original castle gates and doors – a survey · the castle studies group journal no 24: 2010-11 247...

246 The Castle Studies Group Journal No 24: 2010-11

Original castle gates and doors – A Survey

The Castle Studies Group Journal No 24: 2010-11 247

Survivals from the pastOriginal castle gates and doors – a surveyThe majority of medieval buildings stillstanding today will have been altered, re-paired, modernised and generally changedmany times throughout their lifetime. It isremarkable therefore that some medievalbuildings still contain the original woodendoors or gates that were fitted when thebuildings were constructed.

This survey will attempt to sum-marise the surviving medieval gates in for-tified buildings throughout the UK andIreland. I should state from the outset thatthis is only a provisional summary as manycastle doors and portcullises are of unspec-ified date either because no accurate datingevidence can be obtained for them or, insome cases, the thorough investigation intowhat might appear to be original doorshasn’t yet begun.

The visual appearance of remain-ing wooden doors in situ can be deceptiveas the effects of weathering on timber (usu-ally oak in the case of castle gates, but notexclusively) are highly variable. Medievaldoors may not appear to be original be-cause their condition today is remarkablyfresh and well preserved and conversely,knarled and ravaged timber doors may givethe impression of antiquity yet may berelatively recent being constructed usingancient techniques or exposed to severeenvironmental conditions.

A good case to illustrate this is theAnglo-Saxon door leading to the PyxChamber in Westminster Abbey, only con-firmed as such in recent times. This inter-nal door was so well preserved and still indaily use, that no attention was given to itsage until a dendrochronology survey (amethod of estimating age of timber bymatching tree-ring growth patterns to thoseof known age)was undertaken by OxfordDendrochronology Laboratory throughoutthe Abbey timberwork under English Heri-

tage guardianship. This survey revealed thedate of the timber used to make this door tobe A.D. 1050 and contemporary with theAbbey construction by Edward the Confes-sor, although reshaped for use in a later(13th century) door opening.

Our survey will consider timbergates, doors and portcullis grilles that arestill performing their original function witha brief overview of construction methods.

Construction TechniquesClearly there are many designs of woodendoors and no meaningful typology can beestablished.

If we were to generalise though,castle doors were made of oak, with adouble layer of timber forming outer andinner boards, often set in opposite direc-tions for strength or decorative effect, e.g.one side with vertical boards the other sidewith the boards laid horizontally. Iron nailsor roves, often decoratively finished orwithin metal strapwork, were applied tohold and strengthen the boards together.


Westminster Abbey. The Anglo-Saxon Pyx door.


This method was used in shipbuilding ofthe period also.

A small wicket door is usuallyinserted into one of the larger doors allow-ing the movement of people in and out ofthe gates without the need to open the pairof main doors fully.

Often a latticework bracing on theinner face of the door was attached, formedwith square section bars. These wereknown as ‘ledges’ and were either set atright angles or diagonally.

The remarkable late 12th centurycastle gates from Chepstow are made fromoak boards assembled in vertical lengths onthe outer face, originally sheathed withwrought iron cladding and iron straps, andthe inner face made from sophisticated lat-tice work. The latticework on the inner faceused advanced mortise and tenon jointsproviding a strong yet decorative bracing.

The oak used on the Chepstowdoors was of a different type on the outerand inner faces. The outer boards and the

hanging styles were made from fast growntrees whilst the timber of the inner latticework was from slow grown trees. This wasdeliberate and no evidence for reused tim-ber has been found and demonstrates thecarpenters knowledge of his materials.

The gates at Hay-on-Wye havetwo layers of oak planks, each about 1½inches thick held together with strong ironnails with decorative heads, passed throughthe timber from the exterior and bent overon the inner face to hold tightly. The outerboards were vertical and the inner oneshorizontal.

The iron bars attached to the outerface of Dunster castle gateway doors arefastened with huge diamond headed ironnails closely spaced all along the horizontaliron bars that themselves are some 4 – 6inches apart that cover the faces of eachdoor. Set at 4 inch intervals are vertical ironbars, held in place below the horizontalones, forming an iron grid pattern of im-mense strength.


Chepstow Castle. Detail. Inner side of wicket gate. Hay on Wye Castle. Outer side of gate with wicket.


The terminology of doors anddoor hangings in medieval accounts is oftenvaried and unfamiliar to us today. A doorwas sometimes termed a ‘leaf’ or the Latinfolium in contemporary documents. Doorjambs have been called ‘doorsteads’ or‘durnes’, possibly reflecting local or dialectterms. The range of terms for all parts of thedoor furniture are a subject for further studyin their own right.

