| Abstract: |
The photographic recording of the castle was undertaken to accompany a 3D digital scanning survey and written description of the entire historic exterior. All elevations were photographed, as far as possible, face-on and from a consistent height and perspective, enabled by drone technology to achieve a rectified perspective at height – with most of the castle extending to three stories and the south towers to four. Where possible, ground floor record photographs included a scaled ranging pole. Where it was not possible to capture an entire elevation in a single photograph because of the constricted nature of the site, or to achieve greater detail, a series of partial elevations were recorded along with an oblique overall view of the full elevation. All photographs have been keyed to a location plan and to digital elevation scans. Unfortunately, covid and operational restrictions meant that it was not possible to carry out a detailed survey of the interior of the castle, although alterations were made to the existing ground plan – which is found to be substantially accurate – following early, pre-covid site visits in 2019. Walworth Castle consists of four ranges surrounding a small courtyard, now roofed over. The south range is three-storeyed, with a projecting block (the former entrance) in the centre of its north side and taller round towers at its southern angles; two-storeyed ranges, set at a slightly skew angle, extend north, to be linked by the lower north-range, whilst the courtyard thus enclosed is now infilled by a single-storey block. Extending west from the north end of the west range is a long wing built as school accommodation in the 1950s, and replacing an older stable range. The castle is an important building that has never been examined in detail; most accounts refer to it as a house of c. 1600 built by Thomas Jennison, although more recently it has been recognised that an earlier building is incorporated within. As noted by Pevsner, the gunloops in the south-west tower suggest a building date no later than the early 16th century; he also rightly points out that the change in alignment between the south range and the former courtyard and its wings is too great to be accidental, and must result from both parts following earlier structures, which could be medieval in origin, perhaps as early as the late 13th century (suggested by Jackson 1989, 16). Whatever the date of the pre-Jennison building, the gunloops in the south-west tower enable the house to be classified as either a castle or a fortified manor house. It is possible that a straight joint (actually a slight off-set) towards the west end of the south front, sometimes seen as indicative of a change of build, may instead simply reflect the hall/solar division of a medieval house, with the south-west tower placed at the corner of the medieval solar. The remainder of the south range would then have contained the hall, and perhaps service rooms at the east end, where there still appears to be evidence of pre-Jennison openings in the east wall. The west range, set at its rather oblique angle to the south range, also has walls in excess of 1.0m thick on the east and is also probably medieval. The former entrance block and east range appears to be part of the Jennison rebuilding of c. 1600, while all that can be said of the muchaltered north range is that it appears on the Tithe Map of 1835. The only plans of the building traced are a set made by Trevor Welch, Chartered Architect of Bishop Auckland and acquired by the National Monuments Record in 1980; they are not wholly satisfactory as regards wall thicknesses (they show both towers as having walls of approximately the same thickness), and in addition there have been considerable alterations since they were made. |
