John Lewyn

Lewyn's early life is unknown, though as he first appears in records in 1353 as a mason of Durham Priory, he was likely born some time before the mid-14th century.^[4] However, a 'John Lewy' who may be the same person is documented at Westminster in 1351 and Windsor in the 1360s.^[4] The first building project firmly linked to Lewyn is work at Coldingham Priory, a cell of Durham, in 1364, though whatever he built has since been lost.^[3] His earliest surviving building is the kitchen at Durham Priory (1367-74). Its unusual, possibly Spanish-influenced vault suggests that Lewyn may have spent time abroad in his early career, though this cannot be proven.^[5] By 1368 he was recorded as "the bishop [of Durham]'s mason," and received grants of land from Bishop Hatfield.^[3]

From 1368 and throughout the 1370s and '80s, Lewyn worked extensively for the Crown to improve the royal castles at Bamburgh, Roxburgh and Carlisle, though his work only survives at Carlisle.^[5] In 1378, Lewyn entered into a contract with Sir Richard Scrope to build part of Bolton Castle, though its stylistic unity makes it almost certain that he was responsible for its entire design, making this his largest and arguably most important surviving work.^[3] Other projects linked to Lewyn are works at Dunstanburgh Castle (largely executed by Henry Holme, though possibly to Lewyn's design), Finchale Priory and Brancepeth (though this contract refers to roads, not the slightly earlier castle).^[3] In addition to his architectural business, Lewyn traded (unsuccessfully) in wool at Newcastle.^[5] He disappears from the written record after 1398, when his quarry at Durham is referred to, and presumably died around 1400.^[5]

Lewyn is known to have had at least one son, Walter Lewyn, with whom he worked at Brancepeth.^[5]

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lewyn is primarily recorded as working on castles, a reflection of the disturbed state of northern England after the Wars of Independence and of the increasing power of the Percy and Neville families, entrusted with defending the border. The emergence of these powerful families led to the construction of what Anthony Emery termed 'palace fortresses', luxurious houses that, in contrast to southern buildings like Dartington Hall, had the appearance of castles, though they were not primarily intended for military use.^[6] The Perpendicular style of the Court appeared in the far north with the erection of the Neville Screen, designed by Henry Yevele and shipped from London, in the 1370s.^[4] An assessment of Lewyn's style is challenging, as the only surviving buildings firmly linked to him are Durham's kitchen, Bolton Castle and the gatehouse at Carlisle Castle, though the attribution of Warkworth Castle to him is firm enough for it to inform analysis. One reason to ascribe Warkworth to Lewyn is the use of flues in the hall window-heads to draw away smoke, a feature exactly paralleled at Bolton.^[4]

His buildings are characterised by the complex planning, with suites of 'private' rooms^[7], mural chambers and winding staircases, in vogue in the 14th century, especially Bolton and Warkworth. At Bolton, this allowed for the castle to be occupied by no fewer than eight households at once, in Patrick Faulkner's interpretation.^[8] At Warkworth, meanwhile, complex planning allowed all the elements of a normal manor house to be compressed into a cruciform tower, with a clear separation between the service and domestic sides. In general form as well as detail, Warkworth is something of an outlier, featuring polygonal turrets and nearly-triangular arches. It is possible that these were derived from John of Gaunt's new buildings at Kenilworth Castle, which used similar forms.^[4] Notably, Gaunt was Lewyn's client at Dunstanburgh, which may explain a connection. Today, many of Lewyn's buildings appear austere, but this is a false impression, for they were originally decorated with an elaborate paraphernalia of turrets, battlements, pinnacles and sculpture, fragments of which survive at Bolton and Warkworth.^[4] The scale and regularity of Bolton, in contrast to the disorder of earlier 14th century castles at Alnwick, Raby and Brancepeth, was much admired, and was copied, either by Lewyn or others, in the quadrangular castles of Lumley, Sheriff Hutton and Wressle.^[4]

Another feature distinctive to Lewyn's work is the star vault. This has parallels in Islamic architecture, such as the Mosque at Cordoba, though it is occasionally seen elsewhere in Europe. Lewyn used the form over the kitchen at Durham,^[2] and its occurrence over the kitchens at Raby and Cockermouth castles forms the basis of their attributions to him.