Page 17 - John Barber's Oakham Castle and its archaeology

The moat, or rather the remains of it, can be made out at various points even to this day. Probably it ran
along the course of Burley Road and the adjacent car park, along the back of the shops and the Post Office on
the northern edge of the Market Place, and then along the course of the pathway which leads past the east end
of the parish church from Church Passage to Cutt’s Close before widening out into the fish stews immediately
north of the northern extremity of the inner bailey. At only two points in the present century do I know that it
was dug into: firstly when the public conveniences were built between the east end of the parish church and the
western side of the Castle bank: and secondly when the foundations for the present Post Office were being
prepared.
The latter operation was ‘watched’ by Mr P W Gathercole on behalf of the Ministry of Works, Ancient
Monuments department (as it then was), and he was able to recover certain objects from the jaws of the
mechanical diggers (notably leather work now in the Rutland County Museum). There would be no shortage of
water to fill such a moat, as there is a plentiful supply emanating from the hills around Oakham, notably Cold
Overton Hill, which flows east towards the ‘Flooded Fields’ and the Burley Fish Ponds, now all part of Rutland
Water. Such water was later used to supply the Oakham-Melton canal, and its abundance is attested by the
numerous wells that, although now largely sealed off, underlie so many gardens, and indeed even houses, in the
Oakham area. At least six wells were found reaching down into
the old moat when the Post Office foundations were dug out.
The curtain wall itself poses a number of questions, which
might have been more easily answered, perhaps even as recently
as say fifty years ago, for there is no doubt that during that time
a great deterioration in the fabric has taken place from such
varied causes as tree roots, ivy, weather and even deliberate
destruction. This curtain wall does not in all probability date
from the late twelfth century, when the great hall and its
ancillary buildings were erected, but is usually supposed to have
been constructed in the time of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the
King’s brother, sometime after 1252 when he married Sanchia
of Provence, and was granted the Castle.
13
Contrary, however, to this belief, Mr Ralegh Radford
writes: ‘The castle bailey was later strengthened with a stone
curtain, now entirely ruined (my underlining). The gate with a
four-centred arch and two chamfered orders, dates from the time
of Earl Richard, but the simple layout of the curtain without
flanking towers (again my underlining), suggests an earlier
period; it is probably the work of Walkelin de Ferrers. The 13th
century gateway was restored with a characteristic pediment
early in the 17th century’: one might add by George Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, and it is matched by two others of similar
design on the Burley estate (one on the now closed off road to
Stamford in the vicinity of the old Burley fish ponds, which are
now engulfed in the reservoir; the other on a field road about a
quarter of a mile after turning out of Exton Avenue towards
Burley).
However, it is with the two passages underlined that I would
quarrel, with the first in degree, but with the latter absolutely. No
one would wish to pretend that the curtain wall is in good repair,
but ‘entirely ruined’ seems too strong a description. Some years
ago the local authorities cleared parts of the eastern wall of the
inner bailey above the Burley Road car park and revealed some
well presented stretches beneath the embrace of the ivy, and the
same area has again been cleared during the current year (1979).

Figs. 11 & 12. The 13th century Oakham Castle gateway
‘restored early in the 17th century’ (above), and
the gateway leading to the former Burley fish ponds (below).

13
Radford 1955; see Appendix C.
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