The Tiltyard Tower, Hampton Court Palace

In December 2005 Oxford Archaeology carried out intrusive investigations on the Tiltyard Tower at Hampton Court Palace. These investigations consisted of the removal of plaster on internal walls on the second floor, the raising of floorboards in a room on the first floor and the raising of a stone slab in the basement. The investigations revealed that there are features within the wall (windows or alcoves and putlogs) which are not visible on the external elevations. It also suggested that much of the internal fabric of the tower related to the post 1898 re-ordering of the floor levels. The small size of the interventions means that many questions remain unanswered, particularly those relating the phasing of the blocked features visible on the exterior of the building.