A gateway of two halves

Lewes Castle houses a magnificent barbican gate which I walk through most days on the way to work. There's a section where the portcullis used to drop and that has some impressive grooves in the stonework.

6 feet further in is a section which clearly used to have some other barrier in place. One side has the normal age-worn stone; the other is fire-blackened and stained.

What happened here? Was this where burning oil was poured on assailants? Where fires were set to try to destroy the tower? Or simply burning brands wedged nightly to light the barbican entrance? I'm sure the castle historians know, but I can only speculate.

I like the simple contrast of the light and dark. The patina of years of life passing through the gateway. And the abstraction of the image created from this small slice through time.

Looking at this on the blip site, I should say this is not two photos merged together or cut in some way - the wall does just abruptly change from burned to unburned.