Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eleventh - 1121 Revisited - Chapter III

And so, 'tis May, 2021, nine-hundred years after Norwich Castle's completion and here we are, back again with the builders in. This time we have a big yellow crane and a shedload of groats but I find comfort in the fact that our stonemasons still use identical tools and methods to their mediæval counterparts.

Unlike the days of Henry the First we no longer die so much of arse-gravy mayhem; instead we choke to death in our millions due to governmental incompetence and fuckwits who won't wear masks … 3,390,000 dead as of today and the Indian Variant that our imbecile Dear Leader is ignoring will slap us back into lockdown before much longer. Happy days …

But at least the bluebells are out on the castle mound and the big yellow crane looks cheerful and jolly in the spring sunshine. So that's alright then. This is the view from the stage of the little outdoor theatre in the moat.

And at last that smegging 1960s café has gone and we can see the beautiful north wall of the keep as nature intended (or at least as William Rufus and Henry the First intended). The archæologists have recorded and covered up the remains of William Longshanks' palace and things are moving along nicely.

The Museum opened (pre-bookings only and limited numbers) on Monday and the swear jar in the site office is gasping for groats as the builders are once more on their best fucking behaviour … Sorry; that's a pound in the jar from me …

If anyone fancies this Victorian window in their front room the sign says "External window remove carefully for architectural salvage" so it'll be on sale as soon as they've got it out of the wall. Getting it in the back of your car might be a bit of a bugger, though.

We're up in the keep again now, just below what will be the Great Hall floor level. you can see the original Norman wall on the left, with some of Gitty Soane's crap brick repairs in it; the arch is Boardman's from the 1890s and beyond will be the restored King's Chapel.

Some Danish seasoned oak floorboard samples for areas where we're not using reclaimed mediæval boards. Thanks to every monarch from Henry the Eighth through to the Georges destroying our ancient tall oak woodland to build navies we're left with attractively gnarly, stumpy old oaks which are no good for the very long and very wide boards we need. The Danes still have plenty, however, and since the Normans who built the castle were descended from Danish King Rollo in the 900s (see the early history chapters below) we feel pretty comfortable with using them.

I'll leave you today with another picture of the crane and the south face of the keep. More stuff as soon as I get round to it. Toodle pip from your masked mediævalist!

Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Eleventh - 1121 Revisited - Chapter II

Being some photographs of holes in the ground and assorted gallimaufry at the castle to date …

Don't say I didn't warn you. Yup, it's a hole in the ground. A new drainage run carefully excavated by the archæologists under the crappy old 1960s café.

This one's inside the keep basement and is one of Boardman's old Victorian drains that needed replacing. The new drain is in and they're surrounding it with peashingle in preparation for the archæologists to backfill the trench.

Don't fret; we're not putting plastic pipes in; those are the temporary diverted drains on the surface. 

And yes, that blackish stratum on the left is part of the porpoise party of Christmas 1121.

Bet you never thought working on a Norman castle could be so glamorous and exciting, did you?

This is up at what will be the Great Hall floor level where we've taken out Boardman's "pitiful walkway" (see posts passim) and are surveying the holes he dug into the keep wall as we have to re-use those for our own structure so as not to cause any more damage to the mediæval fabric.

Another view of the same area. Yes, we still use pencils and duct tape. The chalk (and chalk …) mark shows where the Structural Engineer had planned to put steel prior to this area being exposed, but due to the Boardman hole locations we're having to faff and fudge it to suit what's there.

Socially distanced faffing and fudging. Much masked mumbling and hard-hatted head-scratching.

Meanwhile, outside the keep, some lucky sod gets to play with the mini-piling rig, now that the archæologists have determined where is safe to pile so as not to disturb anything interesting. Boardman's Victorian vandal builders destroyed much of Edward Longshanks' royal palace remains so we have plenty of room to plan our foundations.

The steel post and beams are part of the old café roof and will soon be removed.

I'll finish this month with a view of the whacking great crane having just lowered some steelwork into the now happily-demolished crappy 1960s shop area. This will be the new reception atrium and have my whizzy glass roof on it so you'll be able to see the Bigod Tower (on the left) for the first time since the eighteenth century.

More faff and blather to come when there's something interesting to photograph.