Remains of Newark Castle

The remains of Newark Castle comprise the ruined episcopal castle of the Bishops of Lincoln, built circa 1135-39 by Bishop Alexander. It was substantially rebuilt in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, with work initiated by Bishop Oliver Sutton and completed by his successor, Bishop John Dalderby. The final episcopal alterations were undertaken by Bishop Thomas Rotherham circa 1471-80. The castle was restored as an aristocratic residence by Sir William Cecil circa 1587-88. In 1646, following the third siege of Newark, it was slighted and left as a roofless ruin. The ruins have undergone several phases of restoration and consolidation: by Anthony Salvin in 1845-48, Newark Corporation in 1899, and the Department of the Environment in 1979-90.

The early 12th-century work is constructed of lias limestone rubble, or rag-stone, with quoins, facings, and ashlar work of limestone. The late 13th and early 14th-century construction, while using or re-using limestone, also utilised skerry sandstone quarried locally from Winkburn or Maplebeck.

The castle is quadrangular on plan, aligned north-east to south-west. An early 12th-century gatehouse stands on the north-east side, with short sections of contemporary curtain wall attached to each side. Abutting the north-west end of the north-west section of wall is a section of late 13th and early 14th-century curtain wall which stretches across to a contemporary angle tower in the north-west corner. A late 13th and early 14th-century curtain wall, with central tower, flanks the north-west side, ending at the early 12th-century angle tower in the south-west corner. Attached to the south-east side of this tower is a short section of contemporary curtain wall. The south-east side has been demolished.

The early 12th-century gatehouse is of three storeys and roofless, with semi-circular archways at its outer and inner ends. In the centre is a third arch which originally contained massive gates. Behind the central arch, in the north-west wall, is a small recess for a warder. Its north-east entrance front is ashlar faced with corner pilasters, below which are massive late 13th and early 14th-century buttresses flanking the archway. The archway is of two square orders with a hoodmould enriched by dog tooth ornamentation. To the first floor, there are two late 15th-century, two-light windows with four-centred arched lights and flat heads. They replaced three early 12th-century, round-headed windows, of which the openings are still traceable. Above, the second floor has a late 15th-century, two-light cross mullioned window, which replaced two early 12th-century windows, of which the shafted jambs are still evident.

The south-west (inner) face has a round-headed gateway and above it a doorway to the right-hand side and above again, a plain, round-headed window opening. Most of the ashlar face has been lost to stone robbers, replaced with late 19th-century York stone in places.

To the centre of the south-east side there is a projecting staircase tower, square in its lower stages, but recessing into an octagonal turret above, with a heavy roll mould or string course above the hip of the junction of the two orders. At the bottom there is a restored, round-headed doorway with two loopholes above. Its south-west face has three loopholes and a doorway at the top. On the north-east face of the gatehouse, to the left-hand side of the staircase tower, there is a blocked, early 12th-century, round-headed window opening with cushion capitals supporting a roll mould with pellet ornamentation. The window's shafted jambs were removed when a three-light window with four-centred arched lights and flat head was inserted in the late 15th century. Above is an identical late 15th-century window. To the right-hand side of the staircase tower, there is a late 15th-century, four-light mullion with four-centred arched lights and flat head to the first floor, restored in the late 19th century. Above is a late 15th-century, two-light cross mullioned window.

On the north-east side of the stair turret is the abutment, at an obtuse angle, of a short section of early 12th-century curtain wall, with a round-headed doorway leading to the former wall walk at the top. It stands to almost its original height of 20 metres and has some late 19th-century brickwork at the base. A larger section of early 12th-century curtain wall adjoins the north-west side of the gatehouse, again standing to almost its original height of 27 metres. The loss of the ashlar outer face has revealed two doorways, one above the other, set high up in the wall, with a fireplace to the right-hand side of the lower doorway. They were inserted here in the late 15th century when a timber-framed extension was jettied out from the wall; the joist-holes are also evident. At the base there are three garderobe chutes. An almost vertical line of ashlar masonry at the right-hand side marks the end of the early 12th-century castle, abutted by the ashlar work of the late 13th and early 14th-century curtain wall. It terminates against the late 13th and early 14th-century north-west tower, which is polygonal with a battered plinth. It is of four storeys, with the second floor of the north-west face having a cross mullioned window with panel tracery, with a two-light mullioned window above it, both late 15th century, but heavily restored in the late 19th century.