SURVEYBodiam Castle, East Sussex

Bodiam Castle, subject to much discussionon its military credentials, contains an orig-inal, wooden portcullis, positioned in frontof the outer gates of the main twin toweredgatehouse to the castle.

The castle was built by Sir EdwardDalyngrigge in the late 14th century. Thewooden portcullis is encased in iron withiron spikes at the bottom and these days ispermanently raised above the entrance. Theowners of Bodiam Castle since 1926, theNational Trust, were not able to have the

oak of the portcullis dendro-dated as therewere insufficient tree rings available toaccurately sample. Instead they have had aradiocarbon dating conducted within recentyears that gave a 95% probability that thetimber was late 14th century.

This date places the timber port-cullis at the 1385 foundation date of thecastle and makes Bodiam the only accu-rately dated, original timber portcullis leftin situ in the UK.

Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of WightThe gatehouse at Carisbrooke Castle wasbuilt between 1335-41 and has a pair ofwooden medieval doors hanging in situ.These gates are likely to be the original14th century gates but some historians (e.g.the old Ministry of Works Guidebook by CR Peers) considers them from the followingcentury - i.e. 15th. As far as I am aware, nodendro-dating has been carried out on thedoors. We are left therefore to considerdating on stylistic evidence alone, and thisas we have seen is dangerous.


Bodiam Castle. Outer side. Portcullis c. 1385. Carisbrooke Castle. Inner side. 14th or 15th century.


The gates have been removedfrom the gateway on several occasions overthe last century and taken for safekeepinginto storage. The originals are now back insitu although the original drawbar, shownattached in old photographs, is no longerwith the doors.

The doors are of oak in verticalboards to the outer face and braced on theinside with square sectioned wooden barsset at right angles to each other forming alattice of squares. A wicket gate is insertedinto one of the doors.

Chepstow Castle, GwentThe main outer gatehouse doors at Chep-stow were taken down from their originalposition in 1964 and brought inside to dis-play in the museum on site to be replacedby replicas. These original doors have re-cently been dendro-dated to give a fellingdate of the timber used of between 1159 –1189. This remarkable survival puts theseoriginal gates amongst the oldest surviving

castle gates in Europe and significantlyaltered the dating of the construction of themain gatehouse itself, which until this dat-ing evidence was believed to have beenconstructed between 1219 and 1245.

The carpentry techniques (seeabove) used to make the doors are alsoearly and push back the provenance of thesophisticated carpentry methods to beamongst the earliest examples of thesetechniques known in northern Europe.

Chepstow doors show the earliestuse of lattice bracing in their construction,a type known previously only from ecclesi-astical buildings such as the west doors ofPeterborough cathedral.

The significance of the early dateof the wooden doors is such that it bringsthe construction of the advanced design ofWilliam Marshal’s twin towered gatehouseinto the late 12th century, making it theearliest example of the type in the UK,Ireland and the Continent.


Chepstow Castle. Inner side. Late 12th century. Hay on Wye Castle. Inner side in situ. Image ©RCAHMW, and reproduced with thanks.


Dunster Castle Gatehouse, SomersetThe oldest surviving feature of Dunstercastle is its twin semi-circular toweredgateway of the early 13th century. Theupper parts of this gateway have been muchremodelled and partially obscured by thelater gatehouse of 1420 built by Sir HughLuttrell and positioned in front of and atright angles to the original gate.

The lower part of the 13th centurygateway survives well and the doors hang-ing to this day in the gateway are certainlymedieval and might be the originals. Thedesign of these doors is unusual and has thenormal oak boards some 1½ inches thicklaid vertically but these doors are coveredwith iron bars nailed to the outer surface toform a grid of 4 inch squares all over thedoors, essentially cladding them in iron.The right hand door as we look from out-side the gate, has a small wicket gate insert-ed into the larger door and this wicket iscontemporary with the main construction.

The exact dating of these doorshas not been done but a record exists of

work to these doors in the accounts for1417 which show that extensive repairswere carried out to the gates by Sir HughLuttrell. - “To a carpenter on the repair ofthe gates of the lower castle, for 7 days at3d a day: - 21d. Also for ironwork for thesame gates: 87lbs at 1¼d by the pound, innails, plates and bands: - 9s ¾d”

It can be speculated that if thesedoors required extensive renovation in theearly 15th century as described above theorigins of the doors may well be a centuryor two older bringing them close to theconstruction date of the gateway. See alsoCSG Journal pp. 134-136.

Durham Castle16th century oak doors still hanging in thegatehouse leading to the inner bailey ofDurham Castle - the palace for a long lineof Prince Bishops. The gateway and barbi-can was then remodelled and widened byBishop Tunstall (1530 – 1539). The new,widened doorway, was fitted with a pair ofnew doors at this time and these are likelyto be the ones still hanging in situ today.


