduction as a mezzotint for the series `e Rivers of England (published 1823 –27). Turner was involved in several series of topographical prints in which castles regularly appeared: of the ninety-six subjects in Picturesque Views in England and Wales (published 1827–38) over a third featured a castle.

Norham Castle was established in the twelfth century by the Bishops of Durham, to defend a crossing on the River Tweed at a point where it marked the border between England and Scotland. A turbulent history saw it captured by the Scots four times and unsuccessfully besieged on five more occasions. It was also at Norham in 1291 that Edward i exploited the arbitration of rival claimants to the Scottish throne to stake his own claim as overlord of Scotland. Turner shows the castle dramatically silhouetted against a fiery sky as day breaks, a starkly powerful ruin that dominates the landscape.

Tate Collection / accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 © Tate, London, 2017

t homas girtin (1775–1802)

bamburgh castle

c.1797–99 / watercolour, gouache and graphite on paper / 549 x 451 mm Tate Collection / presented by A.E. Anderson in memory of his brother Frank through the Art Fund 1928 / © Tate, London, 2017

Together with Turner, Girtin was the leading exponent of the Romantic watercolour. `ey took a medium mainly associated with politely drawn and colour-washed topography and developed it into a dramatic means of expression. Rather than concentrating on architectural detail their portrayals of ancient buildings instead emphasised landscape settings brought to life by arresting weather and lighting efects. Girtin initially worked for various patrons, developing paintings from their sketches or copying works by other artists. However, by 1796 he was able to make an independent tour of the north and border country before returning to his studio to work up finished watercolours. Further tours to North Wales, Devon, yorkshire and Northumberland followed.

Girtin’s dynamic watercolour technique was particularly suited to the aesthetics of the sublime that suggested a vicarious thrill was to be had in witnessing fearful imagery when the viewer was actually in no danger. `is view at Bamburgh combines haunting ruins, a precipitous drop and the onset of a storm to create an intimidating view of the castle, which discards a more traditional topographical treatment in favour of a romantic, imaginative vision.

John sell cotman (1782–1842)

powis castle

watercolour / 193 x 257 mm

Norwich-born Cotman received little notice during his lifetime but is now viewed as one of the most original watercolourists of the early nineteenth century. He had no formal training and seems to have learned his trade copying drawings in the collection of Dr `omas Munro, who had also encouraged Girtin and Turner. In 1800 he made a tour to north Wales in search of picturesque subject matter. Having grown up in the flat landscape of Norfolk, the mountains, lakes and ruined castles of north Wales had a significant impact on Cotman and it seems likely that as a result he made another visit to the area in 1802

`is view of Powis Castle would have been developed from sketches made on one of these early tours. It is marked by Cotman’s distinctive use of flat washes of colour arranged in almost abstracted blocks, making the watercolours of his contemporaries seem almost overwrought in comparison. Powis Castle was originally built by the Welsh lord of Powys in the thirteenth century. Drum towers were added on either side of the gateway in the fourteenth century. Cotman’s castle is almost unrecognisable from today’s heavily restored and redeveloped stately home.

British Museum / © `e Trustees of the British Museum

Julian perry-b.1960

hadleigh castle

2016 / oil on panel / 410 x 320 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

My subject is the north-east tower of Hadleigh Castle in south Essex. `e tower can be seen on the left of Constable’s 1829 painting of the castle. However, since his visit what remains of the tower has slipped to its current 40-degree angle.

Constable’s images of Hadleigh Castle are often interpreted as expressing a personal crisis following the death of his wife: a bereft artist’s studies in existential isolation, anger and loss. My painting is likewise a monument to uncertain times. Created after the ‘Brexit’ vote, the election of Donald Trump and the oxford Dictionaries choosing ‘post-truth’ as its word of the year. A castle tower for a president who denies climate change. In fact I toyed with the title ‘Trump Tower’.

Julian Perry

donald h. edwards

manorbier castle, pembrokeshire

1942 / watercolour / 318 x 425 mm

‘`e Scheme for Recording the Changing Face of Britain’ was initiated in 1940 to help artists struggling for income during wartime but was also seen as a golden opportunity to capture vulnerable landscapes and buildings before they disappeared.

`e Recording Britain committee preferred watercolour to photography as it was more likely to capture the intangible genius loci of a given subject and also placed the project in the context of a two-hundred-year-old tradition of British painting.

`e emphasis was placed on vernacular buildings, churches and country houses but nevertheless castles still made an appearance. True to the project’s championing of the obscure, the subjects were largely remote and unheralded structures such as Pennard, Laugharne, oystermouth, Sherrif Hutton or Middleham. While some of the paintings are rather pedestrian there are fine castle portraits by Michael Rothenstein, Mona Moore, Martin Hardie and Kenneth Rowntree. We know nothing of artist Donald Edwards but Gerald of Wales would surely have approved of this warm, sunlit panorama of Manorbier.

Victoria and Albert Museum / given by the Pilgrim Trust

I drew the subject on site as it appealed to me as a dramatic spectacle from my journeys by bus from Poole, where I make all my linocut prints, to Swanage. `e Corfe Castle site has been a defensive position since Roman times. During the late eleventh century the castle was built for William the Conqueror and is, therefore, part of the defensive castle boom under the Normans. For the next six hundred years, it was a royal fortress. It was fought over during the English Civil War and Parliamentarians partially destroyed it after a long siege. Sir John Bankes acquired the castle indirectly from Elizabeth i His family bequeathed the castle’s remains to the National Trust in 1982. It is a significant landmark in a strategically important position and is a much loved Dorset landmark of great historical significance. I was artistically drawn to the drama of the crumbling castle contrejour against the sky with its strong white cloud tucked behind the stone structure. It was a perfect subject for reduction linocut.

Peter Davies

the gothIc rev I vA l

oNCE THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTUR y RoMANTIC IMAGINATIoN was enthralled by the age of Chivalry, castles began to spring up across the land. `e broken picturesque silhouette of Horace Walpole’s (1717–93) ‘little Gothic castle’, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (1749–76), prepared the visitor for the ‘gloomth’ within. `is setting allegedly inspired Walpole’s melancholy interiors of `e Castle of Otranto (1764), lauded as the first ‘Gothic’ novel. William Beckford (1760 –1844) drew inspiration from gloomy abbeys as well as castles; the central tower of Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire (1796 –1813) soared upwards for 300 feet. It collapsed several times, finally in 1825. Although Strawberry Hill and Fonthill may be deemed ‘follies’, the desire to revive Gothic architectural forms embodies an outburst of patriot sentiment. As Christian Gothic, rather than Pagan Classical, was lauded as the true British style, antiquaries began to record ancient remains; picturesque ruins, whether castles or abbeys became tourist attractions. After the French Revolution of 1789 made travel on the continent hazardous, many turned to the decaying Welsh castles to satisfy their craving for the sublime. J.M.W. Turner (1775 –1851) undertook six tours (1792–99 and 1808) painting Beaumaris and Harlech. Such images helped to change people’s perceptions: castles were no longer ugly piles or ready-made quarries, they were our cultural heritage.

