The Castle from the Brays. – Old post card postmarked 1907. Mortimer’s Tower was originally a Norman stone gatehouse, extended in the late 13th and 16th centuries. Following the slighting of the castle by Colonel Hawkesworth at the end of the Civil War, the Tiltyard became impassable and thus in the ‘then’ picture it is shown as fenced off, with access to the castle via other entrances.