norman house christchurch

The Norman House in Christchurch was built near to the original castle keep around the year 1160, to house the castle’s Constable. It is a rare survivor of twelfth Century domestic architecture and is notable for having one of only five remaining Norman chimneys in Britain, as well as one of the earliest garderobes or toilets, which overhangs the adjacent River Avon. Although roofless, the walls stand to full height in places, offering examples of some fine window tracery and other early stonework of the period.

Christchurch castle

Christchurch Castle is located in Christchurch, Dorset, England (grid reference SZ160927). It originated as Norman motte and bailey castle raised around 1100 by Richard de Redvers, cousin of Henry I. A great tower was built later probably about 1300. Nearby on the banks of the mill stream is the Constable's House which is a notable example of a Norman Domestic Dwelling.
[edit] Castle

The castle saw military activity in 1147 during the war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. It was also involved in the Civil War when it was initially a Royalist castle. As a result of this it was slighted in about 1652. The castle is now in ruins. A couple of the keep walls remain, surrounded by a rectangular moat.

Originally known as Twynham Castle. The motte and part of the early 12th century keep, which was 3 stories high with walls 9' thick, still remain surrounded by a rectangular moat. Next to it stands the remains of the Constable's House (below) which was added in 1160. The castle was demolished in 1652 after the Civil War.

christchurch priory

The Christchurch Priory Through 900 Years Saxon and Norman: 7th Century AD to 12th Century The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles record that in 634AD Birinus, a missionary priest sent by Pope Honorius landed in Britain and in 635 baptised King Cynegils of Wessex. It was thought that he might have founded a Saxon Priory at Thuinam as a base for his work in this area, as part of the Pope's general plan to re-introduce christianity to Britain.

Christchurch Priory(Thuinam near a fine harbour and at the confluence of the Rivers Avon and Stour would, in those times, have provided sea communications as well as access to an extensive hinterland by the two rivers, which in the case of the Avon was navigable as far inland as Salisbury).

There is no specific evidence for this, however, but it is reasonably certain that there would have been a church here in the 9th century when Thuinam was sufficiently important to be included in King Alfred's list of fortified boroughs. The Domesday Survey of 1086 records that there was a Priory of 24 secular canons here in the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).

In 1094 Ranulf Flambard, a chief minister of King William II (Rufus) began the building of a Norman church on the site of the old Saxon Priory. A paragraph in the Christchurch Cartulary (1312-1372) states: 'Flambard (the Norman founder of the present Church) destroyed the primitive church of that place and nine others that had been standing below the cemetery. The nine others probably referred to nine individual monastic cells grouped around the main building.

In 1099 Flambard was appointed Bishop of Durham, but work continued under his successors in the office of Dean of Thuinam Priory, and by about 1150 it would have comprised a basic Norman cruciform church namely a nave (up to Triforium level) with its north and south aisles; probably a central tower; and an apsidal-ended quire extending eastwards from the crossing at the nave to about as far as the sanctuary steps in the present quire.

During this period of the 12th century it is probable that the legend of the Miraculous Beam originated, a legend which changed the name of the town from the Saxon Thuinam to the present day Christchurch.