Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/417

The Castle of Christ churchy Hants. 387 April 23rd, 939, in which, among other lands, he, the "king wield- ing all Britain," gives to God and St. Mary, to St. Michael, St. Sampson, and St. Branwaladre, lands on Avene at Twynham. The character of a royal vill was long sustained, and from Domesday it appears that it had belonged to the Confessor and did then belong to King William. Long before that time, however, a religious house had been founded there, and the canons of Tuinham, or of the Holy Trinity of Thuinam, appear in the Survey as tenants-in-chief The foundation was probably an early one. Twynburn, or Winburn, on the same Stour a few miles higher up, was founded before 705, and Wareham before 876. In the Confessor's time, there were twenty- four canons and a dean ; and in the reign of Rufus, the latter post was filled by Ralf Flambard, who is said to have rebuilt the college, which was practically re-founded by Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon, in the reign of Henry I., and whose son. Earl Baldwin, obtained the conversion of the seculars into regular canons of the order of St. Augustin. The mill is recorded in Domesday. In all these transactions there is no mention of the castle. The castle, however, though possibly not a structure in regular masonry until a century later than the Conquest, was certainly a burh long before that event, and probably at least as early as the ninth century, preceding, no doubt, and being the cause of, the vill, or collection of houses. It stands upon the right or west bank of the Avon river, immediately below the ancient bridge which carries the high road across it. Its eastern front stands about 16 yards from the river, and rises out of, and forms, the bank of the Mill Leat, which intervenes between the castle and the Avon. The leat com- mences about three quarters of a mile higher up, and terminates at the ancient Priory Mill, now called " Place Mill," 500 yards lower down, where, having started from the Avon, it falls into the Stour. xA.s there seems to have been but one mill, it is to be supposed that the lay and spiritual lords were in accord upon the very interesting topic of multures. At any rate, it lay with the former to cut off the supply of water. The area of the castle was roughly rectangular, about 110 yards north and south, or parallel to the river, and 150 yards east and west, — dimensions which include the ditch, now filled up, but of which there are indications, with a breadth of 20 yards, along the north and west fronts, now Castle and Church streets. The line of the ditch along the south, or Priory, side is not traceable. The old Priory wall is wanting there, and the ground has been levelled and cultivated as a garden for above a century. Probably the ditch communicated at each end with the mill-stream, and was filled from it, involving at the deepest part not above 12 feet to 15 feet of exca- vation. No doubt there was a bank within the ditch, thrown up from it, and which has since been employed to fill it up. On the water front no earthworks were necessary. The leat is 25 feet broad, and the river expands suddenly below the bridge to 130 feet in width. 2 c 2