To the right of the north-west tower, and running the entire length of the north-west river front, is a late 13th and early 14th-century curtain wall, with its battered plinth covering the early 12th-century scarp to the original curtain wall. It is of three storeys with a double rebated, round-headed watergate of two square orders at the left-hand end and a double garderobe chute at the right. At the left-hand side of the basement there are five loopholes to the undercroft behind. Above, to the left-hand side of the ground floor, there is a four-light cross mullioned window with panel tracery and, above, a larger traceried six-light window, both late 15th century with late 19th-century restorations. To their right is a late 15th-century, two-storeyed oriel window, with three traceried lights to the lower section and a broken segmental-headed opening above. Its apron has a shield bearing three stags trippant, the arms of Bishop Thomas Rotherham. To the right again, there are two late 13th and early 14th-century pointed windows to the ground floor, with their lights and tracery now missing. Above, there are five-light and two-light cross mullioned windows, both late 16th century. Standing at the centre of the curtain wall is a polygonal tower of four storeys, with a single broken window opening just below the level of the ground floor, with a restored, three-light cross mullion above it. To the right of the tower, is a late 13th and early 14th-century pointed window to the ground floor, again with its lights and tracery missing, with a two-light mullion with cusped lights, restored in the late 19th century, set higher up in the wall to the right of it. At the right-hand end, a small section of crenellated parapet adjoins the south-west tower. One of the merlons is loop-holed, while the others that remain are solid.

The curtain wall terminates against the early 12th-century south-west tower which is rectangular, being of four storeys with a battered plinth. On the north-west front there are single rectangular openings arranged one above the other, that to the top with 20th-century glazing. On the south-west side there is a two-light mullioned window to the second floor with a square opening below and a rectangular window above. On the inner north-east face, the artificial raising of the ground level between the 18th and 19th centuries means that the tower is now entered at first floor level through a 19th-century round-headed doorway with roll mould, shafted jambs and scalloped capitals. The original ground floor doorway is now reached by descending a flight of stone steps. Above, the south-west and north-east faces have round-headed doorways to the wall walk, with the north-east side also with a four-centred, arched, double lancet with hoodmould. Abutting on the north-east base of the tower is a fragment of the contemporary curtain wall with brick relieving arches.

The upper floors of the gatehouse are reached by a wide, anti-clockwise, spiral staircase and are divided into two sections by the wall above the centre arch. The outer or northern part was originally of two storeys, but the wooden floor is now missing. The lower room to the first floor retains its early 12th-century chimney, while the north wall still retains shafted jambs from the original window openings, now blocked and altered. Above, the second floor room has a Tudor fireplace. The southern chamber was originally of one tall storey, being floored in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Original windows on its eastern and western sides are round-headed, each with shafted jambs and cushion capitals supporting broad roll moulds; the western window with a moulding with pellet ornamentation.

The basement of the four-storey north-tower is occupied by a stone-lined bottle dungeon. Adjoining it is a second dungeon in the base of the north-west curtain wall, which is square, brick-lined and barrel vaulted. Above, there are single rooms to each floor, with the floor levels altered in the 18th century. The ground floor and first floor rooms both have late 15th-century stone fireplaces, with the ground-floor room also having early 12th-century carved stonework with chevron ornamentation placed within the walling during the late 19th-century restoration. These stones were part of a large number of carved stones that were found in the castle grounds in the 1880s, with the majority now reassembled in an archway which is on display in the Newark Register Office in the castle grounds. The second floor room is a complete hexagon, the form having been achieved by means of a squinch arch, but the floor is missing.

The four-storey south-west tower has barrel vaults to the three lower rooms. From the doorway in the north-east wall, reached by descending a flight of stone steps from the now artificially raised ground level, there is a passageway leading to a basement dungeon with a sheer drop into it and a thick barrel vault over. Above there are single rooms to each floor, with traces of a garderobe in the first-floor room. The second-floor room is now reached by a 19th-century staircase.

Lying beneath the former site of the great hall is a late 13th and early 14th-century rebuilding of the Norman vaulted undercroft. It is four bays in length and two in width, with quadripartite vaulting with plain, chamfered ribs, supported by a central arcade of four round-headed arches on three octagonal piers. The ends of the arcade and the eastern side of the vaulting are carried on pilaster responds of Norman date, while on the west wall the responds rest on simple corbels, one of which terminates in a single knot or twist, another in a double knot or twist. The west wall is pierced by four loopholes, widely splayed, while a fifth lights a cell-like chamber on the north side, in which probably sat the warder in charge of the watergate. The steps forming the present entrance at the south end of the crypt are late 15th century, while the original entrance at the north-east corner has a late 13th-century doorway leading to a sloping passage that divides in two, descending to the watergate and rising by steps to the courtyard near the gatehouse. The staircase leading up to the courtyard has an early 12th-century barrel vault and possibly represents an earlier watergate.

The oriel window in the curtain wall has a traceried vault while to the basement of the middle-tower there is a stone-lined dungeon, beneath which is a second dungeon, accessed by a trap door in the dungeon floor.