the south wall the loop is represented by a small square opening In the ruins of the east side may be traced the remains of a doorway and the base of a lobby and staircase in the wall. It is clear that the external door was in this face, near the south end, and that it opened direct into the first floor, while right and left, in the thickness of the wall, was a mural passage, at its south end a mere lobby, but to the north containing a straight staircase which rises 13 feet by twelve steps, 4 feet 4 inches broad, towards the east angle, where was a small lobby which opened on the second floor, and was lighted by a loop in the east wall.
Thus, the second floor was entered in its east side by a direct mural stair, like those at Carlisle, at Chepstow, and at Ludlow. In each of the sides, north, south, and west, of this floor is an original round-headed recess, and in the east wall, over the mural stair, are traces of a shorter recess, placed higher up, whence seems to have been a passage into a mural chamber in the south-east angle. The southern recess alone contains its original window. This is a small coupled window of two lights, square headed, but within a round-headed arch. The dividing shaft is decidedly Norman, as is the whole character of the opening. The north window is also coupled and round headed, but looks like a Stuart insertion. The east and west windows are square headed, of Tudor date. In the north-west angle is a mural recess with loops, possibly a garderobe, and in the north-east angle a square-headed doorway opens by a lobby into a well-stair, which commences at this level and ascends to the roof. It is 7 feet 6 inches in diameter, and rises 31 feet by forty-six steps to the allure, or rampart walk. This second was originally the principal and uppermost floor, lofty, and with a high-pitched roof, the weather moulding of which is still seen on the east and west walls. The roof ridge was at the level of the rampart walk, and, as the north and south walls seem original, there must have been a deep cavity on either side, with the gutter in its bottom. Subsequently this roof was removed, and replaced by a flat roof, at the rampart level, the line of which is marked by a row of corbels in the north and south walls. The cause of this change, common, probably, to all Norman keeps, was the superior convenience for defence of a flat roof, rendered possible by the introduction of sheet lead as a roofing material.
The third floor was formed by dividing the height thus gained by a floor laid at the level of the springing of the old roof, and thus was created a second floor of 10 feet, and a third of 20 feet. In the west wall was opened a square-headed window, in a splayed recess, and close south of it is a small Tudor fireplace, the flue of which ascends into the south-west turret. The east wall is less perfect, but still shows the line of the old roof, and the jamb of a Tudor window. In the north-east angle is the door from the well-stair.
The floors of the walls were throughout of timber, the joists of the first and second resting in the holes in the north and south walls of the turrets; that at the south-west is probably modern. It contains the flues of several fireplaces which appear to have been inserted
