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Gloucester Castle & Keep

Courtesy British Museum MS Royal 13A. Iii, f.82

Initially the early Norman kings used the Kingsholm Great Hall as a royal residence but by 1086 a motte & bailey castle had been built in the SW corner of the Roman walls, roughly where the now-closed prison is situated.  By 1100, the motte & bailey had been replaced by a large stone keep or donjon which, within a century, had been enlarged into a true castle with a bailey, curtain walls, towers & gatehouses.  The Norman kings entrusted the castle and county to Roger de Pitres who was the Sheriff of Gloucester under William the Conqueror and constable of Gloucester Castle.  His family, as hereditary castellans and sheriffs of the county, came to dominate Gloucester for the next 100 years and the castle that de Pitres had built became the new administrative centre for the shire, although Gloucester itself was technically governed by a reeve appointed by the Crown – styled as Sheriff (a shire reeve), although how much control he could actually yield is debatable.