THE CASTLE KEEP

THE CASTLE KEEP, CASTLE HILL

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1377881
Date first listed:: 01-May-1953
List Entry Name:: THE CASTLE KEEP
Statutory Address:: THE CASTLE KEEP, CASTLE HILL

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Date:: 2001-04-08
Reference:: IOE01/03807/12
Rights:: © Norman Wigg. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1377881
Date first listed:: 01-May-1953
Date of most recent amendment:: 15-Mar-1988
List Entry Name:: THE CASTLE KEEP
Statutory Address 1:: THE CASTLE KEEP, CASTLE HILL

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: THE CASTLE KEEP, CASTLE HILL

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Surrey
District:: Guildford (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SU 99768 49312

Details

SU 9949SE GUILDFORD CASTLE HILL (North Side)

8/17 The Castle Keep 1/5/53 (Formerly listed as The Castle) GV I Remains of tower keep. Mid C12 (first mentioned in written record in 1173), partly rebuilt after fire in C13 and converted to a house for Francis Carter in early C17; further altered and restored in C19 and C20. Bargate rubblestone with some chalk and flint, ashlar quoins to angles and on buttresses; some decorative bands of stone laid in herringbone pattern. Square keep on earlier mound, probably on the site of earlier wooden keep and shell keep. Internal floors and roof now gone. 14 metres square and 19 metres high, three storeys with battlemented parapets. Angle pier buttresses and centre pier buttress on each side with plinths below battering outwards. Original entrance at first floor level, ground floor used for storage and illuminated by slit windows. South face: Brick-dressed, mullioned 3-light window at first floor level, to left of centre buttress, with chamfered surround. Round- arched opening above to right of buttress in deep surround; corbelled garde-robe, inserted in early C17 above. Two-light, round-arched opening on upper floor on top of central buttress. East face:- Two round-arched, two-light openings in central buttress at first floor and upper levels, stone blocks below lower window forming buttress. North face:- Irregular slit fenestration in lower stages, two-light round-arched opening to upper stage, left of centre, and round-arched ashlar- dressed opening to right of centre in middle stage. West face:- Entrance front of keep with the central pier buttress now largely destroyed. Two-light round-arched opening to upper stage, original first floor entrance, where a tall narrow passage led to the hall, now blocked. New entrance on ground floor. Interior:- Offsets in internal walls show where original floors were positioned. First floor hall with fireplace on one wall and deep window embrasures; in the western and southern walls small chambers have been constructed. Chamber in the south west corner was probably a chapel and has barrel-vaulted roof and blind arcading on one wall comprising attached pilaster piers under Norman leaf-carved capitals. The chalk walls are covered with medieval graffitti. The Keep was in use as a prison by the end of the C12 and the new apartments built to south west became a popular residence for Royalty in the C13. Henry III turned Guildford Castle into one of the most luxurious palaces in England and organized the rebuilding following the fire. Originally the exterior was whitewashed and the interiors were painted by William Florentyn who possibly also worked at St. Marys Church in Quarry Street; the main hall was marbled and the ceiling green and gold. The keep is part of a scheduled Ancient Monument, Surrey Monument No. I.

PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.275. M. ALEXANDER: GUILDFORD CASTLE GUIDE (1985) M. ALEXANDER: GUILDFORD AS IT WAS (1978) V.C.H. VOL III (1967 EDN) M. TOY: CASTLES OF ENGLAND (1953) pp.88-9 G. T. CLARK: MEDIEVAL MILITARY ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND, VOL I (1884) pp.53-71.

Listing NGR: SU9976949310

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 288879
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Alexander, M, Guildford As It Was, (1978)
Alexander, M, Guildford Castle Guide, (1985)
Clark, G T , Medieval Military Architecture in England, (1884), 53-71
Malden, H E, The Victoria History of the County of Surrey: Volume III, (1911)
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I Rev. by Cherry, The Buildings of England: Surrey, (1971), 275
Toy, M , Castles of England, (1953), 88-89

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.