Welsh Journals

POWIS CASTLE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STRUCTURE CHRISTOPHER J. ARNOLD INTRODUCTION The National Trust, owners of Powis Castle since 1952, are committed to a programme of repair and maintenance of the contents, interior decoration and fabric of the buildings in their expert care. In recent years this has included a phased programme of work involving the repointing of wall-faces and the replacement of damaged window frames often undertaken in conjunction with re-roofing. The work has been carried out in stages and since 1987 the opportunity has been taken to record masonry and mortars in detail to form a record of the structure prior to the contemporary repairs. Half of the outside face of the buildings surrounding the inner ward had been repointed prior to any archaeological involvement so that the completion of this record will have to await the next programme of work involving the repointing of the castle. The results of the survey reported here, therefore, apply to approximately half of the inner ward, in particular the south-east and south-west faces which includes the whole of the main gatehouse and the castle wall facing the gardens. The recording was carried out in three stages (pis 1-3), working in a clockwise direction, in April-June 1987, March-May 1988 and May-October 1989. In total approximately 1129 sq. m of wall-face were recorded. The record itself forms the basis for an understanding of the manner in which the castle has developed from its initial construction in stone to the twentieth century. Conclusions drawn about the structure itself may be viewed in relation to the available written evidence. There is ample documentary evidence for post-medieval alterations and additions to the castle which can be related quite successfully to the observed changes that have been made to the structure. From the medieval centuries there are a number of statements which may be significant to the fabric although they are less specific and rarely without problems over relevance and significance. For the earliest years of the castle's development the testimony of the fabric is often louder than any other source. A previous paper detailed observations made about the inner and outer wards (Arnold 1985) and the extent of some of the structural elements. This paper should be seen as augmenting and extending those conclusions in as far as they overlap. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The modern visitor to the castle is presented with a unitary image, the continuous lines of parapet, the consistency of window design, masonry and pointing which are relatively recent changes and the product of the bold vision of various modem architects. The result is a uniformity which belies the complexity of the development of the castle. The contents and fittings of the rooms date largely from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and serve to reinforce the impression that the medieval castle has long since been replaced. Indeed the current National Trust guidebook to Powis Castle (Rowell 1989) does nothing to dispel this illusion, describing the rooms in as far as they reflect seventeenth and eighteenth century tastes in interior design and reserving a little over two pages (ibid., 51-3), not to the surviving fabric of the medieval castle, but to its various owners during that time. While this policy