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Archaeology Warwickshire | |
Kenilworth Castle Gallery Tower Archaeological evaluation of proposed new entrance building | |
| English Heritage have recently constructed a new entrance building at Kenilworth Castle adjacent to the site of the Gallery Tower at the south end of the Tiltyard dam. In May 2005 the Field Archaeology Projects Group was commissioned to excavate a trench along the line of the rear wall of the proposed building to investigate the survival of archaeological remains. Because undisturbed remains were unearthed at an unexpectedly shallow depth the initial trench was enlarged to cover a much larger area in order to understand and discover the extent of the deposits revealed. | |
 Gallery Tower, initial evaluation trench. | |
| Kenilworth Castle had one of the most elaborate systems of water defences of any castle in Britain. To the south the Great Mere over 40ha in extent, formed an important part of these defences. It was created by a massive dam, the Tiltyard, placed across the valley of the Finham Brook. The Tiltyard was the main medieval entrance to the castle; it was fortified by two gatehouses, Mortimer’s Tower and the Gallery Tower, and its south east end was protected by an outwork known as The Brays. Below the Tiltyard there was another pool, the Lower Pool held back by another dam now crossed by Castle Road. | |
 Kenilworth Castle and Mere. | |
| Excavation work at the south end of the Tiltyard in 1965 revealed the outlet from the Mere and it may be that an early stream bed was succeeded by a medieval bridge abutment with a sluice gate that formed the overflow from the Mere. Further work in 1965 and again in 1966 at the so-called Hawkesworth Gap in the Tiltyard showed that an early dam about 8ft (c.2.44m) high with a gravelled top was later raised, possibly by about 3.6m, to its existing height. The heightening of the Tiltyard Dam and enlargement of the Mere is believed to have occurred before 1241 when Henry III ordered the rebuilding of the southern curtain wall of the castle to accommodate changes to the Mere. Further evidence for the two phases of the dam came from clearance work in the area of the Gallery Tower at the south end of the dam in the later 1960s. Here it appears that the north wall of the tower is set in the natural bedrock and dates from the 12th century at which time it would have marked the south end of the dam. The Gallery Tower was altered in the medieval period before being almost completely rebuilt by the earl of Leicester in the late 16th century. The name Gallery Tower is also first mentioned in the Elizabethan period. In the mid-17th century Dugdale refers to it as having formed a “noble room” from which ladies could view martial events taking place on the tiltyard to the north. More recent archaeological investigations at the Gallery Tower in 1990 and 2004 revealed evidence for a medieval stone flag floor at the north entrance to the tower and a gravel surface along with complex late medieval deposits associated with the levelling of the tower area and construction of the late 16th-century tower. | |
 Kenilworth Castle Mere, c.1650, by W Hollar (Gallery Tower [18] to right). | |
| The Great Mere was recorded during the lifetime of Sir Robert Dudley, in the late 16th century, as then covering around 111 acres or 45 hectares. It was drained as a result of the dam being breached in the aftermath of the civil war sometime before 1650. Hollar’s view in Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire of 1656, which shows the Mere in existence, was probably executed earlier. His plan of the castle shows a flight of steps leading down from the south-west side of the Gallery Tower into the area of the current excavation. This would presumably have provided access to boats on the Mere. | |
 Gallery Tower, area excavation. | |
| The excavations revealed possible medieval yard surfaces overlain by a deposit of clay that dipped down to the west. The clay was overlain by a layer of sandstone rubble running downwards at the same angle. A further layer of rubble levelled up the area into a flattish surface from the top of which around 300 fragments of medieval pottery have been recovered. The whole arrangement appears to represent the medieval structure of the dam with the waterproof clay being held in place and protected by the early rubble. The later rubble levelled the whole area into a platform that may have provided access to boats on the Mere. No trace of the 17th-century steps survived. The area appeared to have been stripped of post-medieval material and levelled off in the 18th/19th century when a pebble yard surface was laid down, probably forming part of the farm that was centred around the castle at that time. | |
Archaeology Warwickshire, Warwickshire Historic and Natural Environment The Butts, Warwick, CV34 4SS Tel: 01926 412280/412278 Fax: 01926 412974 Email: fieldarchaeology@warwickshire.gov.uk |
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