Being proud of one’s ancestry certainly contributed to the fashion for castle restoring and building; even modest country houses could be upgraded to castles. During the 1820 s Lord Durham turned Lambton Hall, County Durham into Lambton Castle, Lord Brougham castellated and Gothicised Brougham Hall, Cumbria and Colonel `omas Wildman remodelled Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of Lord Byron, Nottinghamshire. `e Great Hall at Newstead, complete with screens, minstrels’ gallery and open-timber roof, is said to be the first convincingly recreated great hall of the nineteenth century. `e embodiment of feudal authority, where all classes of society came together for feasting and entertainments, the Great Hall lay at the heart of ‘Merry olde England’.

It seemed natural to build a new castle in Scotland, Wales or Ireland. Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd, North Wales, inevitably takes the form of a Norman keep. Robert Adam (1728 –92) was responsible for quite a few Scottish castles: Wedderburn (1771–75), Culzean (1772–90) Seton (1789) and Dalquharran (1789 –92). Walter Scott’s Abbotsford Castle (1811–24), near Melrose, was one of a large group of castles conceived by William Atkinson between 1803 and 1824. Abbotsford shaped the taste of the nation, ‘a microcosm of its age as well as of Scott’.

A spurt of castle building coincided with the onset of prolonged hostilities with France: Luscombe Castle, Devon (1799

1800), Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire (1799

1816), Ashridge House, Hertfordshire (1806 –17), and Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire (1812

20) reflect ‘the very height of masquerading’. But by mid-century authenticity was demanded: Sir George Gilbert Scott praised Peckforton Castle, Cheshire (1844 –50) as the ‘most carefully and learnedly executed Gothic mansion of the present’. However, although Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–52) and Eugène Emmanuel viollet-le-Duc (1814 –79) chastised their precursors, their Gothic palaces are still highly theatrical with silhouettes brimming with towers and turrets.

Anne Anderson

windsor etching

George iii employed the architect James Wyatt to create a Gothic exterior to the state apartments at Windsor. George iv also made substantial alterations, emphasising its status as an historic royal stronghold while creating an opulent residence in keeping with his rather catholic tastes in art and architecture. Jefry Wyatville created new state rooms, including the Gothic St George’s Hall. Keen to develop the castle’s picturesque attributes, Wyatville added towers, machicolations and crenellations and heightened the Round Tower. In honour of these eforts he was later buried in St George’s Chapel.

Blackburn’s etching shows crowds thronging to a fair, dwarfed by the huge Curfew Tower. `is is one of the oldest surviving parts of the castle, dating from the thirteenth century, but takes its name from the bells installed there in 1478 `e Carcassonne-inspired roof was later added by the architect Anthony Salvin. Behind and to the left is St George’s Chapel. Blackburn was an etcher, designer, ceramicist and painter who exhibited with the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers during the 1950 s. His paintings of harbour and dockside scenes are held in several public collections.

clarence edward blackburn (1914–84)

Stuart Southall collection

dorrell-

castell coch: climbing the drive

2016 / ink and gouache / 204 x 274 mm artist’s collection / ©

In 1872 the architect, designer and mediaeval scholar William Burges (1827–81) presented John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, third marquess of Bute, with a report on the ruins of Castell Coch, an outlying property on Lord Bute’s Cardif estates. `e archaeological treatise concluded: ‘`ere are two courses open with regard to the ruins; one is to leave them as they are and the other to restore them so as to make a Country residence for your occasional occupation in the summer’. Burges’ argument in support of the latter was accompanied by exquisite, detailed drawings illustrating the possibilities. Lord Bute was seduced.

Work began in 1875 and coincided with the planting of a vineyard on a south-facing slope south-east of the site, which added considerably to Burges and Lord Bute’s vision of a medieval castle rising dramatically above the deep valley of the River Taf. `e main structure was completed in 1879 but, following Burges’ untimely death in 1881, the elaborate interior decoration and fitting-out was not finished until 1891. `e ‘restoration’ of a castle was an attractive proposition for Burges but what he created in the nineteenth century must have scant resemblance to the ‘Red Castle’ of the fourteenth century: the precision of the dressed stonework, the height of the towers, their variety of form and, not least, their striking steeply-pitched conical roofs all suggest that Burges may have been more interested in creating a picturesque composition than in historical veracity.

Simon Dorrell

simon

b.1961

the artist

castell coch: winter sunlight in the k itchen

2016 / ink and gouache / 204 x 147 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Internally, all the rooms are dark, sometimes very dark; the walls are thick and the windows small. However, many of them are richly and enchantingly decorated, though not as exuberantly as the fantastical interiors that Lord Bute and Burges devised for nearby Cardif Castle.

In a lecture entitled ‘`e Modern Developments of Medieval Art’ given to students at the Architectural Association in 1864, Burges stated ‘Study the great broad masses, the strong unchamfered angles’. Together with G.E. Street, his pursuit of ‘Muscularity’ in architecture made him a champion of the early Gothic School. As one approaches Castell Coch via the drive that winds as it climbs steeply through beech woods, it is the massing of the three easternmost towers and the interaction of crisp geometric forms that lend the castle an unforgettable monumental quality, despite its apparently small scale. Although a paean to the romantic medievalism so popular in the late nineteenth century, Castell Coch is no mere picturesque folly, no mere High victorian Gothic fantasy; it exudes a sense of unassailable solidity, strength and power: it is a castle in its own right.

`is iconic building celebrates the essence of the genius of William Burges. It represents architecture at its most potent and most perfect. Today, perched high above a valley somewhat trampled by the vagaries of the twentieth century and set amongst the unmanaged and rather unkempt woodland that surrounds it, the incongruity of its very existence is arresting, and worthy, surely, of a response.

Simon Dorrell

simon dorrell-b.1961

norman Ackroyd- b.1938

balmoral castle

2002 / etching / 150 x 230 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Balmoral is in fact a country house, one of the many built in early victorian times in the then fashionable form of a castle. Most were well-built and extremely comfortable.

Norman Ackroyd

c Astles oF the Im AgIn At Ion

C ASTLES HAv E ALWAy S FIRED THE IMAGINATIoN; THE y TAKE

us back to ‘days of yore’ when knights fought dragons, saved maidens and rode in triumph to their castles to celebrate in style. Sir `omas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, first published in 1485 by William Caxton, gave us the stuf of legend. Mallory did not invent the stories of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; he merely collected tales in French and English that were already in circulation. Ever since, we have been trying to determine if Arthur really lived. `is hardly matters, as Camelot lives in our imaginations. When Le Morte d’Arthur was reprinted in 1816, the timing was prescient; with the Industrial Revolution at full tilt, romantic heroes were needed. Walter Scott gave us Ivanhoe (1820), while Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1855 –85) retold the legends in elegiac form. William Morris (1834 –96) had read Scott’s novel by the age of seven; in his infancy, he rode through Epping Forest in a ‘toy suit of armour’. As for many children, his games centred on ‘knights, barons and fairies’. Morris is said to have purchased a copy of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur while an undergraduate at oxford (1853 –55). Where would the later Pre-Raphaelites, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 –82), Edward Burne-Jones (1833 –98) and Morris have been without King Arthur and his Knights to fire their imagination?

