Source Two

[Sum total receipts with arrears: £156 15s. 1½d.] 

 

Expenses 

 

 £7 16s. 11d. in clearing and levelling a plot of land next to the mill within the castle for the site of a granary, and in clearing the old, ruinous granary and in building a new granary on the aforesaid plot, hard up against the wall of the castle, with the costs of carriage and sawing of timber for the same, and the purchase of 36 boards, the cost of making 4000 shingles, the purchase of 10700 nails for the same, and for plastering the walls, with the carriage of clay for the same; and 7s. 10d. for the wages of masons, carvers and cutters of stone upon the wall at the top of the granary, and in making gutters there, with the wages of those carrying stone and making mortar for the same; and 104s. 9½d. in building a new mill outside [the castle] this year, with the costs of felling eight oaks for the same and making timber out of it, and for carrying it, with the wages of carpenters and those clearing the old timber of the same mill for their work, with the carriage of earth and clay for the same and with the purchase of 47 boards, 700 nails and iron straps for the same; and £6 6s. 0½d. spent on building the mill inside [the castle], with the carriage and sawing of timber and the carriage of earth and clay for the same, and with the purchase of thirty boards and 1300 nails, the repair of iron spindles and four pieces of iron for making the goion’ and straps for the same, and with the purchase of two pairs of millstones for the mill; and 13s. 9d. for roofing and repairing the stable next to the mill by plastering the posts and walls, with the wages of those mixing the plaster and carrying earth and clay for the same, and for carrying … for the roof of the same; and 32s. 10d. on the wages of divers masons and carpenters enlarging and rebuilding the earl’s latrine [bathroom] this year, making 1500 shingles and buying 1000 laths, 3100 nails for the same; and 14s. 7d. on the wages of carpenters removing the doors and partitions in the chamber of Robert de Holande and in repairing the same chamber by other of the earl with 1000 tin nails purchased for the same; and 24s. 6½d. on the wages of a mason stopping up and pointing the window panes of the great tower and in repairing the step at the entrance of the same tower, with the repair of the chimney and 500 tiles and two sesters of chalk purchased for these works on the tower; and 48s. on the wages of divers carpenters roofing and repairing the hall, pantry, buttery, kitchen, high chamber, the earl’s chamber, the knights’ chamber, Ayon’s chamber, the constable’s chamber, the gate-keeper’s chamber and the castle’s chapel in various places throughout the year with shingles they had made and with 7000 nails that had been purchased for this, as in the particulars of account; and in 12s. on the wages of a plumber and a cartload of lead with which the cover and repair the chamber and guttering of other buildings throughout this year, with 12lbs of tin purchased for the same; and 24s. 11d. in roofing and repairing the mill, grange and the engine-house, together with the wages of those collecting twigs and thatch for the same, and for buying reeds for the same, and with carriage for the same. 

 

Sum: £51 5s. 6½d. 

 

« Return to Kenilworth Castle (part two)

Account of William the chaplain, receiver of the rents, farms and issues of Kenilworth, and keeper of stock of the castle at the castle, 1313, Catalogue ref: DL 29/1/13, [membrane 13]. 

  • What new buildings were added to the castle? 
  • What repair work was also necessary on the castle? 
  • How can we infer that this was an expensive process? 
  • What does this source reveal about the domestic function of the castle? How comfortable would the castle have been to live in?