Alnwick Castle (Copyright © Don Brownlow)


Alnwick Castle. Photo by Northumberland County Council.

(NU 18711357) Alnwick Castle. (1)

See attached pamphlet. (2)

Published earthworks (25 inch) revised. (3)

Alnwick Castle. Rebuilt by Anthony Salvin. Retains traces of motte and bailey origin. (4)

Alnwick Castle - part of defence system against Scottish border raids. Probably motte and bailey origin. Oldest parts of present castle built by Yvo de Vescy before c.1134. Fortifications completed by Eustace Fitzjohn before 1157 comprising a shell keep on the slightly reduced motte. Castle passed to Bishop of Durham in 1297. Sold to Henry de Percy in 1309. Fortifications improved to Edwardian standards. Added: seven semi-circular towers and square gateway tower; great hall; middle gateway. The curtain wall was strengthened with towers - part of Record Tower, Constable's and Postern Towers, Abbot's and Auditor's and Eastern and Western Garrets are his work. Further additions by Henry's son 1350.
Restored c.1752 by 1st Duke of Northumberland (Sir Hugh Smithson). He employed James Paine, Robert Adam and Capability Brown. Castle reorganised by Anthony Salvin. (5)

Alnwick Castle. Original motte and bailey enclosed about seven acres. Shell keep built 12th century on levelled motte between two baileys. Remains of moat and retaining wall around keep. Gatehouse and barbican reputedly the best in England. Gatehouse with double gates and portcullis, and originally a drawbridge in front. (6)

In plan the castle is irregular and many sided. No single keep-tower but an irregular polygon set around with clustered towers with a central court, and connected at three points with the general inclosure. To the north was a three-sided space open to the river - shown open on plan of 1567 - the river being regarded as sufficient defence. Norman gateway imbedded within a complete gatehouse by Henry de Percy in 1350. Original dungeons beneath flanking towers. [Detailed architectural description].
A survey of 1567 shows Alnwick Castle to have been in considerable decay - restored and rebuilt by Robert Adam under the first Duke. Castle later almost rebuilt by Antony Salvin under Duke Algernon (Lord Prudhoe). (7)

The Castle, Stable Court and Covered Riding School including West Wall of Riding School. Grade I listed buildings. (8)

Additional sources. (9-15)

There is a belvedere at Alnwick Castle - Robert Adam's prospect tower (Brizlee Tower). (16a)

Main events in the Castle's history listed by Cathcart King. (16b)

The seat of the Percy family since Norman times. During the first half of the 12th century a stone keep was erected on the motte, and stone curtain walls round the baileys replaced the original timber structures. In the 14th century the Keep was strengthened by the addition of semi -circular towers. The castle remained unchanged for 400 years. In the 18th century the keep of the decaying castle was turned into a comfortable pseudo-Gothic mansion by Robert Adams and others. In the second half of the 19th century the 4th Duke of Northumberland began another major reconstruction, when, under Anthony Salvin , the present palatial apartments were created. (16c)

Alnwick Castle has work of every period on the line of the original motte and bailey plan. By 1138 a strong stone built border castle with a shell keep in place of the motte, formed the nucleus of the present castle with 2 baileys enclosing about 7 acres. The curtain walls and their square towers rest on early foundations and the inner gatehouse has round-headed arches with heavy chevron decoration. The Castle was greatly fortified after its purchase by Henry de Percy 1309 - the Barbican and Gatehouse, the semi-circular towers of the shell keep, the octagonal towers of the inner gateway and the strong towers of the curtain wall date from the early to mid C14. Ruinous by the C18, the 1st Duke had it rehabilitated and extended by James Prince and Robert Adam, the latter being mainly concerned with the interior decoration, very little of which remains except for fireplaces in the Housekeeper's and the Steward's Rooms and for inside the present Estates Office range. Capability Brown landscaped the grounds, filling in the former moat (formed by Bow Burn).

The 4th Duke employed Anthony Salvin 1854-65 at the cost of £1/4 million to remove Adam's fanciful Gothic decoration, to restore a serious Gothic air to the exterior and to redesign the state rooms in an imposing grand Italian manner. The Castle is approached from Bailliff gate through the crenellated Barbican and Gatehouse (early C14): lion rampant (replica) over archway, projecting square side towers with corbelled upper parts, fortified passage over dry moat to vaulted gateway flanked by polygonal towers. Stone figures on crenellations here, on Aveners Tower, on Record Tower and on Inner Gateway were carved circa 1750-70 by Johnson of Stamfordham and probably reflect an earlier similar arrangement.

In the Outer Bailey to the, north are the West Garrett (partly Norman), the Abbott's Tower (circa 1350) with a rib vaulted basement, and the Falconer's Tower (1856). To the south are the Aveners Tower [C18], the Clock Tower leading into the Stable Yard, the C18 office block, the Auditor's Tower (early Clk) and the Middle Gateway (circa 1309-15) leading to the Middle Bailey. The most prominent feature of the Castle on the west side is the very large Prudhoe Tower by Salvin and the polygonal apse of the chapel near to it.

In the Middle Bailey, to the south are the Warders Tower (1856) with the lion gateway leading by a bridge to the grand stairs into the walled garden, the East Garrett and the Record Tower (C14, rebuilt 1885). In the curtain wall to the north are 2 blocked windows probably from an early C17 building now destroyed and the 'Bloody Gap', a piece of later walling possibly replacing a lost truer; next a small C14 watch tower (Hotspur's Seat); next the Constable's Tower, early C14 and unaltered with a gabled staircase turret; close by is the Postern Tower, early C14, also unaltered.'To the north-west of the Postern Tower is a large terrace made in the C18, rebuilt 1864-65, with some old cannon on it.

The Keep is entered from the Octagon Towers (circa 1350) which have 13 heraldic shields below the parapet, besides the agotrop3ic figures, and a vaulted passage expanded from the Norman gateway (fragments of chevron on former outer arch are visible inside). The present arrangement of the inner ward is largely Salvin's work with a covered entrance with a projecting storey and lamp-bracket at the rearof the Prudhoe Tower and a corbelled corridor at 1st floor level on the east. Mediaeval draw well on the east wall, next to the original doorway to the keep, now a recess The keep, like the curtain walls, is largely mediaeval except for some C18 work on the interior on the west and for the Prudhoe Tower and the Chapel. The interior contrasts with the rugged mediaeval exterior with its sumptuous Renaissance decoration, largely by Italians - Montiroli, Nucci, Strazza, Mantavani and inspired from Italian sources. The chapel with its family gallery at the east end has 4 short rib vaulted bays and a shallow 3-light apse; side walls have mosaics, covered now with tapestry. The grand staircase With its groin vaulted ceiling leads to the Guard Chamber from which an ante-room leads west into the Library (in the Prudhoe Tower) and east into the Music Room (fireplace with Dacian captives by Nucci). Further on are the Red Drawing Room (caryatid fireplace by Nucci) and the Dining Room (ceiling design copied from St Lorenzo f.l.m. in Rome and fireplace with bacchante by Strazza and faun by Nucci).

South of the Middle Gateway are Salvin's impressive Kitchen quarters where the oven was designed to burn a ton of coal per day. West of the Stable Courtyard, with C19 Guest Hall at the south end, is the C19 covered riding school, with stable to north of it, and with its west wall forming the east side of Narrowgate. The corner with Bailliffgate has an obtuse angled tower of 2 storeys, with a depressed ogee headed doorway from the street, and merlons. (16d)

History of the castle. (16e)