Rougemont Castle, Exeter, Devon - Part Two

Part Two of Rougemont Castle deals with the inner courtyard and the buildings within the castle walls. The whole site, comprising the Gatehouse, Castle and City Walls, the ground beneath all the buildings and adjoining areas, is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Part One is on the previous post but can also be accessed here.

 

The largest and most imposing building is the Palladian style Georgian courthouse, built in 1773 for the County Assize Courts. Prior to this, the inner bailey consisted of a Sessions House, built in 1607, which was demolished along with the remaining mediaeval buildings. Interestingly, a castle was a traditional venue for court hearings, which is where the name 'the old bailey' or the terms 'court' and 'courthouse' comes from.  

The building comprises two storeys at the front in stone, with a similar east wing of four bays, which was built much later in 1905. The main entrance is through a portico with three round-headed arches whereas there's a rather nifty pedimented doorway with corinthian columns on the side east wing (above left). The top photo of the above three shows a cupola on the roof.

A Grade II* Listed building, it is now home to residential apartments, a ballroom and gallery. When I visited in November 2011, there was still interior alteration work being undertaken with workmen going in and out. I didn't want to get in their way, so I only took a few photos of the vestibule inside. The exterior was rather difficult to photograph too, as the carpark was full and I couldn't get any shots from a distance, and as the vehicles were right up to the building I only managed a few close-ups. More about that later! 

Enlarged in 1895, and more alterations made in 1905 with the addition of the new Neo-Palladian wing, it served as Exeter's Crown and County Courts until 2003. Apart from those fortunate...or unfortunate!...to have been called to court, it was an inaccessible part of Exeter's rich history. However, due to increasing difficulties of disabled access, there was a move to new purpose-built courts, and the Assize building was subsequently sold to private developers.

To the right of the inner door (above) is what looks like a reception office, which may have been the first port of call for those who were attending court.

The photo below shows a lovely ornamental pebbled pathway in front of the building, using pale stones to create the diamond within a bed of dark ones. Pebbles were used extensively in East Devon buildings, as well as the more ubiquitous cobbled streets, due to the local pebble beds in the area as well as the pebbly beaches.

As grand as the building is, I found the rear areas far more interesting. I love the way bits of the architecture get cobbled together when no-one's looking.

I wish I had more photos of the rear as it's full of higgledy-piggledy goodness, along with this fabulous cast iron pipe, above. 

And around the other side to the east, is this wonderful arch. There are lights above, therefore I assume it's an actual bridge across and over the wall to the right. 

Another Grade II Listed remain of the inner courtyard is this statue of Earl Fortesque (below), who was the Lieutenant of Devon. The statue was erected in 1863. I had difficulty getting this photo, as it was fenced off around the base, but managed to get inside the barriers to get this side shot.

 
The Lodge, below, was built in 1892, and although not a Listed Building in its own right it has been Curtillaged Listed. That was a new term for me, so I looked it up. It's a term accorded to satellite buildings within a specific area together with those which are grade listed, and which pre-date 1948. As a building which has a specific role within a Scheduled Ancient Monument, it is therefore curtillaged and protected alongside them.  

A view, below, of the inside of the castle gate and gatehouse. A wonderful view for anyone living in one of the new courthouse apartments, but...a minor rant here! One of the reasons I had difficulty getting the photos I wanted was due to the amount of vehicles inside the courtyard.

According to a pdf document from the planning department published in April 2005, and before the buildings were sold for development, it did stipulate that 'in order to create a satisfactory ambience for the buildings and the ramparts, parking should be kept to a minimum'. Before it was sold and developed there were virtually no cars there at all (as in the first photo at the top of this article, seen through the gate), but at this visit it was choc-a-bloc. In fact, the whole of the courtyard looked like one gigantic car park, even right up to the front entrance of the Georgian building, and I know I wouldn't want to live there and see that from my window. It may not be like that now, as it was almost exactly 12 years ago and there may have been an event held in the public rooms at the time. If things are different I will update with more photos when I can visit again. :)

And to end with, here are a few more of the fabulous castle gatehouse from the front. I have such a lot of these so I only put a small selection in Part One. I went a bit mad when taking photos and printing them up because I just love this amazing arch with the triangular headed openings.

