Page 37 - John Barber's Oakham Castle and its archaeology

Para 10: ‘DRAWBRIDGE WITH IRON CHAINS’
Of course no trace of these survives, though it is just possible, were a full investigation possible, that something
of the stonework on either side of the moat might still lie in Castle Lane and within the castle courtyard.
We know a little of the courtyard that must have lain to the south of the buttery, whilst the horse chestnut
tree (removed in 1979 because it was dangerous) had leaves which always curled up and withered prematurely
in a long dry spell. Many visitors noted this and even imagined that it was some rare and unusual species of
horse chestnut tree. But in my own opinion this was due to the fact that its roots could find no way through the
ironstone floor beneath and consequently lacked moisture. It is to avoid interference with what lies below that
no new tree has been planted. The tree recently felled was, it is said, at least the second to have occupied that
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site in front of the main entrance door. The paving in the courtyard and that around the edges of the kitchen
was very substantial, being made of stones lying on edge rather than flat, much as one often sees them in old
stabling to this day.

Para 11: ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE BAILEY
I do not propose to comment further on the 1340 inquisition, but I have a few additional observations to make
about the bailey and the hall, as follows:

(a) A concrete slab to the north-east of the hall covers the place where there was once a water supply for
the cattle that grazed there. There is no evidence to show whether this was an ancient or a modern well, or
whether modern farmers made use of an ancient supply in an area where an outbuilding of the Castle may
well have stood, eg ‘the two stables’.

(b) For many years the old shambles stood to the west of the main gateway, that is at the back of the Post
Office, but they gradually fell more and more into disrepair and were eventually dismantled (some time in
the last thirty years). They had been moved from their original site in the Market Place in 1880. There
remains little in the area west of the main gateway of the bank surrounding the Castle, and my guess is that
it was levelled down to form a platform for the shambles. The present raised lawn at this point is therefore
most likely a vestige of the bank.

(c) On the string course of the hall at the south-eastern corner there are various notches in the stone. They
have no antiquarian interest, but were inserted to take the sneck of a small iron gate, which led round to the
back of the hall when most of the Castle grounds were fenced off as a cattle field. In parenthesis I remember
vividly the enlargement of my vocabulary, when one of the Captain Cecil Ball’s cows broke through the
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barbed wire and fell into my first trench!

(d) The Castle bailey, inside the bank on the north-eastern corner, is said to be one of three ‘Daneweed
Stations’ in Rutland (others are at Great Casterton and on the Barrowden–Seaton road). The plant, which is
not unlike elder, and which is alternatively called ‘Danewort’ or ‘Bloodwort’, is said to grow where a Dane
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fell in battle.

Para 12: BIBLIOGRAPHY
Editors’ note: JLB included a list of eleven titles in this section. To avoid duplication these have been included
in the main bibliography below, where they are marked with asterisks.

Para 13: POSTSCRIPT
(To be read in conjunction with Para 7). Since I wrote this section of Para 7, I have further studied the east end
of the hall. At a point roughly where the gable takes off there is a line of stones, all ironstone except for one
piece of freestone, which are a better quality than the rubble ironstone above and below. There is no sign of any
bracket, as on the west end (see Para 6), but if it had corresponded exactly with that at the west end, it would in
any case have had to be removed to make way for the large Norman window. This course of stones runs right
across the east wall, except for the fact that it is interrupted by this large window. This seems to me to give
some clue to the line of the roof, which covered the buttery/pantry complex, and to be further evidence that the
large Norman window is not in its original position.

35 The sequence of chestnut trees can be established with the aid of old photographs.
36 Captain Ball farmed what had been the home farm of Catmose House; he also had a farmyard adjacent to the south-east corner of the Castle
earthworks, with a gateway that enabled cattle to be brought in to graze in the inner bailey.
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See Sargant (nd) for an account of Daneweed.
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