Dunster Castle. RH leaf - outer side, in situ. Durham Castle. Outer Gatehouse, inner side, in situ.


They are made of oak boards and ironbound with a wicket gate inserted into theleft hand door. To the outside face there arevertical iron strips applied to the woodensurface some 10 inches apart and riveted tothe door with large round-headed rivets.The original iron bolts of massive propor-tions on the inner face are still in operation.

Hay-on-Wye Castle, HerefordThe original gateway of Hay-on-Wye castlefell into disuse in the 17th century when thecastle was remodelled into a fine palatialmanor house and much of the medievalwork was incorporated into this new struc-ture. The gateway, and the wooden gateswithin, were essentially closed for goodand stayed unused until the present day.

The remaining timber gates ap-pear to be medieval and each door is of adifferent construction, suggesting one ofthe pair of doors was replaced at a latertime. Externally both doors show verticaloak timber planks with original iron hingesand metal nails. Internally the rear of each

door has a different construction. The lefthand door has a lattice work construction tothe rear and the other door has plain hori-zontal boards.

Recent dendro-dating has beenunable to establish a felling date of the lefthand door (when looked at from outside thecastle) and It has been proposed on stylisticgrounds to be of c.1300. The right handdoor, containing a small wicket gate, hasproduced a dendro date of between 1610-1640 – around the time of the Civil Wars.

Kilrush Castle, Co. Kilkenny, IrelandPossibly the only surviving example in thecountry of original wooden castle doors.The doors hanging in the ground floor en-trance of the late 16th century TowerHouse at Kilrush are thought to be originaland contemporary with its construction. The doors are of three wide oakboards fitted vertically with applied deco-rative bracing to the outer face. The bracingcomprises of broad chamfered horizontaland vertical pieces and curved bracing to


Kilrush Castle. Outer side in situ. Late 16th century.Image © Rory Sherlock.

Kilrush Castle. Inner side in situ. © Image Rory Sher-lock.


the upper part of the door forming a rebatefor the curved outer stone doorway. Thewhole outer oak face is further decoratedwith a pattern of large square-headed ironnails forming both a decorative pattern andsecuring the timberwork in place. Clearlythis door was as much a display of presti-gious carpentry as a barrier to entry.Tower of London or White Tower - By-ward TowerThe outer defences added to the WhiteTower by Edward I in the late 13th centuryincluded the twin-towered fortified gate-house called the Byward Tower. Althoughthe original doors have long since gone theportcullis still in situ is likely to be original.

During maintenance work in 2001the portcullis was lowered and examined indetail by historians. The timberwork hadreceived some post-medieval restorationbut it was felt that much original medievaltimber remained within its carpentry.

Thornton Abbey Gatehouse, Lincoln-shireThe gatehouse at Thornton Abbey is thelargest monastic gatehouse in England. Themassive gatehouse was the main entranceto the precincts and were designed to im-press the visitor with the wealth and pres-tige of the Abbey and provide at the veryleast an impression of defence and possiblyactual serious defence with its circuit ofwalls and ditches, loopholes and machico-lations.

The gatehouse was built between1377 and 1389 and made from brick andstone. The gates that still hang today in theentrance passage are the original oak doorsof the late 14th century. The design of thesedoors is very decorative with fine appliedtimber detailing representing the gothictracery of the contemporary windows in thechurch over the usual oak boards.

The two doors are in a particularlydistressed condition although remaining insitu. It is said the gates were attacked by the


Thornton Abbey. Inner side in situ.Byward Tower. Upper room winding gear.


forces of Oliver Cromwell during the Eng-lish Civil war of the 1640’s and ThorntonAbbey Gatehouse was attacked and burned.The damage to the wooden doors beinginflicted during that attack it is claimed.

Walmgate Bar, YorkThe only complete barbican gate remainingon the circuit of walls at York, WalmgateBar also preserves a pair of medieval wood-en gates still hanging in situ. The gates datefrom the 15th century and hang open atnormal times in the 12th century archway.The barbican and gateway is now a pedes-trian route with the traffic, that until recent-ly passed right through this remarkablemedieval survival, redirected around it, soa close and leisurely inspection of the tim-berwork can be made.