‘Rediscovered’ in the 1960 s the Pre-Raphaelites rekindled a passion for medieval romance. Alan Lee (b.1947), who acknowledges his debt to Arthur Rackham (1867–1939), illustrated `e Mabinogion (1882) and David Larkin’s Castles (1984) before tackling Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (1987). As lead concept artist, alongside David Howe, Lee transformed his vision to the ‘big screen’ in `e Lord of the Rings (2001–03) and `e Hobbit (2012–14) trilogies. `e Lord of the Rings remains the highest-grossing film trilon, even outgunning Star Wars. Ian Miller (b.1946) is also noted for his Tolkien-inspired imagery; he contributed to the lavishly illustrated A Tolkien Bestiary (1995) and Characters from Tolkien – A Bestiary (2001). Paul Kidby’s (b.1964) breakthrough came in 1995 when he started working exclusively for Terry Pratchett’s (1948 –2015) Discworld, a comic fantasy book series.

`e success of the television series Game of `rones (2011–), shows the public’s appetite for castles and dragons has not diminished. It seems that entering ‘other worlds’ ofers respite from modern life. Escapism is no longer a ‘crime’ but a psychological necessity; we respond to works that conjure, in Burne-Jones’s words, ‘a romantic dream of something that never was and never will be’. `is ‘other place of being’ allows us to explore all the emotions that make us human.

Although Fantasy commands such popular appeal, as an artistic genre it receives scant attention. Admittedly it is hard to define; it cannot be classified per a distinctive style or a specific group of artists. Perhaps Fantasy is just a state of mind, drawing on the sub-conscious or dreams. Like its predecessors, it relies on mystical, mythical or folkloric themes. Directly linked to the literary world, books, pulp fiction journals and graphic novels, as well as film and television, all easily available media, it is seen to be a popular, even low-brow, art form. yet as a good illustration should, it compliments and expands the text leading the reader more deeply into the author’s invented work. Miller provides us with a succinct characterization of fantasy art:

‘My images are the stuf of dreams and apparitions, the tremors that touch the skirt of day. Unspoken thoughts, stored memories, drawn up to be aired and then twisted by fancy’.

Anne Anderson

t he Quay

1915 –16 / etching / 170 x 207 mm

Stuart Southall collection

As a young man Griggs had studied architectural draughtsmanship and spent two years working in an architect’s o2ce. After publishing drawings of buildings around his home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire he was commissioned to provide illustrations for Macmillan’s Highways and Byways guide to the county. Although he was a slow worker the publishers were delighted with the results and further commissions followed. All of this experience laid the groundwork for his own personal vision of England’s monuments when he turned to etching in 1912

Around the same time Griggs converted to Catholicism and embarked on a project to conjure up vistas of an England where the dissolution of the monasteries had never occurred. Griggs focused on religious buildings, but his love of medieval architecture naturally led to the inclusion of castles and fortifications in his etchings. `e Quay shows a lovingly-constructed fictional city surrounded by a stout wall. Rising high on the hill above a castle stands sentinel, its massive walls strengthened with towers and buttresses. `is is one of Griggs’s sunnier works but even here the encroaching shadows and rain clouds hint at unsettled times ahead.

Frederick l andseer griggs (1876–1938)

t he dark château

1919 / etching and aquatint

275 x 201 mm

Stuart Southall collection © estate of the artist

Leslie Ward taught at Bournemouth Municipal College of Art between 1911 and 1953 and exhibited regularly with the Bournemouth Arts Club and at the Royal Academy. He spent his weekends and summers travelling into Purbeck and further across the country in search of his favourite subject matter: sweeping landscapes, ruins, quirky architecture and bustling harbours. He produced a number of atmospheric night scenes where artificial light sources pull the features of ancient buildings from the surrounding shadows.

For `e Dark Château Ward moved into explicitly Gothic territory, creating the type of brooding castle that might be encountered in the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Horace Walpole or Edgar Allen Poe. He invokes the sublime through the exaggerated height of the towers, the obscurity provided by darkness and surrounding trees and the prospect of supernatural terrors lurking within.

`e single light, subtly reflected in the moat below, adds to the air of mysterious anticipation.

william martin l arkins (1901–74)

roadmen ( work)

1925 / etching / 127 x 253 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Larkins was part of a coterie of Goldsmiths’ College students who, inspired by the work of Samuel Palmer, found success during the last years of the etching revival. Larkins was born in Bow, East London, the son of a steeplejack whose work included cleaning Nelson’s Column. He produced most of his etchings by the time he was twenty-five and gave up printmaking for commercial art after the crash. In the early 1920 s Larkins travelled to Europe and to Wales where he was inspired to make an etching of Manorbier Castle (see page 125).

`e trip may also have been the inspiration for this imaginative etching that features a castle reminiscent of nearby Kidwelly.

Roadmen is an intriguing work marked by a diagonal division between the encroaching city and the unspoilt country beyond.

`e urban landscape of terraced houses and industrial buildings is heavily worked while the countryside is suggested by a few lines to emphasise its wide open spaces. `e message seems to be that despite its guardian castle the natural world will be soon be swallowed up by development. Anxiety about threats to Britain’s countryside was expressed by a number of artists and writers at this time and was to be the major impetus behind the Recording Britain project.

t he barricades

2008 / watercolour on paper / 558 x 770 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

christopher l e brun b.1951

christopher l e brun b.1951

t he tower in the woods

2002–07 / oil on canvas / 2700 x 2200 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Whether as fortress, palace, or prison, the castle is an enduring symbol as secure and familiar as any in the native imagination. `e castle evokes a thicket of associations just as dense as the forest that (to satisfy the fable) must always surround it.

A philosopher has it that meaning exists or arises where the interpretations lie thickest. `e word will elicit a quite diferent response in Wales or Scotland, France or Germany. See how the expression ‘Castles in Spain’ already suggests an extreme of fantasy and wish fulfilment.

`e briar-tangled wood of cliches and conventional images so guard the approach that finding any path seems hardly worth the journey. But to me as a painter, the idea of the castle is irresistible: how compelling, how vivid, what force it has!

Christopher Le Brun

christopher l e brun b.1951

untoward

2006 / watercolour on paper / 495 x 765 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Alan l ee b.1947

stork’s nest

1986 / etching / 230 x 190 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

I have been fascinated by castles since childhood – those most ravaged by time, neglect and old battles having the strongest efect on my imagination – and have been drawing them ever since. `ere isn’t much to say about this particular invented castle, other than that it has a least two inhabitants – a Stork, and whoever is in that illuminated room in the tower.

