Conisborough Castle

Conisborough Castle stands on a natural hill 175ft. high, with a steep slope on every side. The earliest known mention of Conisborough—the king’s borough—seems to be in the will of Wulfric Spot, Minister of King Ethelred. Conisborough at this time was at the head of a large estate or soke.

Before the Conquest it came into the hands of Earl Harold, and after the battle of Hastings it was granted to William, Earl Warren, who died in 1089. His son William sided with Robert against Henry II., but afterwards changed sides, and fought against Robert at Tinchebrai. He was succeeded by a third William in 1138, who died in 1148 in one of the Crusades.

It has been maintained that it was this William who built the wall of the inner court and parts of the rest of the castle. The ruins now show that the castle has at one time consisted of an outer ward for troops and cattle, an inner ward, containing the hall and offices, and a keep. The latter is the chief part remaining, and in itself is highly interesting.

It consists of a round stone cylinder flanked by six powerful buttresses extending the whole length of the tower. The latter at one point is 90ft. high, and was once, perhaps, 120ft. to the top. The buttresses are now 94ft. high, and are faced with large even blocks of limestone. The walls of the circular keep are 15ft. thick at the base, but at each floor become thinner.

The entrance is by a door 20ft. above the ground, and is approached by a modern flight of 35 stone steps, which have probably replaced a similar older structure. The first floor is a circular room 22ft. in diameter, without means of admitting air or light, except by the door. In the centre is a circular hole leading to a lower domed vault, the floor of which is the native rock, and which was approached by a ladder. In the centre of this is a well 105ft. deep and about 2ft. in diameter.

It has been alleged, as of so many other places, that a subterranean passage connects this vault with Roche Abbey, four and a half miles distant. These two rooms, the vault and the first floor, were probably used as store rooms for provisions in case of siege.

Ascending by steps within vaulted passages in the masonry we reach the second floor, which is lighted by a window, and which contains a fireplace of late Norman origin. This room has a diameter of 25ft., and on the same floor is a small guard-robe chamber. The room was probably used as the ordinary apartment for the occupants of the keep.

Still higher is the third or oratory-room, 27ft. in diameter, likewise containing a window and a fireplace similar to but smaller than the one below. This, it has been suggested, was the ladies’ room, and close by was a small and very remarkable oratory, hexagonal in shape, and sometimes known as Athelstane’s Oratory. To the left is a small vestry.

Higher still, on the fourth floor, is a larger room, probably used as a kitchen, and for the use of the small garrison. On this floor are two cavities, perhaps used as cisterns for holding water. The parapets at the top are 6ft. 6in. high, and below are small holes, the use of which is so open to conjecture that suggestions have ranged from pigeon-holes to apertures for pouring down hot lead on the besiegers.

Although opinions have been strongly stated that this remarkable keep is of Saxon origin, there seems to be but little doubt, from the fact that it is supported by buttresses, and contains two late Norman fireplaces, and is built on the corner of the curtain wall of the inner keep, that it is not much earlier than 1200.

The castle has been so impregnable that its history has been singularly peaceful. King John visited the place in 1201, but few exciting events occurred within its walls.

To the general reader Conisborough Castle owes its interest not so much to its quaintness as to the glamour that has been thrown over it by Sir Walter Scott in his “Ivanhoe.”