Page 19 - John Barber's Oakham Castle and its archaeology

This discovery, made I might add before Mr Ralegh Radford’s paper, is probably the strongest refutation of
his assertion. But further supporting evidence came when the eastern wall was cleared of ivy. At no point can
any corners of projections, as above, be discovered, but there are traces of at least four butt joints in the course
of the curtain wall so placed as to suggest that at some point in history (perhaps at the time when there was a
general tidying up of the whole area – we know that the Castle was in ruins as early as 1521 – and the hall was
repaired and put in good order as an assize court for the Lord of the Manor, whilst the domestic offices to the
east and west and all the outbuildings were razed, probably in the early 17th century), the decaying towers were
pulled down and the gaps thus left in the curtain wall made good without too much nicety in bonding the stones
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together in the places repaired.

Fig. 16. In 1903 Pearl Finch recorded a ‘portion of the wall round the castle, showing a doorway, said to have led to the
dungeon’. This photograph obviously relates to John Barber’s schoolboy memories (Finch 1903, pl facing p9).

16 W Cullingworth’s Oakham Lordshold map of 1787 (fig. 17) and the Oakham Enclosure Map of 1836 both indicate possible projecting towers, one at the
south-west corner and the other nearby on the west curtain wall; their remains are indeed visible today.

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