Alan Lee

Alan l ee b.1947 brokedown palace

1986 / watercolour / 370 x 530 mm illustration for ‘Brokedown Palace’ by Steven Brust

Cover artwork for the book by US author, Steven Brust, telling of a fratricidal struggle for power between the heirs of the kingdom of Fenario amongst the crumbling ruins of the citadel. `e story was inspired by the song ‘Brokedown Palace’ by the rock group the Grateful Dead.

Alan Lee

helm’s deep

1992 / watercolour / 570 x 360 mm illustration for ‘ `e Lord of the Rings’ by

J.R.R. Tolkien

An illustration for ‘`e Two Towers’, first published in the centenary edition of `e Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, depicting a moment in the epic battle between the defenders of the Rohan fortress of Helm’s Deep, and the army of orcs raised by the wizard Saruman. `is picture was also used as a starting point for the design and art direction of the scenes in Peter Jackson’s film version, premiered in 2002

Alan Lee

Ian miller b.1946

gormenghast castle

1985 / ink and watercolour / 140 x 245 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

`ough in one sense Gormenghast stands as a grey, unyielding preponderance of stone fixed in a timeless decay, there is for me, and I am ever conscious of it when trying to draw some fragmentary aspect of the castle, a more telling dimension where all is in a state of flux.

I see Gormenghast as something organic that might, for perversity’s sake, be likened to a grubbed apple inside of which the characters, no less startling than the domain they inhabit, idiosyncratic and isolationist in manner, all squirm and pirouette in their own little pools of dust and candlelight.

No matter how many times I attempt some aspect of the castle I am conscious of a short-fall, some missed nuance or understated shadow. It is a mound of moods linked umbilically to the characters and if I let go of that idea for a moment I always lose the drawing.

`e teaser is, just how does one take hold of that airless quiet or the arcing light left in Steerpike’s troubled wake? Is a caught breath, an encapsulated sigh as near as one can ever hope to get with a still image? Gormenghast is a painter’s obsession, a draughtsman’s dream and then something more besides.

Ian Miller

l ancre castle

2009 / pencil on paper / 420 x 297 mm illustration for ‘Wyrd Sisters’ by Terry Pratchett

Lancre Castle was built on an outcrop of rock by an architect who had heard about Gormenghast but hadn’t got the budget. He’d done his best, though, with a tiny confection of cut-price turrets, bargain basements, buttresses, crenellations, gargoyles, towers, courtyards, keeps and dungeons; in fact, just about everything a castle needs except maybe reasonable foundations and the kind of mortar that doesn’t wash away in a light shower. `e castle leaned vertiginously over the racing white water of the Lancre river, which boomed darkly a thousand feet below. Every now and again a few bits fell in. from ‘Wyrd Sisters’ *

My illustration depicts the castle from a bird’s eye view to include the steep clifs and ravines it perches above. I took inspiration from the Gothic Revival Lichtenstein Castle in Germany, which is built in fairy-tale style and, like Lancre, sited atop a rocky outcrop high above a river. My drawing shows a crenellated medieval gateway, the crumbled remains of outer curtain walls and round corner towers that have mostly fallen into the gorges below. `e interior buildings are an architectural mixture spanning the centuries and include a Norman-style keep with observation turrets, timberframed domestic buildings and stone halls. `e steep-pitched towers are influenced by the French castle, Carcassonne. I also included dangerous stairways that end abruptly above perilous drops and bridges spanning chasms in the rock to accentuate the precarious nature of this castle.

Paul Kidby

* © `e Estate of Sir Terry Pratchett

t he tower of Art

2004 / pencil on board / 520 x 257 mm illustration for ‘ `e Art of Discworld’

Looming high over the University was the grim and ancient Tower of Art, said to be the oldest building on the Disc, with its famous spiral staircase of eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty eight steps. From its crenellated roof, the haunt of ravens and disconcertingly alert gargoyles, a wizard might see to the very edge of the Disc. from ‘ `e Light Fantastic’ *

When designing this building, I looked at the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder of `e Tower of Babel (1563), and gave my illustration a similar architectural structure with numerous arches reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum. I drew the natural rock as a strong, broad foundation that tapers upward to a great height, a small door at the base leads into the famous spiral staircase. I wanted the tower to look as if the ancient geolon of the Disc had been pulled and spun skywards, (800 feet), into a marvel of engineering, as old and mysterious as the Discworld itself. Its appearance is largely organic and natural as if the architectural additions of crenellations and turrets are wizardly afterthoughts.

Paul Kidby

© `e Estate of Sir Terry Pratchett

scott Ish c Astles

A S IN E NGLAND, THE FIRST CASTLES T o APPEAR IN S C o TLAND were wooden motte-and-bailey structures introduced by Anglo-Norman colonists during the twelfth century. `e rugged Scottish landscape also provided ample opportunity to build on natural features such as the peaks of volcanic rock at Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton. At this time Shetland, orkney, Caithness, the Hebrides and Arnll, were still controlled by Norsemen who built their own defences in stone probably because it was more abundant than timber. Scotland’s earliest documented stone castle is Cubbie Roo built on orkney by the Norwegian Kolbein Hruga around 1150

A treaty between Alexander ii and Henry iii of England in 1217 ushered in a spell of relative peace along the southern border and the thirteenth century saw the building of many impressive castles including Dirleton in East Lothian, Bothwell on the River Clyde and Caerlaverock near Dumfries. `e first two are marked by a huge round tower and lofty curtain wall with lesser towers surrounding a courtyard, a design inspired by Château de Coucy in Picardy. Caerlaverock was built on a triangular plan, surrounded by a moat with a powerful gatehouse at one corner and smaller round towers at the others. `e imposing castles at Edinburgh and Stirling became potent symbols of royal power and played a critical role in Scotland’s turbulent history. over the centuries they evolved from intimidating strongholds to elaborate palaces, but in terms of Scottish castle building their scale and complexity is exceptional.

`e model for many Scottish castles was the tower house that proliferated across the country, particularly from the middle of the fourteenth century. Tower houses were stone-built, often with barrel-vaulted ceilings, and contained all the elements usually housed in the inner ward of an English castle: sleeping quarters for the lord, a hall and the stores and kitchen to serve them. `e imposing height and strength of such towers made for a doughty defensive retreat in times of trouble. Compact castles of this kind were also far less expensive to build and maintain for Scottish nobles who might lack the economic muscle of their English counterparts.

