Lincoln Castle

SK 9771 NW, 1941-1/8/62

LINCOLN, CASTLE HILL, Lincoln Castle

(Formerly Listed as: CASTLE HILL Castle remains, Observatory Tower at the Castle)

(Previously Listed as: CASTLE HILL Lodge on north side of entrance to Castle)

15/08/73

GV

I

Castle. 1068, C12, C13, C14, C19. Restored C20. Built for William I. Coursed and squared stone and herringbone rubble, with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. PLAN: quadrangular curtain wall, east gateway and lodges, observatory tower, Lucy Tower (keep), west gate, Cobb Hall (north-east angle tower).

EXTERIOR: restored curtain wall has a crenellated parapet and wall walk. East gateway, C11, extended C14, has a restored double chamfered gateway and above, semicircular tourelles, each with a doorway. Between them, a pointed wall. Under the entrance arch, a C11 tunnel vault. Inside the gateway, a pair of crenellated mid C19 lodges in the form of a barbican. Semicircular western ends, two storeys, each with three stone mullioned double lancets on each floor, with hoodmoulds. Between them, a pointed archway with crenellated crest. On the north wall inside the gateway, a reset canted C15 oriel window with three ogee headed lancets and crocketed pinnacles, from a house in the High Street opposite St Mary's Guildhall. Square observatory tower, C11, to south-east, has C14 eastern additions and extensive mid C19 remodelling. String course, corbelled and crenellated C19 parapets, single lancet windows. West side has a garderobe shaft in the form of a buttress, flanked to left by a pointed doorway with a lancet above it. East side has square corner towers. South side has sham arrow slits. Above, to east, a chamfered pointed doorway and a similarly chamfered ogee headed doorway, C14. In the south-west corner, a C19 round tower with stepped rectangular lights. To the south, the motte and Lucy Tower, late C12, restored C19. Roofless. Polygonal plan with string course, plain buttresses, and consolidated parapet. Projecting north-eastern gateway with billeted round arched outer opening and segmental inner opening with hoodmould. South-western minor entrance has a segmental head. To the south-west, a small roofless chamber. Square west gatehouse, C11, rebuilt 1233, has a blocked round headed opening with an inserted doorway flanked by the remains of barbican walls. Above, two slit windows and a blocked access doorway to the right. Cobb Hall, C13, reduced in height and remodelled C19, has a semicircular outer face with slit windows, and a square inner face with a chamfered doorway flanked by single slit windows. Crenellated parapet.

INTERIOR: Two storeys with chamfered rib vaulting forming four vaulted cells in the lower part and six radial cells in the rounded end of the upper storey. This building was formerly used as a place of execution, and fittings for the gallows remain on the outer parapet.

Scheduled Ancient Monument, County No.1.

Listing NGR: SK9756571832