The Castle of Winchester 1977 - Trust Annual Report 1977
The work of restoring the Great Hall of Winchester Castle, begun in 1974, has from the outset had as one of its objectives the improvement of the Hall's setting and the creation of an attractive approach to the building from the Westgate via Castle Hill.
In paving and landscaping this approach the County Council have it in mind to expose and incorporate into the overall design the substantial remains of the Castle of Winchester which lie just below the surface of Castle Hill. These remains consist of the base of a large round tower and a short length of the outer wall of the Castle on the city side of what was the north-east corner of the Castle. From this corner a length of the city wall extended to the Westgate, and a short length of the lower part of this wall remains, together with, on the north side, a substantial mass of masonry which formed part of a massive wall built by the Romans around that site in the 3rd century. A little to the south of the round tower lies the base of an earlier square keep of massive construction. Incorporated in the base of this keep are the remains of the outer wall of the Castle running from it to the round tower and the steps leading down to the Sally Port passage (which lies below the round tower, laid out in the form of a Y). These passages allowed troops to be discharged outside the walls of the Castle, and either inside of outside the walls of the city. The north-eastern arm of the Y now leads out onto the terrace below the Castle Hill, but the north-west arm, though of some length, is blocked. It lies now beneath the County Council offices built on Castle Hill in the 19th century. It is thought that the only similar example of a Sally Port to be seen in the country is at Dover Castle.
The base of the Keep probably dates from the reign of Henry II, but the walls of the Castle, the Round Tower, and the Sally Port were all part of the massive improvements to the Castle made by Henry III in the 13th century, which included the building of the Great Hall substantially as we see it today. On the completion of these works the Castle was a formidable structure extending southwards and westwards from the Westgate to cover much of the land now occupied by the Barracks.
A Royalist stronghold in the Civil War, the castle's destruction was ordered by Parliament in 1646. The work of demolishing it took many years, but eventually, with the exception of the Great Hall which was purchased by the County, it was completed, and having disappeared without trace the Castle survived in name only.
During the summer of 1977 the remains were partially excavated, and discussions are about to take place between the County Council and the Department of the Environment which it is hoped will lead to their consolidation and display. In the not too distant future a passer-by on Castle Hill may be able to gain a better understanding of how it came to be thus named, and a fragment of the past, extending back some 2000 years into the history of Winchester, may be available for all to see.