Gascoigne Tower and Gardrobe

The Gascoigne Tower may or may not have been the place where Richard II (1367-1400) died under mysterious circumstances. It certainly looks like the setting for a Shakespearean tragedy. An ancestor of the Victorian naturalist Charles Waterton acted as one of the king's jailers, on the instructions of Henry Bollingbroke (Henry IV). Waterton has a walk on part in the play and the family kept a first folio edition of Shakespeare in their library at Walton Hall.

The three niches in the wall are also a mystery; they do not appear to be filled-in windows.

Look for this gardrobe, a medieval toilet, at the foot of the Motte. No complicated plumbing to go wrong here, originally there was simply a plank to sit on and a hole that opened over the moat below.

The medieval Royal Court was often on the move, a retinue of a thousand or more might descend on a castle like Pontefract. Privacy was hard to find within the castle walls and it is quite likely that, on occasion, important issues were discussed right here in this gardrobe.

In order to keep personal control of the financial side of running the kingdom, a medieval king kept supplies of cash in the Royal Chamber, a magnificent bedsitting room. The man appointed as Chamberlain was more than a mere housekeeper.

Even this arrangement was too cumbersome for Edward I, the 'Hammer of the Scots' (you might remember him from the film Braveheart) who streamlined his financial arrangements by setting up shop in his Wardrobe. This was actually a room, not a cupboard, where the robes of state were kept. James I held meetings in the Royal Bedchamber.

But for the ultimate in privacy the king held meetings in the Privy Chamber. This term came to refer to a suite of Royal living rooms, rather than to the gardrobe itself. The Privy Council is still, in theory at least, the highest power in the land. It has about 300 members but it can still do business when only three of them are present, so, even today the Council could meet in this corner of the Castle.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'