South Yorkshire Times June 12, 1965
Our Readers’ Views
Conisbrough Castle
Sir,
Conisbrough Castle, which is pronounced by Mr. King to be of the earliest Saxon times, “before the conversion of that people to Christianity,” is held by later antiquaries in its extent and arrangement to be a fair representation of the Norman keeps of the smaller class. A short time ago a boy from Conisbrough brought me a fine Roman coin, clipped, which he said he had found in Conisbrough Castle grounds. I identified it as of the reign of Antoninius Pius.
The castle was formerly entered by a drawbridge over a deep fosse. Some authorities attribute its foundation to the British Queen Cartismandua, and others to the Norman Earls of Warren. That the place was a royal residence in the time of the Saxons is beyond dispute, and the probability is that the inner keep is of Saxon origin and that the outer walls were built by the Normans.
Fletcher describes it in 1896: “It stands upon a natural eminence, richly wooded, on the south bank of the Don, an outer wall surrounds the summit of this eminence to the extent of about an acre, and at its north-west angle rises the tower or keep. It rests upon a widespread base, and rises to a height of nearly 90 ft. In form it is cylindrical, and is supported by six massive buttresses which rise above its summit. A flight of 33 steps leads to a doorway from when a passage is cut through the walls, which at this point are 15 feet thick. Twenty-five steps, cut through the thickness of the wall, lead to the principal apartment, in which there is a fine Norman fireplace. Thirty-four steps more lead to a third floor compartment, out of which opens an oratory. This is the most interesting feature of the castle. It was in this oratory that Sir Walter Scott laid the scene of the funeral feast in “Ivanhoe” whereat Athelstane reappears to Richard Coeur de Lion and Cedric the Saxon. A still further flight of steps leads through the wall to the summit of the keep, from whence there is a magnificent view of the surrounding country. The ground floor or base is described by Pennant as a noisome dungeon of vast depth at the bottom of which is a draw well.”
Will this be the tunnel referred to by your correspondents in the “South Yorkshire Times”?
Yours, etc.
JOSHUA HUDSON
69, Milton Street,
Wombwell