Conisborough Castle

Mr H Ecroyd Smith is going to press with his new work “Conisborough Castle – legendary, historic and romantic. The work promises to be full of interest, especially to the student of English history. It may surprise some Hull people to learn, what is nevertheless a fact that in olden times their home estuary was termed the Humber, or more frequently the Humber flood – so high up the Dune or Don as Conisbrough, and the important strata ford, now Strafford Sands, where the generally deep water was passable. Not only was this the case, but, previously to the system of drainage promoted by Vermuyden, in the 17^th century, the water spread out, for the most part of the year, over all the lower lands adjacent, and to several places formed an inland lake, notably so in the north east of Rossington Bridge, submerging the land from which now stand the villages of Haxey and Hatfield and the town of Thorne.

But this convenience of local transit proved a source of apprehension and terror for many inhabitants of this beautiful valley, inasmuch as the waterpower was sufficient to allow the war barges of the Jutes, Angles and Picts, to enter the heart of South Yorkshire and expose its villagers and farmers to devastation.

At this period the district of Holderness in common with the rest of the country between the Humber and the Tyne estuary is was known amongst the Britons as De hue burth, of the southern part; and thence forward to the Firth of Forth as Bry Netch or “the country of the Braes”

Thus the seaborne invaders of the Don Valley mostly sailed half round, or passed near the great port of Hull before performing their direst ravages up the stretch of Lindlisse as the district was then called.

This volume being professedly a compendium of the best descriptions of the main subjects, it was a sheer impossibility to avoid considerable iteration, especially on the details of the Keep.

But all the writers have had a true Yorkshire welcome, with a fair field and no favours, and readers can easily skip the dryer architectural details for more mysterious or singular features of the fortress of Conisbrough Castle which abounds with legends, which, in common with the veritable cry of almanac sellers are

“some lies, and some true.”

For instance, at the basement of the Key Tower, lies a dark cellar or storeroom for fuel, and which for ages had borne the designation of “dongeon”, though possibly occasionally used as such, it certainly was never intended for a prison, space in a keep being far too valuable to be lost in any such manner.

Report formally ran that from thence an underground passage had being excavated – some averring to Roche Abbey, others to a dungeon of Tickhill Castle, but each impossible through a great distance of hard limestone rock others proclaim the existence of a “bottomless well,” and were nearer the mark, as was proved some 40 years ago, when a well in the centre of the chamber and tower, being cleared from a long accumulating mass of rubbish was found and is said to be 105 feet deep, but is again choked with debris.

It was excavated in the solid rock to a much greater width than appears, being strongly cased round with masonry, so excellent that it bears little if any signs of decay.

But the strangest feature of Conisborough Castle remains to be told. The good water from the well just mentioned, was naturally in frequent request on all hands, especially when sustaining a siege. In lieu of a toilsome hand conveys up the winding staircase, this water, by means of some species of hoist was conveyed through the central part of the tower – in, no doubt with fuel and other supplies – by the contrivance of a central and vertical orifice of uncertain width, probably at least 6 feet across, seeing that the (dungeon) lower storeroom, as well as that above it, were only lighted from the stateroom higher still, and what other little light reached down through the cylindrical orifice, which permeated all the artificial floors.

Our readers can perhaps realise the very extraordinary appearance these chief apartments must have presented, for a large amount of timber cannot fail to have been requisite – firstly in the construction and support of the several floors; and secondly in the railings round each floor orifice to prevent accident to life or limb.

The tower itself being cylindrical, and the staircase winding with its walls, these main chambers are likewise round. All trace of timber, however, has long since disappeared, but portions of the ovens remain in the battlement or uppermost story.

It is a great mistake to suppose the scheme was erected for a residence. Everything about it tells a different story. The object was to possess a veritable secure and impregnable retreat – an absolute necessity in the age of its erection.

The latter portion of Mr Ecroyd Smith’s work is devoted to exposition of the characteristics of “Ivanhoe Sand,” or what we may term the Rotherham district, of which, however, Conisborough Castle must always be the great magnet of attraction, legendary, historic and romantic.

The work will be well illustrated, partly from old etchings and partly from recent photographs