13 - South-east England: survey

Summary

AMBERLEY CASTLE, Sussex

The boundaries of the diocese of Chichester have remained virtually unchanged and coterminous with the county of Sussex since the late seventh century, with the majority of the bishop's medieval manors in West Sussex. Amberley was the most favoured residence, with Aldingbourne, Cakeham, and Drungewick next in popularity. Some thirteenth- and early sixteenth-century structures survive at Cakeham and the moated site at Drungewick, but the extensive remains at Amberley encompass at least seven building phases.

1. The castle was held by the bishops of Chichester throughout the middle ages. Part of a late Norman arch with chevron ornament survives at the entrance to the chamber beneath the first hall (present dining room). This mid-twelfth-century feature may or may not be an insertion. No other element within the castle has such clear late Norman character.

2. The south-east corner of the castle is essentially an early-thirteenth-century house. T-shaped, it is made up of a hall with several ancillary rooms at right angles to it along the line of the outer wall. All the principal rooms were at first-floor level. The external evidence for them is a two-light window in the upper end wall, and the two single lights of the large chamber against the outer wall, heavily restored and altered by the duke of Norfolk in 1908. This early thirteenth-century house was built of rubble, whereas ashlar was used for all later work.

3. During the early to mid-fourteenth century, the great hall with end chamber blocks was developed astride the court, touching a corner of the earlier hall. It may have been built by John Langton (1305–37) rather than Robert Stratford (1337–62) in emulation of the new archiepiscopal halls at Charing, Mayfield, and Maidstone.

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