As well as troublesome neighbours to the south the Scottish crown had to deal with hostility from the Lords of the Isles. At the close of the fifteenth century James iv worked with his nobles to bring them to heel and castles were vital in controlling disputed territory. `e king’s policy was demonstrated on the shores of Loch Ness in 1509 when he gifted Castle Urquhart to John Grant on condition that he constructed a tower house and outer rampart to defend the area from raiders. James vi’s accession to the English throne in 1603 brought renewed peace and another rash of tower house building; however, this time defence was secondary to spectacle epitomised by the lofty walls and corbelled turrets of Castles Fraser, Craigievar and Crathes.

edinburgh from calton hill

etching and aquatint / 235 x 355 mm

Stuart Southall collection / © estate of the artist All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

As a seat of royal power in Scotland, Edinburgh Castle had an eventful history and holds the record for the greatest number of sieges of any site in Britain. `e naturally defensible Castle Rock had been inhabited for centuries by the time the first documented castle was built by King David i in the twelfth century. With the exception of St Margaret’s Chapel this early castle was destroyed in 1314 by Robert Bruce to keep it out of English hands. David ii began rebuilding in 1357 and elements of his tower survive beneath the Half Moon Battery. David’s Tower was witness to one of the castle’s grimmer episodes, the ‘Black Dinner’, which saw the summary execution of the sixteen-year-old Earl of Douglas and his younger brother.

`e tower was a casualty of an English artillery bombardment in 1573, the last chapter of the ‘Lang Siege’ when the castle was held for Mary Queen of Scots.

Leonard Squirrell shows the castle’s commanding position, rising over the city on the remains of an extinct volcano. Squirrell was a great admirer of John Sell Cotman and his watercolour style was an evolution of his hero’s propensity for flat blocks of colour and a restricted palette. `is was a technique that was easily transposed to the tonal variations of aquatint.

l eonard squirrell (1893–1979)

kenneth steel (1906–70)

edinburgh castle from the vennell

1937 / line engraving and drypoint

363 x 258 mm

Stuart Southall collection

Today almost nothing remains of Edinburgh’s medieval castle, its current appearance reflecting the priorities of later centuries. `is is neatly illustrated by Kenneth Steel’s view from the south. on the far left are barracks built in the eighteenth century when the castle was home to a British army garrison and used as a prison. In the centre is the great hall and royal palace, first built for David ii but completely redeveloped by James iv and James vi. on the right is the curving wall of the Half Moon Battery built in the late sixteenth century when artillery defences had become all important.

`e contrast between the deep shadows of the foreground, rendered in dense hatching and drypoint, and the delicate lines of the castle gives a real sense of depth to Steel’s print, even so it is the castle that dominates the scene. When engraving, Steel would work from dark to light, from the foreground backward, carefully controlling tone to allow fine detail without unbalancing the composition.

henry rushbury (1889–1968)

stirling castle

1945 / drypoint / 200 x 298 mm

Stirling was an obvious place for a fortification, its rocky outcrop situated in the centre of the kingdom where it controlled a major route from the lowlands to the highlands. A castle certainly existed there by the early twelfth century and it was to become an important royal residence and stronghold. During the Scottish Wars of Independence Stirling changed hands on an almost annual basis: the English occupied it in 1296 only to lose it the following year to William Wallace after the disastrous Battle of Stirling Bridge. `e invaders occupied and strengthened the castle in 1298 but it soon fell to a Scottish siege.

In 1304 Edward i himself commanded the English forces as Stirling was battered for twelve weeks by the latest in siege weapon technolon. It seems that the sight of the newly built ‘Warwolf’, Edward’s giant trebuchet, finally persuaded the garrison to surrender; however Edward was not going to miss out on using his new toy and sent them back inside while he loosed of a few more devastating shots. Henry Rushbury enjoyed the dramatic spectacle of buildings appearing as extensions of the living rock and here he shows how Stirling, placed above sheer clifs, must have appeared virtually impregnable.

Stuart Southall collection / © estate of the artist

sir david Young cameron (1865–1945)

t he gargoyles, stirling castle

1898 / etching / 292 x 175 mm

Stuart Southall collection

As at Edinburgh, Stirling’s role and architecture changed with the times. Under a succession of Stewart monarchs it was reinvented as a sophisticated royal palace. James iv built a new gatehouse or forework, primarily for show rather than as an adequate defence against artillery attack. He added a new great hall and residential apartments known as the King’s old Building. His son James v grew up at the castle and was responsible for the Royal Palace begun in the 1530 s and inspired by the architecture and ornamentation of Renaissance France and Germany. When James vi became king of England Stirling’s importance as a royal residence declined and it was primarily used as a military garrison and prison. It was briefly occupied by Jacobite rebels in 1746.

Cameron’s etching focuses on the carvings of the Palace’s south face.

`e wall alternates between projecting windows and recessed sections housing carved figures raised on fluted columns.

`e carvings include human figures, angels, devils and various grotesques. Cameron made four etchings of Stirling Castle during the 1890 s by which time he was established as one of the most successful and sought-after artists of the etching revival. From the early 1900 s the Scottish landscape became his main subject, often depicted in drypoint with dramatic contrasts of light and darkness.

t he dovecote, dirleton castle

1959 / watercolour / 208 x 327 mm

Stuart Southall collection / © Estate of Leonard R Squirrell rws re All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

`e first castle at Dirleton was begun in the 1220 s by John de vaux. In 1239 he was made steward of King Alexander iii’s new wife Marie de Coucy whose father had built Château de Coucy in Picardy and this was to be the inspiration for a magnificent new construction. of this castle only the keep survives, consisting of a large round tower and a smaller one to the west connected by square tower. In 1298 the castle fell to the English after several months of siege. It was lost and then retaken in 1306 before the Scots captured and slighted it. During the fifteenth century the towers were heightened, outworks added and a new hall and tower house built. In the Civil War the castle was besieged by English Parliamentarian forces and slighted once again.

In the seventeenth century John Nisbet bought the Dirleton estate and built a new house nearby, the castle became a feature in their newly landscaped gardens. Leonard Squirrell’s view shows the sixteenth century beehive-shaped dovecote, which is over seven metres tall and could accommodate a thousand birds. Beyond is the end wall of the east range, built in the fifteenth century to house cellars and the lord’s hall and bedchamber.

l eonard squirrell (1893–1979)

Castle Tioram is a remote and romantically beautiful ruin that stands on a rocky tidal island Eilean Tioram where the waters of Loch Moidart and the river Shiel meet. `e contrast of ruined building against dark brooding sky and water inspired me to make a charcoal drawing that could express this emotional intensity. `e castle stands as a monument to a dark and violent history when once it was a centre of power to the medieval Lordship of the Isles, and later of the MacDonalds of Clanranald. It was built as a medieval fortification on natural rock without foundations and constructed mainly of local moine schist with smaller stones embedded in lime mortar. `e curtain wall with the arched barrel-vaulted entrance is typical of others built along the west coast in the thirteenth century. In 1715 the castle was burnt down on the orders of the last chief of the direct line of MacDonalds as he set of to join the doomed Jacobite rising.

