{"id":2701,"date":"2026-04-08T20:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/?p=2701"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:22:56","slug":"cockermouth-castle-building-survey-diary-stage-1-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/08\/cockermouth-castle-building-survey-diary-stage-1-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Cockermouth Castle – Building Survey Diary Stage 1 \u2013 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following his and his team’s first visit to survey the inner ward of Cockermouth Castle Tom Addyman looks at what they have found so far. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial stages of survey were carried out at Cockermouth Castle, within the inner ward area.\u00a0 Adverse weather held off until gales forced an early retreat on the third day.\u00a0 In spite of that excellent survey coverage was achieved, principally establishing a survey control and data capture for photogrammetry.\u00a0 Great assistance was given by the estate in reduction of obscuring vegetation that revealing a number of areas that were long-obscured, and through the provision of high-level access.\u00a0 The initial survey stage also included a general photographic record and preliminary fabric analysis such as the image below of the hall range frontage \u2013 sketch plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cockermouth Castle high level access, inner ward gatehouse, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cockermouth Castle hall range frontage \u2013 sketch plan, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Initial processing of the imagery worked well leading, as intended, to the generation of dimensionally accurate projections to be used as a basis for a survey drawing set.\u00a0 In purely visual terms some striking individual images emerged, such as a vertical projection of the vaulted ceiling structure of the cellarage beneath the kitchen tower and elevation views within the kitchen interior.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cockermouth Castle vertical projection showing vaulting configuration of lower level of the kitchen tower, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cockermouth Castle north interior of the kitchen tower showing remains of former gallery arrangements, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Better access to the fabric allowed better understanding of the evidence for the evolving hall range arrangements (hall entrance and junction with the kitchen range and general view of hall range, north wall.  Examination of the surviving footings of the hall range\u2019s courtyard frontage led to a preliminary reconstruction of its former appearance (image \u2013 preliminary sketch reconstruction of hall range frontage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cockermouth Castle great hall entrance and junction with the kitchen range, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cockermouth Castle general view of hall range, north wall, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cockermouth Castle preliminary sketch reconstruction of hall range frontage, copyright Addyman Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once image processing is complete a follow on survey trip will involve detailed marking up of the imagery with phasing data and other analytical information.\u00a0 There will also be a review of early records of the castle with the estate archivist and volunteer team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following his and his team’s first visit to survey the inner ward of Cockermouth Castle Tom Addyman looks at what they have found so far. The initial stages of survey were carried out at Cockermouth Castle, within the inner ward area.\u00a0 Adverse weather held off until gales forced an early retreat on the third day.\u00a0 … Continue reading Cockermouth Castle – Building Survey Diary Stage 1 \u2013 Update<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[550,9],"tags":[554],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2711,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions\/2711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}