This article dates from a school magazine in the 1920s and complements another one which speaks of the city wall
One would think that every Oxford High School boy knew the old bastion which still rears its somewhat stained shattered form on the south side of the school playground; yet, strange to say, we found that, when the fact that we were making enquiries about the bastion became generally known, the most frequent question that we were asked was , “What and where is the Bastion?”
Now this really is too bad! Are the masters responsible for this state of ignorance? We cannot think so, for it is evident that some take an interest in ancient architecture and customs. The actual history of this interesting relic is rather obscure, but we will endeavour to sketch briefly its career.
Between the North Gate and Bocardo Gate, which stood across Cornmarket by Saint Michael’s Church, the city wall ran in a nearly straight line towards the Castle, and in this wall were three bastions, or fortified turrets. Mentioned in order from the Bocardo, they were as follows: one known as the Maiden Chamber – then 1. a bastion which stood to the north of New Inn Hall street, followed by 2. the bastion in question, and 3. a postern gate nearer to the Castle end of the wall.
One old manuscript mentions this tower as a little turret, “Juxta fossatum Castri,” which was standing in the garden of one Doctor Roger, a scientist. Another, in English, tells us that before this period it was used as a dwelling hall for students who were exempt from the taxes levied on mural “manshiones”. It has however peculiarities in construction, which will be treated later.
Its soot-blackened face, to which the mortar added some time ago does not give a beautifying effect, may (?) be due to a great fire on October 6th, 1652, caused by the negligence of a soldier of the garrison, who was roasting his stolen pig. The fire broke out in the south of Thames Street (now George Street), and burning the whole of that street, swept along New Inn Lane and destroyed a great part of the present St Ebbe’s. This however is only a conjecture.
The date of the actual masonry is Norman, and it was probably built by Robert d’Oigli in the latter part of the eleventh century. The three light window on the west side is Tudor and dates from about the reign of Henry VII, and what might very possibly be the remainder of an early loophole is left on the east side. For the edification of the younger generation we might say that the house on top is not coeval with the lower stonework, and very probably did not witness the siege of the Castle by Stephen.
From the Bastion outwards, extending the length of “Elm Tree Cottages,” are three small cellars, which by the courtesy of the occupiers we were enabled to enter. They are all alike in size and form, with the remains of a 16th century window (or door?) in the west wall of each. This series of cells does not exist on the eastern side of the Bastion, having at some time been destroyed or filled up. We believe this feature is unique, unless a similar series of rooms exists beneath the site of the Maiden Chamber.
There is a tradition of a subterranean passge from this Bastion to the Castle; does anyone know of it?
Before the wall itself there used to exist that part of the Town Moat known as the City Ditch. According to one contemporaneous chronicle it was nearly 70 feet broad and 16 feet deep in the middle; it would have extended to the middle of the Fifth Form Room. A thousand pities it was ever filled up! This moat continued right round the city walls, and was used on the Merton College side for permanent navigation. It joined the main river at the “Brugge de la Hithe”, the site of the present Hythe Bridge Street, thus placing the Castle on an island.
For more perfectly preserved specimens of this fortified tower and wall, the interested reader is recommended to view those in New College gardens.
In conclusion we shall be grateful to any enterprising person who can give information about a certain stone, which bears a device resembling a shield and mantling*, and is placed in the centre of the wall above the windows of the Headmaster’s room.
TWO CALCOTRIPTICIANS **
Notes :
* In heraldry, mantling or “lambrequin” is drapery tied to the helmet above a shield (Wikipedia).
** There is no information on the identity of these Calcotripticians, authors of this piece. Nor any indication of the actual meaning of the term (which may be an arcane joke made up of words of Greek and/or Latin by two classics students – “calco” meaning to imitate (Gr) or trample (Lat) and “-Ian” a Greek agentive suffix signifying a trade, but no idea what “triptic” (triptych?) might be doing there!)