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The Castle. If you walk around the castle it soon becomes obvious that it wasn't all built at the same time - there are big differences in the stonework and design. |
| Since the Romans left there have been waves of invaders and settlers moving into England. First it was the Angles (we sometimes call them the Anglo-Saxons) who came from the east. The Angles, many of whom became Christians, probably built a settlement and church in the ruins of the old Roman fort. |
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 Early Norman Castle |
The Normans got to Lancaster in 1069. William the Conqueror granted feudal honours of lands to the knights who had helped him. The Lordship of Lancaster was given to Roger of Poitou. Life for the peasants - they were called villeins - was hard, Roger owned their houses and all the land. Instead of rent, the villeins had to work on his personal land (called the demesne) as well as their own plots. They also had to grind their corn in his mill - it was on the mill-race which ran along Damside Street - naturally he got some of the flour too. |
Roger of Poitou probably built himself a motte and bailey castle inside the ruins of the old Roman fort, the motte of which was possibly under the Shire Hall. The castle grew from then on - each owner seems to have built something - or at the very least repaired it. The Castle passed through the hands of (amongst many others) Stephen of Blois, King David of Scotland - when Lancashire was part of Scotland, William of Mortain, Richard the first, and King John, Edmund, first Earl of Lancaster, and since Henry IV united the Dukedom of Lancaster with the crown, it has been a royal possession just like many other castles up and down the land - a royal castle which the monarch hardly ever visited.
 Late Norman Priory and Castle |
In 1193 John of Mortain freed some of the peasants from having to work in his fields and allowed them to become traders and merchants. There was a market in front of where the museum is now - you would have been able to buy all kinds of things from the traders there - woollen cloth for making clothes, fish, bread, fruit and many other things. |
Lancaster was then a town of timber and thatch buildings - there would have been unpleasant open drains running down the middle of the streets, pigs and dogs roaming about eating from piles of domestic refuse. The houses were quite clean inside but the people didn't wash very often - in fact many of them would have had insect bites and sores on their skin. The castle itself was about the same size as it is now - but most of the towers and the gateway were different and more roughly made - and the Shire Hall wasn't there. Some of the people had a duty of sergeanty, i.e. they had to 'man' the castle in turn, but usually they paid someone else from the town to do this. So, had you tried to enter the castle, you would have found it manned by two or three unlikely looking soldiers (sergeants) who were probably some of the rougher villeins (peasants) of the town.
 Man in the Stocks |
Crime The castle has been used as a prison for hundreds of years - in Medieval times the lord of the manor would have had trouble makers, or anybody else he considered a criminal, flung into the dungeons awaiting justice. This castle has often served as a prison through the ages. Indeed, in 1788 a new court and prison accommodation was built. Until 1799 anybody sentenced to death during the Assizes - these were trials conducted by judges who toured the country - was executed on Gallows Hill, at the southern gate of what is now Williamson's Park. When the Assizes were on many people would come to town and great crowds would attend the executions. |
| Those to be executed were taken up
the hill by cart, possibly via the Golden Lion Inn where they were given
their last drink. When they reached the gallows they were made to stand
on the cart, a rope was fastened around their neck and then, finally,
the cart was moved away. The Pendle witches were executed on Gallows Hill. |
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 Hanging Corner |
After 1799 executions took place
outside the castle at Hanging Corner, and after 1865, inside the Castle.
Between 1799 and 1865, a total of 215 people were executed at this
spot - it is by the northern corner of the Shire Hall, alongside the
wall of the Castle. Only one person, Walker Moore, escaped his punishment
and he only managed this because he drowned himself on the very morning
of his execution. 1817 was the worst year for executions - during
this year there were 20. |
| It was amazing what you could be hanged for; 3 people were executed for stealing from the bleaching grounds. (The bleaching grounds were where washerwomen and ordinary people spread their linen to dry and bleach in the sun.) 44 people were executed for burglary. Both men and women were executed, though vastly more men than women. The last execution for anything other than murder was in 1834.
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The Actual Execution The gallows were built on the day before the execution took place.
They extended from the base of the window (which is actually a wooden
door) along the wall. They were draped in black cloth. |
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| Once the body had hung
for one hour - this was the law - it was taken down and back into the
prison through a gap which opened in the stones at the base of the wall
on the right hand side of the window. It should be said that most people went to their deaths with a good deal of dignity and died without a struggle. |
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