 Okehampton Castle
Okehampton Castle presents a good example of why it was important to consider carefully
the location of a castle. The site has steep slopes to the south, providing
a natural defence, and the added probability of waterlogged fields to
slow down any hostile approaches, and on the northern side there was
a wide stream. Norman times saw much violence, and Okehampton Castle had to
be a strong fortification with effective defence barriers surrounding it.
Although any substantial documentation about the castle's history is non-existent,
there is a mention in the Domesday Book of the first castle to be built
at Okehampton, by the Sheriff of Devon, during the late 11th
century. This took the form of a motte, or raised mound, with rock-cut
ditches around it, which provided the building materials for a stone tower
or keep. Few traces of the original castle have survived, but the motte,
sporting the fragmentary remains of the 14th century rebuilding
of the keep, still tends to dominate the site.
The overall layout of the
later castle is quite interesting, as it takes more of an elongated
shape, with a northerly gatehouse opening into a long, narrow tunnel
known as the Barbican Passage, which restricted access to the main gatehouse
within the curtain walls. One of the interesting features in this part
of Okehampton Castle are the cobbled areas at the Barbican gatehouse, dating
from late 17th century occupation. Cobbles also played a
significant part in the kitchen area where a 'screens passage', laid
with a cobbled floor, separated the Great Hall from the kitchen in an
attempt to lessen the risk of fire spreading. On the eastern side of
the site it is possible to identify the ruinous walls of a small chapel
still containing a piscina, and adjacent is a terrace of three, first-floor
lodgings.
Trying to build up a picture of the past when so little is known, is much like constructing
a jigsaw puzzle. At Okehampton Castle searching out the clues about the
original construction has proved a challenging task, made more difficult
by the frequent changes of ownership and the resulting conversions and
extensions to the buildings. From about 1538 there appears to have been
limited occupation of Okehampton Castle until the late 1600s, and from then on
the buildings were left to decay, and gradually collapse.
Positioned in the very centre of Devon, close to Dartmoor, Okehampton Castle stood
as an example of newly-arrived nobility - it was a fortified home, and
an important administrative centre. However, it is not thought to have
been involved in any raids, nor ever been beseiged. |
