Launceston Castle Keep and attached buildings

Launceston Castle Keep and attached buildings

Castle. A Norman earthwork incorporating an existing rock outcrop, built in the late 11th century for Robert, Count of Mortain, a half-brother of William the Conqueror and later Earl of Cornwall. The motte was fitted with a stone shell keep, probably in the late 12th century. In the early 13th century, Richard of Cornwall removed the internal structure and replaced it with a high tower. At about the same time, an outer fighting platform was built, the enclosed steps up the motte were rebuilt, and a tower was erected at their foot. The castle is constructed of local slatestone rubble except for the bluestone rubble of the high tower and greenstone and purplish volcanic stone.

The plan comprises a small irregular round shell keep with a south entrance and a gap with garderobe channel to the north west. Two stone staircases rise within the thickness of the wall to the parapet. Within this shell keep sits a nearly round tower with a doorway into an unheated ground floor, a stone staircase within the wall leading up to a heated first-floor hall with one window opening. Flanking the motte staircase are remains of walls leading to a D-plan gatehouse to tower. West of the gatehouse is a semi-circular wall defending a platform locally known as "Paradise", containing a stone-lined probable water reservoir. A bridge, probably originally with a drawbridge, now a modern bridge, leads from this platform with a wall surviving on its east side. The walk continues to remains of curtain wall on a high embankment. Much dressed stone has been robbed from the castle and its ancillary structures over the centuries, but a bullnose string survives above the battered plinth.

The entrance to the shell keep is of two orders and retains the 13th-century springing stones for what was probably a two-centred equilateral arch, replacing a Norman doorway. Beside this are return stones to the former lead-roofed stone-walled steep walk up the motte. Inside the doorway are remains of portcullis slots and two deep sockets for draw bars. On the inner face of the very thick wall is the remains of another arch, possibly older, with a doorway to a staircase featuring a rubble vault on the left.

A large opening in the shell keep has evidence for a garderobe sluiced by water from the parapet, probably positioned to defend the curtain wall below. The other staircase retains the jambstones of its doorway and has a draw bar slot. Evidence for roofing of at least part of the shell keep is a square drain hole through the parapet and significant areas of surviving render.

The High Tower has an ordered two-centred arched doorway facing south west, with the wall flat for a short distance on either side. Draw bar holes are present inside the doorway. At a level slightly higher than the parapet of the shell keep is a series of holes presumed to be for roof timbers of a former lead roof which covered the space between the High Tower and the shell keep. Numerous putlog holes are visible. Higher up is a ragged hole of the former hall window and fragmentary remains of the original parapet.

Interior features include corbels for ceiling beam and a ledge for joists, and remains of a large hall fireplace with a curved ashlar back and moulded corbels for a former hood. The gatehouse at the foot of the steps has some voussoirs of a former doorway to the D-plan block on the left and a window on its left. Another interior space has a ledge for a former floor and another ledge for a former roof and parapet above.

Launceston Castle was the administrative centre for the control of Cornwall from just after the Norman Conquest until 1272, when following Richard of Cornwall's death, his son Edmund shifted the administration to Loswithiel. Following a period of neglect, repairs were undertaken in 1341 and recorded until the 15th century. The castle and town were held for the King until eventually captured by Fairfax's army on 25th February 1646. The High Tower was used as a prison for much of the medieval period. Much of the loss of dressed stone from the principal architectural features resulted from the structure being used as a quarry for building materials by local speculators. This account is largely based on work at the castle in 1990 and 1991.