The country having received the full fury of William’s wrath very slowly recovered its prosperity under Norman rulers.  On the slope of the hills all the way from Scarborough to Helmsley, castles began to make their appearance, and sturdy Norman churches were built in nearly every village.

[Illustration:  The South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church.]

The arches on the north side are of much simpler Norman work.  The nearest painting shows the story of the legendary St Katherine of Alexandria.

[Copyright is reserved by Dr John L Kirk.]

The great Norman keep of Scarborough Castle with its shattered side still frowns above the holiday crowds of that famous seaside resort, but of the other strongholds of the district built in this castle-building age it is not easy to speak with certainty.  But the evidences of Norman work are fairly plain at Pickering Castle, and there seems little doubt that a fortress of some strength was built at this important point to overawe the inhabitants.  Mr G.T.  Clark in his “Mediaeval Military Architecture"[1] says that he considers Pickering Castle to represent “one great type of Anglo-Norman fortress—­that is, a castle of Norman masonry upon an English earthwork, for the present walls, if not Norman, are unquestionably laid on Norman lines.”  He thinks that the earthworks would be taken possession of and fortified either late in the eleventh or early in the twelfth century, and that the keep, the chief part of the curtain walls, and the Norman door near the northwest corner are remains of this building.  The gateways may be Norman or they may belong to the time of Richard II. (1377-99) but Mr Clark inclines to the earlier date.  It is possible that the Norman doorway just mentioned may have been an entrance to one of the towers mentioned by Leland but now completely lost sight of.  The architrave has a beaded angle ornamented with pointed arches repeated, and if it is of late Norman date it is the only part of the castle which Mr Clark considers to be “distinctly referable to that period.”

[Footnote 1:  George T. Clark:  “Mediaeval Military Architecture in England,” p.372.]

There is no doubt at all that the arcades of the present nave of Pickering church, were built at this time, and the lower part of the tower is also of Norman date.  The north arcade is earlier than that on the south side, having perfectly plain semi-circular arches and massive columns with fluted capitals.  On the south the piers are much more ornate, the contrast being very plainly seen in the photograph reproduced here.

To have necessitated such a spacious church at this time, Pickering must have been a populous town; possibly it grew on account of the safety afforded by the castle, and it seems to indicate the importance of the place in the time of the Norman kings.