re
indications among the trees of what is believed to have been the castle of
the Stutevilles. Robert de Stuteville is said to have come over with the
Conqueror, and to have received land at Kirby Moorside as a reward for his
services.
The country having received the full fury of William's wrath very slowly
recovered its prosperity under Norman rulers. On the slope of the hills
all the way from Scarborough to Helmsley, castles began to make their
appearance, and sturdy Norman churches were built in nearly every village.
[Illustration: The South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church.]
The arches on the north side are of much simpler Norman work. The nearest
painting shows the story of the legendary St Katherine of Alexandria.
[Copyright is reserved by Dr John L Kirk.]
The great Norman keep of Scarborough Castle with its shattered side still
frowns above the holiday crowds of that famous seaside resort, but of the
other strongholds of the district built in this castle-building age it is
not easy to speak with certainty. But the evidences of Norman work are
fairly plain at Pickering Castle, and there seems little doubt that a
fortress of some strength was built at this important point to overawe the
inhabitants. Mr G.T. Clark in his "Mediaeval Military Architecture"[1] says
that he considers Pickering Castle to represent "one great type of
Anglo-Norman fortress--that is, a castle of Norman masonry upon an
English earthwork, for the present walls, if not Norman, are
unquestionably laid on Norman lines." He thinks that the earthworks would
be taken possession of and fortified either late in the eleventh or early
in the twelfth century, and that the keep, the chief part of the curtain
walls, and the Norman door near the northwest corner are remains of this
building. The gateways may be Norman or they may belong to the time of
Richard II. (1377-99) but Mr Clark inclines to the earlier date. It is
possible that the Norman doorway just mentioned may have been an entrance
to one of the towers mentioned by Leland but now completely lost sight of.
The architrave has a beaded angle ornamented with pointed arches repeated,
and if it is of late Norman date it is the only part of the castle which
Mr Clark considers to be "distinctly referable to that period."
[Footnote 1: George T. Clark: "Mediaeval Military Architecture in England,"
p.372.]
There is no doubt at all that the arcades of the present nave of Pickering
church,
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