Southampton Castle Among the chief ports of medieval England, Southampton preserves an abundance of medieval domestic architecture. Its thriving Dark Age predecessor was abandoned in support of the current site within the tenth century, and excavations have proven this new town had earth and timber protection right from the start, without doubt like a defense from the Danes. On the mile long, the walled circuit enclosed a roughly rectangular area. It had numerous bastions, mostly semi-circular, and bigger towers ar the angles. Today, just the wall survives, together with areas of its northern border wall along with a length close to the southeast corner from the circuit. An excursion from the wall may easily can start the Bargate, the northern entrance towards the old town along with a very imposing one. The machicolated front is definitely an early fifteenth century addition. Behind it are twin half-round towers a hundred years approximately older, as the gate passage maintains a Norman archway from a mature structure. In comparison using the fortress-like outer face, along side it facing the city has large home windows lighting the storyline over the gate. This spacious chamber offered because the guildhall in medieval occasions and then social uses saved the gatehouse from demolition in later centuries. It had been a significant obstruction to traffic until the making of a bypass within the nineteen thirties, which relieved the issue but led to the destruction from the stretches of town wall on each side. Past the Bargate, the wall leads west towards the circular Arundel Tower, then soutward towards the old quay. Shortly a kink within the circuit denotes the junction using the older castle wall. Southampton Castle would be a royal stronghold first pointed out within the 1189s. Richard I and John reconstructed it in stone. Free airline curtain survives because the town wall, having a postern leading right into a cellar in the castle's domestic structures.