Fiona McIntyre

Fiona mcIntyre b.1963

castle tioram

l eonard squirrell (1893–1979)

urquhart castle, l och ness

drypoint / 245 x 300 mm

Urquhart’s position by the shores of Loch Ness makes for one of the most romantic, or perhaps sinister, locations in Britain. `e first castle at Urquhart was probably built in the early thirteenth century based around a motte and shell keep. It changed hands several times during the Wars of Independence. Afterwards it was owned by the Scottish crown but the area was subject to almost continual raiding by the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. In 1509 it was given to John Grant on the condition that he repaired and improved the castle. `is did not deter the MacDonalds whose eforts culminated in the ‘Great Raid’ of 1545 when they captured the castle and made of with its furniture, guns and gates. Urquhart saw action at the end of the seventeenth century when it was attacked by Jacobite rebels. `e garrison prevailed but blew up the gatehouse to prevent the castle being used again.

Squirrell’s view shows the nether bailey with the gatehouse on the left, the hall on the right and the Grant Tower in the centre. As well as defending the castle from attack Grant was also expected to use it as a bastion of law and order. Trials would have been heard in the great hall and prisoners held in grim conditions in the gatehouse.

Stuart Southall collection / © Estate of Leonard R Squirrell rws re All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

norman Ackroyd b.1938

mcneil’s castle

2016 / etching / 173 x 295 mm artist’s collection / © the artist

Ancient castles are invariably built on strategic, defensible and usually prominent positions in the landscape. McNeil’s Castle, home of the McNeil clan, in the South Hebrides occupies an island in the middle of the important safe harbour of Castlebay in Barra.

Norman Ackroyd

dudhope castle

1933 / etching / 107 x 207 mm

Dudhope Castle in Dundee was first built in the thirteenth century, a fairly typical Scottish tower house. It was rebuilt around 1460 before a major redevelopment created the current L-shaped plan and round towers. `e castle was granted by the crown as the residence of the Constable of Dundee. In some ways Dudhope exemplifies the problem of what to do with a castle or stately home when its purpose is no longer relevant and the money runs out. In the 1790 s an attempt was made to convert it into a woollen mill but instead it was turned into a barracks, a use it was returned to in both world wars. In the 1950 s it was threatened with demolition but was re-developed for use as o2ces by the Dundee City Council and is now leased to Abertay University.

James McIntosh Patrick was something of a prodin, beginning to etch at the age of fourteen. He enrolled at Glasgow College of art in 1924 and two years later his etchings of Provence established him as a major new talent. Sadly the etching phenomenon went from boom to bust shortly afterwards and Patrick began teaching at Dundee College of Art. He made his name as a painter of panoramic Scottish landscapes, creating highly detailed and atmospheric scenes, often collated from diferent elements seen while sketching. His etching of Dudhope shows the castle on a wintry day with rain threatening. However the mood is bright with visitors taking the air in the gardens that by this time had been acquired by the council and opened as a public park.

James mcIntosh patrick (1907–98)

Stuart Southall collection

IndeX

Abbotsford–30, 144

Ackroyd, Norman–9

Balmoral Castle –148, 148

January Sunrise, Ludlow, Dinham Weir

78, 78

McNeil’s Castle –171, 171

Adam, Robert–29, 85, 144

Alexander iii, King of Scots–168

Alfred, King–48, 55

Alison, Archibald

Essays on Nature and the Principles of Taste

15 –16

Alnwick–17, 25, 26, 85, 85

Alton Towers–32

Amberley–127, 127

Ancient Monuments Protection Act

16, 18

Arnold, Graham–9

`e Woman of Hopton Castle –123, 123

Arthur, King–23, 26, 28

Arundel–10, 62

Ashridge House–31, 144

Atkinson, William–144

Austen, Jane–137

Aydon–23

Aytoun-Ellis, Mary Anne–61

Lewes Castle Remembered–61, 61

Prayer (Inside Lewes Castle)–79, 79

Badbury Rings–52, 52

Baliol family–76

Balloch–29

Balmoral–148, 148

Bamburgh–26, 44, 100, 139, 139

Bankes, Lady Mary–118

Barbizon School–33

Barnard–26, 76, 76

Bateman, James–60

Cattle Market–60, 60

Bayeux Tapestry–56, 57

Bayons Hall–28

Beaumaris–9, 83, 88, 144

Beckford, William–30, 144

Belsay–25, 25

Belvoir–31, 144

Berkhamstead–10

Blackburn, Clarence Edward Windsor–145, 145

Bodiam–10, 23, 100, 101, 101, 102, 102

Bothwell–163

Boys, Sir John–122

Bramber–10

Brancepeth–28

Brecknock–14

British Camp–49, 49

Brooks, Robert Amesbury Corfe Castle (close to)–119, 119

Corfe and Village (side view)–120, 121

Brougham Hall–28, 144

Bruce, Robert–164

Bruegel, Pieter the Elder

`e Tower of Babel–162

Buck, Samuel and Nathaniel–14, 132

`e North View of Carisbrooke Castle 133, 133

Views of Ruins Castles and Abbeys–14

Bullard, Pauline

Nunney Castle, Somerset–126, 126

Burgh Castle–48

Burhs–18 –19, 48, 54

Burges, William–31, 146, 147

Burke, Edmund–16

Burridge, Frederick vango–34

Harlech Castle –34, 35

Caerphilly–10, 83, 96, 97, 97

Caerlaverock–163

Caernarfon–25, 26, 31, 88, 95, 98, 98, 132, 134, 134

Camelot–149

Cameron, Sir David young–34

`e Gargoyles Stirling Castle –34, 167, 167

Carausius, Emperor–18

Carcassonne–145, 161

Cardif–32

Carew–39, 98

Carisbrooke–65, 65, 130, 130, 133, 133

Carlton Towers–32

Charles i–15, 117, 122, 130

Chepstow 25,

,

, 69, 124, 124, 132

,

Chillingham–24

Chivalry–23, 28, 29, 30, 31

Civil War, English–57, 64, 77, 87, 91, 103, 109, 117–131, 143, 168

Clark, Kenneth–17

Clinton, Geofrey de–26, 71

Clun–62, 62

Clytha–98

Coch, Castell–32, 146, 146, 147, 147

Cochrane, Kate

Castle Courtyard–129, 129

Combe, William

`e Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque –15, 137

Constable, John–9, 141

Constantine, Emperor–26, 88

Constantinople–88, 98

Conwy–9, 10, 26, 88, 95, 98

Corfe–36, 37, 52, 92, 92, 93, 93, 117, 118, 118, 119, 119, 120, 121, 131, 131

Cotman, John Sell–9, 16, 73, 164 Powis Castle –16, 140, 140

Coucy, Château de, Picardy–163, 168

Cox, David Dover Castle –90, 90

Craigievar–34, 163

Crathes–163

Craven, Diana Winchester Castle –57, 57

Craven, Tim Clun Castle –62, 62

Donnington Castle –122, 122

Crichton-Stuart, John, Marquess of Bute–32, 146, 147

Crickley Hill–48

Cromwell, oliver–14, 57, 117

Cromwell, Ralph–24 –25, 26

Cubbie

Cundall, Charles

`

Dallingridge,

Dalquharran–

Donnington–100, 122, 122

Dorrell, Simon

Castell Coch: Climbing the Drive –146, 146

Castell Coch: Winter Sunlight in the Kitchen 147, 147

Dover–21, 43, 74, 74, 90, 90

Drogo–9, 31

Dryslwyn–9

Dudhope–172, 172

Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester–71

Dumbarton–163

Dunstanburgh–10, 26, 86, 86, 97

Durham–2–3, 8, 63, 63, 107, 107, 138

Eastnor–10, 30, 30, 98, 144

Eaton Hall–32

Edinburgh–163, 164, 164, 165, 165

Edward the Elder, King–48

Edward i 9, 10, 26, 34, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 107, 128, 134, 166

Edward ii–26, 30, 57, 62, 77

Edward iii–25, 29, 62, 77, 99, 100, 102

Edwards, Donald H.

