Robert’s New Castle.

ROBERT Curthose, the short eldest son of William the Conqueror, was sent to control the north. He built a new castle on the banks of the River Tyne in 1080. This new castle was to give the town or city as it became in 1882 its name of Newcastle upon Tyne. Little remains of the Norman foundation, the medieval keep or Castle Garth is one of the first sights seen when entering this party city from the south.

Curthose built his tower in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery of the community of Monkchester, as Newcastle had been known due to the large number of monasteries and convents in the district. However these graves had originally been dug through the metalled roads and ruined walls of an earlier settlement, the Roman fortress and civilian colony of Pons Aelius.

The Norman Castle would have been a fortified enclosure, consisting of an earth rampart topped by a palisade of stakes and surround by an external ditch. There would have been a mound supporting a stone tower inside this barrier. The only relics of Curthose’s castle are the ditch running from the Black Gate to the railway line and the base of a small stone tower that was embedded in the ramparts at one time and has now been restored under the viaduct.

Medieval rulers had this early castle rebuilt in stone during the late 12th and early 13th Centuries. The principal builders were Henry II and his son, John, with the stronghold remaining a royal castle in the control of the king. It stood at too important a site for them to allow any of the noble families to own or lease it.

These sovereigns were to build the present-day keep between 1168 and 1178, as well as gatehouse, behind the present Black Gate and an enclosing stone curtain wall with three gateways or posterns. The South Postern with part of the wall on Castle Stairs is the only one that still remains.

An aisled hall was built on the site of the present Moot Hall in the 13th Century. A larger and stronger state of the art gatehouse, he Black Gate was built between 1247 and 1250. This marked the end of major modifications and improvements to Curthose’s castle.

The Castle Keep or dungeon dominated the castle bailey and housed a great vaulted storehouse and a fine chapel of the Late Norman period on the ground floor. Each of the first and second floors had two suites of apartments, each consisting of a hall or public room and a solar or private room and latrines.

Great spiral staircases in the keep’s eastern angles allowed access between the floors. Entrance to the keep is via angled steps leading to the main gate on the second floor. A the mouth of a well, which is almost 100 feet deep is also situated on the second floor.

Restoration work has been carried out on the keep since 1800. The most obvious renovations have been the battlements and flat roof, which was completed in the early 19th Century and the replacement stonework that was carried out during the 1970s.

The Black Gate was the most technologically advanced defensive works of its type when it was built. It was protected by a turning bridge, portcullis, gates and had guard rooms in its half drum towers. The passageway between the two sets of gates provided the garrison with a perfect killing ground.

These defences were obsolete by the early 17th Century and the castle had become derelict. The keep fell into disrepair and the moat had become the town’s midden. Archaeologists are delighted with their finds here. They include highly decorated pieces of pottery from the Rhineland, the Low Countries and France as well as glass, textiles and leather.

The castle’s days of glory were not over and it was briefly refortified during the English Civil War. Royalist forces under John Marley, the Lord Mayor held it against Scottish Covenanting troops for three days after the town had fallen.

School visits are catered for with educational resources being available though these must be booked in advance.

There is wheelchair access to the ground floor where a virtual tour of the building and surrounding site can be viewed. Again this facility must be booked in advance.

Opening times for the castle are 09:30 to 17:30 between April and September or 09:30 to 16:30 from October to March seven days a week.  The castle is closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.

Further information on the castle can be obtained from the Society of Antiquities on 0191 232 7938.