Editing Castle Rising Castle (section)

====Keep====
[[File:Castle Rising, plan.png|thumb|upright=1.2|Plan of Castle Rising's keep, 1st floor (top), ground floor (bottom); A - kitchen; B - Great hall; C - waiting room; D - throne niche; E - great chambers; F - chapel; G - entrance to forebuilding]]

Historians Beric Morley and David Gurney consider Castle Rising to have "one of the finest of all Norman keeps".<ref name="Morley 1997 3"/> It is an early example of the longer, oblong form of these buildings, called a hall-keep, and would have taken huge resources to erect.<ref>{{harvnb|Pounds|1994|p=21}}; {{harvnb|Brown|1962|pp=48–49}}.</ref> Externally, it resembles Henry I's keeps at [[Norwich Castle|Norwich]] and [[Château de Falaise|Falaise]], although Norwich appears to have inspired the latter design, and Rising's internal layout was probably based on that at Norwich as well.<ref>{{harvnb|Hulme|2007–2008|p=222}}; {{harvnb|Goodall|2011|p=115}}.</ref> In imitating Norwich, which was then the only royal castle in the county, Castle Rising may have been intended to symbolise D'Albini's loyalty to the Crown during the troubled years of the Anarchy.<ref>{{harvnb|Liddiard|2005|pp=117, 119}}.</ref>

The keep is built from courses of local, brown [[carrstone]] rubble with [[oolite]] [[ashlar]] facings, and is strengthened with intramural timbers, laid down within the stone walls to reinforce the structure.<ref>{{harvnb|Higham|Barker|2004|pp=184–185}}.</ref> Its main body is {{convert|24|m}} by {{convert|21|m}} wide, with walls approximately {{convert|15|m}} high, with a forebuilding running along the east side.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=36}}.</ref> It has prominent [[pilaster]] [[buttress]]es, giving the keep what [[Sidney Toy]] describes as an "impression of strength and dignity"; the corners have clasping buttresses, forming four turrets.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=36}}; {{harvnb|Toy|1985|p=76}}.</ref> There is extensive [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] detail on the outside of the keep, including [[Arcade (architecture)|arcading]] along the west side and decorative stonework on the forebuilding.<ref>{{harvnb|Creighton|Higham|2003|p=47}}; {{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=37–38}}.</ref>

The interior of the keep is divided by an internal wall to improve its structural strength, the division running north–south through the building.<ref name="Brown 1988 46">{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=46}}.</ref> The basement of the keep has two main sections, the north room {{convert|18|m}} by {{convert|8|m}}, with pillars supporting the great hall above, and the south chamber {{convert|18|m}} by {{convert|5|m}} in size.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=48}}.</ref> The forebuilding leads from the ground to the first floor, up a passageway {{convert|2.4|m}} wide with 34 steps and through three arched doorways.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=43–45}}.</ref> At the top is a waiting room; the glazed windows are a mixture of Tudor and more modern insertions.<ref name="Brown 1988 46"/>

On the first floor is the great hall, {{convert|14|m}} by {{convert|7|m}}, now floorless and open to the sky.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=49, 81}}</ref> Its original entrance way was blocked up by a chimney when the forebuilding was converted into a separate apartment in the Tudor period, and an additional entrance way inserted into the castle wall.<ref name=Brown1988PP49ListedBuilding>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=49, 81}}; {{cite web|url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101077599-ruins-of-castle-and-eleventh-century-church-castle-rising|title=Ruins of Castle and Eleventh Century Church, Castle Rising|access-date=22 October 2024|author=English Heritage|publisher=British Listed Buildings}}</ref> The fireplace itself was later filled in with Tudor tiles around 1840.<ref name=Brown1988PP49ListedBuilding/> A mural passageway, dug out in the Tudor period, leads through to the kitchen and service quarters.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=49–50}}.</ref> On the southern side is the great chamber with a large, original 12th-century fireplace, and a mixture of original tri-lobed windows and 19th-century additions.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=52–53}}</ref> At the far end of the great chamber is an ornate chapel, with Norman arcading and arching.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=53–54}}</ref> The keep was originally built to have been relatively self-contained, and would not have needed many additional outbuildings to function as a residence.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodall|2011|p=113}}.</ref>

The second floor of the keep is limited in space, and contains only one small room above the chapel which was possibly used the chaplain or by castle guards.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=55}}.</ref> The forebuilding was later equipped with an additional room on this level, {{convert|4.8|m}} by {{convert|4.8|m}}, which remained inhabited longer than the rest of the castle keep, and which contains a 19th-century fireplace.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|p=56}}; {{cite web|url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101077599-ruins-of-castle-and-eleventh-century-church-castle-rising|title=Ruins of Castle and Eleventh Century Church, Castle Rising|access-date=22 October 2024|author=English Heritage|publisher=British Listed Buildings}}</ref> The upper {{convert|3.7|m}} of the keep's walls are different in design to the main body of the building; as described above, this may be the result of either a final phase of construction between 1200 and 1230, or a period of repair and renovation shortly after 1300.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1988|pp=41, 81}}; {{harvnb|Morley|Gurney|1997|p=3}}.</ref>