Page 71 - John Barber's Oakham Castle and its archaeology

century (probably we shall find the same is true of those on the west end also), and represent the last building phase
before disintegration in the next two centuries.

J L Barber, The Oakhamian, LXXIII, Summer Term 1958
CASTLE EXCAVATIONS
Despite the difficult weather, work has continued on the east end of Oakham Castle, and once more the results have
fully justified the excellent work put in by a small band of devoted workers. After last season we knew only the width
of the kitchen: we now know its length as well. Thus in three seasons we have established the full dimensions of the
buttery, the pantry, the kitchen and the passageway leading between the buttery and the pantry to the kitchen, which
was some nine feet away from the main building. There are traces of earlier buildings beneath the complex which we
have unearthed, but most of our discoveries date from the late 14th century, when there must have been extensive
alterations and improvements. Our evidence also shows clearly that the domestic offices on the east end (and no doubt
on the west end also, as we hope to prove in subsequent seasons) were levelled out in the early 18th century. The
reason is not far to seek. By that time the great house at Burley-on-the-Hill had been built and Oakham Castle was
beginning to fall into serious disrepair. It was evidently decided therefore to scrap the domestic offices at either end of
the Castle and to restore the Hall as an assize court.
Work on the kitchens is not yet complete and no plans have yet been drawn, but it seems certain that the general
plan was as follows. A six-foot pavement surrounded three sides of the kitchen (not four sides as we at first
surmised), and in the centre was an unpaved area, very heavily burnt, where all the cooking was done. At the four
internal angles of the pavement were pillars, which supported a roof that must have been generously pierced either by
louvres or by some other means to allow the smoke to escape. In the south-west corner we have come across a small
hearth, which was quite separate from the main cooking area in the centre of the kitchen, and appears, from the way it
is set back into the west wall, to have had its own chimney. Quite an amount of pottery has been found in the kitchen
area, quantities of bones and the brass bottom of a colander.
At the same time work has been carried on at a well in the pantry, whose outside edge we found three years ago. It
is carefully built of stone and grows larger as it goes down. Water looks like stopping our investigations beyond about
nine feet, but, although we may not have the pleasure of finding priceless treasures on the bottom, we have at least
found enough pottery to show that the well was also filled in and levelled up in the early 18th century.

D M Wilson & J G Hurst, ‘Medieval Britain in 1956’, Medieval Archaeology, I (1957), 157
RUTLAND: OAKHAM (SK/863087).
At the meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute in July, 1956, C A R Radford said that the original motte is still to
be seen at the S-E corner of the enclosure. He also suggested that the northern enclosure was part of the defences of
the Saxon burgh (Archaeol J, CXII (1955), 181-4) and made some suggestions as to how the original hall was roofed.
All that remains of the castle today is the 12th-century aisled hall, but documentary and structural evidence, as well as
the conformation of the ground at the E and W ends of the hall, prove that it was once much larger.
As a first stage in what is hoped will be a thorough investigation of the buildings of the castle by excavation and
survey, J L Barber, with a party of boys from Oakham School, dug a trench across the E end of the castle, opposite
the three blocked-up doorways. Opposite the most northerly of the three a pantry was discovered 12ft. across, into
which at a later date a well had been cut. S of the pantry and in line with the centre doorway lay a 4ft. passage, which
must certainly lead to the kitchens. To the S, and giving access to the hall through the third blocked-up doorway, was
a buttery, at first 18ft. wide but later extended to 21ft. The floors were of thin cement on top of hardcore of ironstone
rubble, but the walls, where they had not been robbed, were mostly of ironstone bonded together with clay. None of
them stood above the original ground level. Under the floor of the buttery two earlier walls were found, representing
two earlier phases, of which little can be said at present. The latest phase, consisting of pantry, passage and buttery,
date from c.1200-1300. The buildings, both on the E end and on the W, would appear to have been pulled down and
levelled early in the 18th century, when the hall was restored.

D M Wilson & J G Hurst, ‘Medieval Britain in 1957’, Medieval Archaeology, II (1958), 195
RUTLAND: OAKHAM (SK/863087).
Excavations were continued (cf. Med Archaeol, I (1957), 157) at the E end of the hall by J L Barber. Despite
considerable stone robbing, the E wall of the buttery and pantry was recognized, making the pantry 12ft by 20ft, and
the buttery at first 18ft by 20ft, but later 21ft by 20ft. These two rooms were separated by a passage 4ft wide, leading
to the kitchens, which lay 9ft further to the E and were at first 19ft across, but later extended to 27ft: the N–S
dimensions are still uncertain. The kitchens had a 6ft-wide ironstone floor alongside the W and E walls, whilst the
central cooking area had a clay floor into which a 3ft-wide mortar-lined pit was set. All the buildings noted above
appear to belong to the last phase of the castle’s development, the second half of the 14th century.

D M Wilson & J G Hurst, ‘Medieval Britain in 1958’, Medieval Archaeology, III (1959), 308
RUTLAND: OAKHAM CASTLE (SK/863087).
Exploration of the kitchen was continued by J L Barber (cf. Med Archaeol, II (1958), 195). All 4 walls were
identified. Two baking ovens were found in the SW corner, one succeeding the other within the same building.

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