Manorbier Castle, Pembrokeshire –142, 142

Eglinton Tournament–31

Elizabeth i–65, 112, 113, 143

English Heritage–21, 22

Enness, Augustus William

Ludlow Castle –77, 77

Eurich, Richard

Richmond Castle –72, 72

Farleigh–82

Fonthill Abbey–30, 31, 144

Fouqueray, Dominique Charles

Harlech Castle, Wales–95, 95

Framlingham–80, 80, 82, 98

Fraser–163

Gardiner, Jeremy

August Mist, Corfe Castle –131, 131

Gardiner, Rena

Corfe Castle –93, 93

Gaskell, Percival–37

Chepstow Castle –37

Corfe Castle –36, 37

Harlech Castle –37, 128, 128

Gault, Annabel

Martello Tower–116, 116

Gaunt, John of–25, 71

Gaveston, Piers–26

Denbigh–

Gentleman, David

Caerphilly Castle –97, 97

Dunstanburgh Castle –86, 86

Harlech Castle –96, 96

Devizes–82

Digby, Sir Kenelm

Orford Castle –75, 75

Rhuddlan Castle –94, 94

George iii–31, 145

George iv–31, 99, 145

Gerald of Wales–125, 142

Gilpin, William–14 –15, 132

Landscape with Castle –136, 136

Landscape with Ruined Castle

137, 137

Girtin, `omas–9, 16, 73

Bamburgh Castle

16, 139, 139

Glyn Dwˆr, owain–83, 128

Goodrich–91, 91

Gormenghast–160, 160, 161

Gothic, the–15, 28, 144

Gothic Revival–9, 10, 28

Grant, John–163, 170

Grenville, Sir Richard–10

32, 144, 147

Griggs, Frederick Landseer

16, 39, 124, 129

Sarras–39, 39, 129

`e Barbican–38, 39

`e Cresset–38, 39

`e Quay –16, 150, 150

Groom, Emerson Harold–43

Pembroke Castle –42, 43

Haden, Sir Francis Seymour–33, 34, 37

Hadleigh–141, 141

Hadrian’s Wall–48, 53

Hambledon Hill–48, 51, 52, 52

Harlech–10, 26, 35, 82, 88, 95, 95, 96, 96, 97, 98, 117, 128, 128, 132

Hastings–56

Hawkesworth, John `e Keep, Dover Castle –74, 74

Hearne, `omas

Antiquities of Great Britain–14, 135

Newark Castle –14, 135, 135

Henry i–10, 26, 70, 71, 92, 93

Henry ii

19, 24, 25, 71, 74, 80, 90, 99, 129

Henry iii–26, 57, 71, 77, 89, 92, 163

Henry v–26

Henry vii–31, 87

Henry viii

17, 20, 108, 110, 111, 112, 114

Heraldry–25, 29, 31

Hill Forts–48 –52

Hollar, Wenceslaus–14

Hopton–123, 123

Housesteads–53, 53

Howitt, Samuel

Yarmouth Castle –112, 112

Hoyton, Edward Bouverie–37, 39

Kidwelly Castle –39, 83, 83

Hruga, Kolbein–163

Hurst–110, 110, 111, 111

Ibbetson, Julius Caesar–9

Carisbrooke Castle –15, 130, 130

Inverlochy–34

Isabella, Queen–2, 77

James i, King of Scots–26

James iv, King of Scots–163, 165, 167

James v, King of Scots–167

James vi, King of Scots–163, 165, 167

James of St George–10, 98

Jarvis, Peter

Old Wardour Castle –104, 104

John, King

10, 23, 68, 70, 71, 76, 90, 92, 93, 135

John of Gaunt–25, 71

Jones, Barbara

Pendennis Castle –17, 109, 109

Jones, Sydney R.