‘The surviving gates, of timber,are mounted in the inner arch of WalmgateBar and are now kept permanently open.Each leaf is 12¾ ft. high, 6 ft. wide, and

about 4 ins. thick and is studded withbroad-headed nails; the outer face is madeof vertical oak boards with the joints con-cealed by cover-mouldings; on the innerface the boards are horizontal and concealthe set of three hinges. A small wicket 4½ft. high and 1¾ ft. wide is let into the N.leaf. These gates are probably 15th century’[ref: RCHME: City of York, Volume 2,The Defences, p. 42. 1972.]

York, City Gates, Portcullises.

Wooden portcullises survive at all four ofthe main city gates (or Bars as they areknown) on the city walls of York and arelikely to contain at least some timbers ofmedieval date although they have all beento some degree restored over the years.

Micklegate Bar, Bootham Bar,Monk Bar and Walmgate Bar all have port-cullises and some with their winding mech-anisms in place but only one, Monk Bar, isin full working order. York city defences


Walmgate Bar. Outer side in situ. Walmgate Bar. Detail of RH leaf.



and its gates, wallwalks and earthworks,although restored in many parts, neverthe-less represent one of the most complete andimpressive medieval circuits in the BritishIsles.

Micklegate Bar houses a museum on theupper floors and contains approximatelyhalf of the original wooden portcullis as anexhibit, although much concealed by post-ers and information panels attached to it. Ofthe four York gateway portcullises, the onehere in Micklegate appears to be the mostcomplete medieval construction and theleast restored.

Bootham Bar was heightened during the14th century to house a portcullis and abarbican. The portcullis is mentioned indocuments in 1454-5 and in 1488-9 thatrefer to a ‘great gate and a wicket’. Theportcullis hanging in Bootham Bar todaycontains a small wicket gate on the lowersection but almost out of sight within thefloor in its current fixed position. It hasbeen cut in two at some point and joinedtogether again with metal brackets. Thegrating is made of timbers 4 ins. by 3 ins.in section set 7 ins apart, is now 19 ft high

and 12¼ ft. wide; it has the usual pointedends to the upright members.

The wooden grille hanging in theupper room today is much restored butsome original timber appears to be stillwithin the structure, particularly in the up-per sections.

Monk Bar portcullis, still capable of beingclosed using the horizontal windlass turnedby wooden hand-spikes, has a woodengrate 14 ft. high and 12¼ ft. wide. It has 12vertical members, with the bottom of eachone having a shaped pointed metal spikeattached.

The wooden portcullis hanging insitu on the first floor is likely to contain atleast some original 14th century timberalthough much restored. It was last closedin 1953 and a picture hanging in the roomshows the portcullis closed taken at theoutbreak of WW1 in 1914.

The original winding gear, alteredin parts, but largely of medieval date, sitsabove the portcullis on the upstairs floor.The rooms of Monk Bar and the portculliscan be visited as part of the Richard IIIMuseum that is now housed in the build-

Bootham Bar. Inner side in situ. Monk Bar. Inner side in situ.


ing. Incredibly, the medieval windingmechanism is part of the museum experi-ence and visitors are encouraged to have ago at winding the wooden handle and enjoythe loud noise made by the ancient metalratchet and pawl as the windlass is rotated.Thankfully, the metal chains are no longerattached to the portcullis below.

Walmgate Bar has the portcullis in situalong with the supports for the originalwindlass. The wooden grille is 13½ ft. wideand 12½ ft. high, made of eleven uprightand ten cross timbers 1 ft. apart. The bottomof each upright timber has a metal spikeattached.

Wells, Somerset, Bishop’s Palace Gate-houseThe gatehouse at the Bishop’s Palace,Wells, was built during the tenure of BishopRalph (1329 – 63) and was granted its li-cence to crenellate in 1341. It is still amatter of debate if the fortifications aroundthe palace, including this gatehouse werefor serious military defence or an assertionof power – a common discussion applied to

many sites. The gatehouse appears to havebeen designed as an accommodation block.Within the gateway are what is very likelyto be the original 14th century woodendoors of the 1340’s with an inserted wicketgate of c. 1600 in one door. They are madefrom oak boards with applied vertical dec-orative strips to the exterior and studdedwith iron rivets to form a regular pattern.

ConclusionThis list represents the examples known orbrought to the attention of the author; therecould well be other examples out there. Iwould appreciate people making contactshould they be aware of further examplesfor inclusion in a possible future update tothis list.

Many thanks to those who havehelped with information and photographsfor this short article but in particular PhilipDavis, Neil Guy, Paddy & Norman Jardine,Derek Renn and Rory Sherlock.

Peter A [email protected]


Wells - Bishop’s Castle. Outer side in situ. LH leaf. Wells Bishop’s Castle. Outer. RH leaf with wicket.

original castle gates and doors – a survey · the castle studies group journal no 24: 2010-11 247...

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