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The Castle that Lost its Keep
Oxford is a city famous for its 'dreaming spires' - the towering grandeur of its academic and religious architecture that has dominated the landscape for centuries.
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Squires book, "In West Oxford"plate no: 35 |
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However, on our current journey, we will investigate a building that is no longer there. All you can see today is a grassy mound topped with scrub and trees. But this was once the site of a grand castle that would have controlled the river crossing at Oxford.
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In fact, the main castle building had been missing for so long that many people believed that there had never been anything more here than a simple wooden fortification or a low stone wall - as this map from 1675 shows.
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Squires book "In West Oxford" plate no: 34 |
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Squires book "In West Oxford" plate no:33 |
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But there was more than this, much more. Historians tracing through the archives found there had been a sizable stone keep on the mound with a high stone wall enclosing an area of several acres with a number of other stone buildings.
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This is a conjectural view drawn by C H Ashdown in 1910 that shows how Oxford Castle may have looked in Norman times in the 11th and 12th Centuries. The castle keep clearly dominates and controls the river landscape.
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Oxford Castle, conjectural view during Norman Period |
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Squires book "In West Oxford" plate no:32 |
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The keep was actually ten-sided and this 17th century sketch by John Aubrey shows it in ruins with an enormous crack running down one side. Cromwell's men pulled it down in 1650 after the Civil War.
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Apart from the mound, there is one substantial part of the old castle remaining today - St Georges Tower. It used to stand on the edge of the castle bailey - the area enclosed by the castle walls - and may have been used as the castle keep before the one built high on the mound.
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Oxford Castle, conjectural view during Norman Period |
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Oxford Castle |
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This engraving from the 18th Century shows St Georges Tower with the Castle Mill in the background.
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Another print, again from the 18th Century, shows St Georges Tower as a ruin with vegetation sprouting from the top. The castle mound in the foreground, and not drawn to scale, has no building on it and is crowned by a knot of mature trees.
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Oxford Castle |
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Remains of Oxford Castle |
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A century later in the 1800s, the tower is still a ruin beside the working mill. Behind these buildings, the castle site had become the county gaol, virtually hidden from public view for centuries.
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Today, the Castle Mill has gone, the victim of road widening in 1930, and the tower has a new college building next door. The prison closed in 1996 and the castle site is now being transformed to encourage public use and access.
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The Thames at Oxford is now more of a focus for leisure activities than a working river.
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As we continue our journey downstream, our next stop will be just before the town of Marlow.
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Introduction
Oxford