I'll hopefully get some more articles done before the end of this month, although I'm not sure which ones yet. 

Cheers. :)

Rougemont Castle, Exeter, Devon - Part One

 

This is an article which was partially in draft at the time of my website's demise and wasn't published. Part two was, but I needed more photos for part one and I still haven't been back to get them! I'm not sure when I'll be able to travel again but I've decided to get on with the article anyway, as I can always add any other photos later.

Originally an Anglo-Saxon fortress, it was rebuilt in 1068 to maintain Norman power over Exeter. The castle was constructed as a stone ringwork fortress and named Rougemont - red hill - because of the distinctive dark red stone in an area where an ancient volcanic plug is situated. Nothing remains of the interior buildings themselves, but the walls, gatehouse and towers are still extant, along with the north west square and round tower defences. The whole site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which includes the later buildings inside as well as the Castle Quarter buildings surrounding it.

The photos above are of the 11th century three-storey gatehouse. Originally having wooden floors, the top-most chamber contains two delightful and unusual triangular-headed windows showing Anglo-Saxon workmanship. The archway on the gatehouse is the oldest norman arch of non- ecclesiastical usage in existence.

The three canons at the base bear stamps from the Spanish Armada, just about discernable in the photo below. Unfortunately, on a later visit, the canons were no longer there.

And seen from the other side in the courtyard, below.

The remains include a strong set of defences comprising earthworks and an outer curtain wall, along with the square and round towers. Two of the castle walls utilised the existing town walls, which were duly strengthened.

Part of the castle wall along from the gatehouse can be seen below.

Surrounding the castle are Rougemont and Northernhay Gardens. The entrance to the latter closely follows the castle wall, which was also part of the city wall, where two of the towers can be seen.

Several years ago I tried to take photos of the Northernhay Garden castle walls and towers and was met by two guards stopping people from going in because there was a ticket-only food festival being held further along. However, after explaining what I wanted to do, they kindly allowed me to venture in a short way to take these three photos; the two above and one below. 

This one is called King John's Tower and can just about be seen on the right of the wall in the photo below. Once part of the defences it was later altered to be a gazebo when the law courts were built in 1773.

After leaving Northernhay Garden I went around the other side intending to take some close-ups of the other tower (Athelstan's). A short path up to the tower had two or three lads sat about; one of them saw me and marched towards me with purposeful strides. It might not have had anything to do with me but I didn't have a good feeling about it so I decided not to risk finding out and walked back the way I came. Not a very good day for photos, lol.

However, I have these two b&w photos, which were taken some 32 years ago, showing the square Athelstan's Tower...complete with gardener in the first one. The second can also be seen at the top of the page and is a little closer than the first.

I don't have much information about Athelstan's Tower, but apparently it does have triangular headed windows like the gatehouse, showing the Anglo-Saxon influence. Also built with various stone material, including the volcanic, with the later additions of Norman crenelations. I'll add more when I get to see it for myself. 

And some photos of the arch in the wall seen from the other side in Rougement Garden. Both Rougement and Northernhay gardens are Grade II Listed on the national Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Something I will be doing next year, health permitting, is to visit and take more photos of the gardens and the towers, etc, as I want to add not only to these two articles but also a separate one about the gardens and their history.

And that's just about it for Part One, apart from some photos of odd openings in the walls, below, which - as it was some time ago - I don't recall exactly where they were situated.

Part Two will be up shortly as I've already got the text with photo numbers saved to document from my former website. It will just need a bit of twiddling and tidying up and possibly some additional information. 

Cheers. :)