Durham–8

Kaufer, Edward McKnight

Bodiam Castle –17, 101, 101

Kenilworth–10, 21, 25, 25, 26

Kidby, Paul–149

Lancre Castle –161, 161

`e Tower of Art–162, 162

Kidwelly–10, 82, 82, 83, 83, 98, 152

Knebworth–29

Lambton–28, 144

Lancaster, `omas Earl of–26

Landseer, Edwin–29

Larkins, William–37, 83

Manorbier Castle –37, 125, 125

Roadmen (Work)–37, 152, 152

Laugharne–98, 129, 129

Le Brun, Christopher

`e Barricades–153

`e Tower in the Woods–154, 155

Untoward–156

Lee, Alan–149

Brokedown Palace –158, 158

Helm’s Deep –159, 159

Stork’s Nest–157, 157

Lewes–60, 60, 61, 61, 79, 79

Lewis, Ffiona

Motte-and-Bailey, Framlingham Mere 80, 80

Norman Keep, Totnes Lookout–59, 59

Lichtenstein–161

Lindisfarne–113, 113, 114, 115

Loutherbourg, Philip James de–9

Ludlow–77, 77, 78, 78, 98

Luscombe–30, 144

Lutyens, Edwin–9, 31, 113

Macbeth-Raeburn, Henry–34

Sunrise Dunvegan Castle –34

`e Horn Store –37, 37

Winchelsea from Camber Sands–34

MacDonald, clan–169, 170

Macdonald, Frances

Tomen-y-Bala–66, 66

Maiden Castle–48

Makin, Alexandra–56

Motte-and-Bailey Castle –56, 56

Malcolm iii, King of Scots–85

Malmesbury–82

Malory, Sir `omas

Morte d’Arthur–26, 39, 149

Manorbier–125, 125, 132, 142, 142

Marshal, William, Earl of Pembroke 87, 124

Martello Towers–100, 116, 116

Mary, Queen of Scots–164

McIntyre, Fiona–49

British Camp Hill Fort, Malvern–49, 49

Castle Tioram–169, 169

McNeil (Kisimul)–171, 171

Miller, Ian–149

Gormenghast Castle –160, 160

Minton, John–9

Montfort, Simon de–71, 77

Moody, John Charles

Barnard Castle –76, 76

Morris, William–16, 52, 149

Mortimer, Roger–62, 77

Moyle–34

National Trust–16, 143

Newark–117, 135, 135

Newcastle–74

Newstead Abbey–28, 144

Norham–16, 138, 138

Norwich–25

Nunney–100, 106, 106, 117, 126, 126

o2ce of Works–18, 19, 20, 21, 22

old Sarum–82

old Wardour–104, 104, 117

orford–75, 75, 97

osbern, William fitz–57, 69, 77

ovenden, Annie

Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel, Cornwall 64, 64

Paige, E. Willis–43

Dover Castle –43, 43

Palmer, Samuel–37, 83, 152

Patrick, James McIntosh

Dudhope Castle –172, 172

Peasants’ Revolt–102

Peckforton–31, 144

Peers, Charles Reed–18, 21

Pembroke–10, 42, 43, 87, 87, 129, 129

Pendennis–109, 109

Penrhyn–29, 29, 144

Percy family–24, 25, 85

Perry, Julian

Hadleigh Castle –141, 141

Pether, Sebastian

Moonlight Scene, Southampton–12–13, 13

Peveril–74

Phipps, Howard

Hambledon Hill–51, 51

Winter Stubble Fields, Winklebury Hill Fort 50, 50

Picturesque, the

9, 14 –15, 132, 136, 137

Piper, John–9, 17, 98

Caernarfon Castle i–98, 98

Place, Francis–14

Pontefract–117

Portchester

18

20, 19, 20, 21, 48, 54, 54

Powis–140, 140

Pratchett, Sir Terry–149, 161, 162

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood–149

Pugin, Augustus Welby

28, 30, 31

32, 144

Raglan–14, 100, 103, 103

Rankle, Alan

Untitled Painting xxii (Bodiam)–102, 102

Untitled Painting xxiii (Lindisfarne) 114, 114

Recording the Changing Face of Britain, Scheme for–17, 66, 132, 142, 152

Rembrandt–33, 34

Repton, Humphrey–30

Restormel–64

Rhuddlan–10, 88, 94, 94, 97

Richard i –28

Richborough–48

Richmond–16, 46 –47, 72, 72, 73, 73, 82

Robin Hood–28

Robinson, Sir John Charles

Corfe Castle, Sunshine after Rain–37, 38

Rochester–10, 68, 70, 70

Rolls, G.M.

View of Raglan Castle –103, 103

Roman Fortifications–19, 48, 53, 54, 67

Romantic Movement–9, 132, 139

Rowallan–34

Rowlandson, `omas–112, 137

Hurst Castle –110, 110

Hurst Castle (interior)–111, 111

Dr Syntax tumbling into the water–15

Royal Academy–33, 34

Rushbury, Henry–43 –45

Amberley –127, 127

Lindisfarne –113, 113

Stirling Castle –45, 166, 166

St Mawes–109

Salvin, Anthony–31, 107, 145

Sandby, Paul–9, 14, 16, 73, 98, 128, 132

`e Eagle Tower at Caernarfon 14, 134, 134

Saul, Isabel

Corfe Castle in the Beauteous Isle of Purbeck 92, 92

Scarborough–74

Scarisbrick Hall–32

Schlee, Nick

Dinefwr Castle, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire 81, 81

Schwabe, Randolph–45

Scott, Sir Walter–28, 30, 144, 149

Segontium–26

Seton–29, 144

Sherborne–82

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight–23, 25, 26

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings–16

Sorrell, Alan–54

Deal Castle –108, 108

Goodrich Castle –91, 91

Housesteads Roman Fort–53, 53

Kenilworth Castle –71, 71

Portchester Castle –54, 54

Totnes Castle –58, 58

Southampton–13

Spradbery, Walter

Windsor–99, 99

Squirrell, Leonard–43

Alnwick Castle, Northumberland–85, 85

Edinburgh from Calton Hill–164, 164

Morning in Durham–63, 63

`e Dovecote, Dirleton Castle –168, 168

Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness–170, 170

Steel, Kenneth–45

Bamburgh Castle –44, 45

Durham–2–3, 107, 107

Edinburgh Castle from the Vennell–165, 165

Stirling Castle –44, 45

Steer, Philip Wilson

Chepstow Castle –16, 69, 69

Stephen, King–23, 32, 77

Stephens, Wilfred

`e Bee Hives, Stokesay Castle, Ludlow 105, 105

Stewart, F.A.

Carisbrooke Castle from Mount Joy –65, 65

Stirling–44, 163, 166, 166, 167, 167

Stokesay–98, 105, 105

Strawberry Hill–144

Sublime, the

15, 16, 130, 132, 139, 144

Sumner, Heywood–16

A Bird’s Eye View of Badbury Rings

16, 52, 52

Sutherland, Graham–37, 39, 125

Tantallon–34

Tattershall–24 –25, 26

Taymouth–28

Tennyson, Charles–28

`omas, Dylan–129

`omas, Earl of Lancaster–26

`ornton, valerie

`e Tower of London–89, 89

Tioram–169, 169

Tolkien, J.R.R.

`e Lord of the Rings–149, 158

Tomen-y-Bala–66, 66

Totnes–58, 58, 59, 59

Tower of London

24, 25, 26, 37, 37, 67, 67, 89, 89, 91

Turner, J.M.W.–9, 16, 69, 73, 139, 144

Dolbadarn Castle –9

Norham Castle, on the River Tweed

16, 138, 138

Liber Studorum–16

Picturesque Views in England and Wales–16

`e Rivers of England–16, 70, 138 Rochester, on the River Medway –16, 70, 70

Urquhart–163, 170, 170

varley, John–9

vaughan, Will

Nunney Castle –106, 106

victoria, Queen–29, 31

vikings–48, 54, 55

viollet-le-Duc, Eugène–28, 31, 144

Wallace, William–166

Wallingford–48

Walpole, Horace 144, 151

`e Castle of Otranto –30, 144

Ward, Leslie Mofat–43

Chepstow –42, 43

Corfe Castle from the West Hill–118, 118

`e Dark Chateau–151, 151

Wareham –48

Warkworth–24, 24, 25

Wars of the Roses

59, 76, 77, 83, 100, 128

Warwick–26

Webb, Joseph–39

Chepstow –39, 40, 43

Chepstow from the Cli f–39, 124, 124

Pembroke –39, 129, 129

Windsor Castle –39, 41

Wedderburn–29, 144

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill–33, 34

White Castle–25

Whymper, Josiah

Richmond Castle –16, 46 –47, 73, 73

Wigmore–9, 21–22, 84, 84

William i (`e Conqueror)

24, 57, 63, 67, 77, 89, 99, 143

William ii (Rufus)–25

William the Lion, King of Scots–85

Wilson, William

Edinburgh–11

Winchester–57

Windsor–10, 26, 31, 41, 98, 99, 99, 100, 134, 145, 145

Winklebury–50, 50

Wyatt, James–31, 145

Wyatville, Jefry–31, 145