CAERPHILLY CASTLE, GLAMORGAN.

CAERPHILLY is by very much the most extensive castle in Wales, and is reputed to cover, with its outworks and earthworks, about thirty acres.

The castle owes its celebrity to its great extent, and to the peculiar manner in which one of its towers has been thrown out of the perpendicular by the forces employed for its destruction. Its real merits are of a less obvious but much higher character, and rest upon the great military skill exhibited in its design and construction. It possesses few associations with historical events. But one, and he a falling, sovereign is certainly known to have visited it. It is not, like Kidwelly or Cardiff, the head of a feudal honour or lordship, nor is it surrounded by any franchise or barony. It has not even received the barren dignity of conferring a title of honour upon any of its numerous possessors. It has been celebrated by no bard, and even mentioned only by one.

Neither does Caerphilly possess many of the ordinary sources of interest. It boasts not the architectural decorations of Caernarvon, the commanding position of Conway, nor the picturesque beauty of Raglan. It is simply a ruin of great extent, and possessing that sort of rugged sublimity which is inseparable from an assemblage of lofty walls and massive and partially overthrown towers, though neither bosomed in woods, nor mantled, to any extent, with ivy.

It is remarkable that this castle should have remained altogether neglected, or very superficially noted by the historians of Wales. The earlier authorities, Caradoc of Llancarvan and Giraldus Cambrensis, flourished before the erection of the present edifice, but it is singular that silence concerning so immense a structure should have been preserved by Lloyd, and his commentator Powel, and transmitted almost unbroken by the indefatigable, though credulous, author of the “Munimenta.”

It is not, however, difficult to divine the causes of the obscurity in which the early history of Caerphilly is involved, and the absence of any historical associations may perhaps be permitted to account for the continued silence of modern writers.

A castle of considerable magnitude had been erected soon after the Norman invasion of Wales, at Cardiff; a position which, from its proximity to the estuary of the Severn, and the mouth of the Taff, from the fertility of its subjacent meadows, from the protection which it reciprocally afforded to, and received from, the people of the town, and from its greater distance from the mountains, and consequent diminished liability to be surprised by their crafty and warlike inhabitants, was invariably the chief residence of the feudal Lords of Glamorgan; and from hence it followed, as a necessary consequence, that Caerphilly, which, from its dangerous proximity, they were obliged to retain in their immediate possession, fell into comparative neglect, and, although very superior in magnitude to Cardiff, was considered only as its dependency in importance.

It was to the Lord of Cardiff that the feudatories of Glamorgan owed suit and service, and it was to the castle court of that place that they were bound annually to repair.

The castle of Cardiff is mentioned as the residence of great Norman barons; it was more than once honoured by a royal guest, and, even at the far later period of the Parliamentary wars, its acquisition was considered of great importance. Caerphilly, on the contrary, is rarely mentioned by the chroniclers, and as a military post ceased to be of importance upon the death of Llewelyn and the reduction and settlement of the Principality by Edward. These considerations will explain the little notice taken by contemporaries of this magnificent fortress, and the consequent dearth of information respecting its fortunes.

Caerphilly stands upon that wide tract of debateable ground between England and Wales, which was so long contested by both nations under the title of “The Marches,” and which, beneath the Normans, had its own customs and its governors, known as the Lords Marchers.

The castle, though in the Marches, is within the Welsh border, being about a mile from the river Rhymny, the boundary between Monmouth and Glamorgan, and, since the reign of Henry VIII., between England and the Principality, in this direction.

The Lordship of Senghenydd, within which the castle is placed, was granted at the conquest of Glamorgan to Einon of Collwyn, a Welsh lord, whose granddaughter, Nest, “verch Madoc ap Cradoc ap Einon,” married Cadivor ap Cydrich, a grandson of Gwaethvoed, and the father of Ivor Bach, who is described as [mesne] Lord of Senghenydd. Griffith, the son of Ivor, married a sister of Rhys, Prince of South Wales, before 1174, when he did homage to Henry II., at Gloucester. By this match the influence of the family, already great, with the Welsh, was much increased and became very great. They dwelt too near Cardiff actually to organise insurrections, but they were always ready to promote them at any favourable opportunity. Many such opportunities occurred during the reign of Henry III., when the Earls of Pembroke wielded the power of the infant lord of Glamorgan, and were continually at war with Henry. Llewelyn, then Prince of Wales, was sometimes in alliance with the earl, and sometimes harassed his rear, descending from the uplands of Caermarthen and Cardiff, and bursting into Monmouthshire across the unguarded pass of Senghenydd. It became the business of Gilbert de Clare, on coming into his lordship, to bar this passage, and this he effectually completed by the construction of Caerphilly. The name of his architect or engineer is unknown to fame, but he was a deacon in his craft, and the earl gave full play to his abilities.

The castle is placed in the midst of a deep and broad hollow, open on the east towards the Rhymny, and divided on the west from the valley of the Taff by the mountain ridge of Mynydd Mayo. North and north-west, at a greater distance, is the concave crest of Mynydd Eglwisilan, and on the south, the long and well-known elevation which separates the hill-country of Glamorgan from the plain, and is intersected by the ravines of the Taff, the Rhymny, and the Ebbw. This ridge is locally known as Cefn Carnau, and, on the road from the castle to the sea, is crowned by the ancient stronghold of Môr-graig. The traveller, who wishes to see Caerphilly to advantage, should descend upon it soon after sunrise in autumn, from one of the surrounding heights, when the grey towers of the castle will be seen rising out of an immense sea of mist.

The whole basin is a part of the Glamorganshire coalfield. The mineral has long been worked on Caerphilly mountain, where it appears on the surface, and the castle is chiefly constructed of the fissile sandstone of the neighbourhood, which appears to have been quarried from a large excavation by the roadside, near Chapel-Martin.

Along the base of the mountains, and extending some way up their skirts, here, as in all the valleys in the neighbourhood, lie vast deposits of gravel and sand, composed in part of the débris of the neighbouring rocks, but chiefly of rolled pebbles, brought down from the northern hills by diluvial agency.

Near the centre of the basin is a bed of gravel, of considerable extent and thickness, the surface of which has been deeply wrought, by some natural process, into a series of furrows and eminences.

A narrow tongue of slightly elevated ground, the termination of a low peninsula of gravel, projects eastwards, and, by its projection, divides a swampy flat of considerable breadth into two portions. These are contained within irregular gravel banks, similar to, though somewhat higher than, the central peninsula. The southern is shorter, and almost parallel to it; the northern is prolonged, and curves around its point, until it is separated from the southern only by an inconsiderable gorge. The swamp thus assumes something of the figure of a horse-shoe.

South of the peninsula, the Nant-y-Gledyr, a large rivulet, flows from the south-west, across the swamp, through the gorge, to join the Rhymny.

North-east of the peninsula a smaller spring, partly fed by the Nant-y-Gledyr, flows across a part of the northern swamp; and, north of this again, another spring contributes to the same. Naturally, these waters seem to have found their way, by a depression or gorge, to the north-eastward, into the lower part of the Nant-y-Gledyr, outside of and below the upper gorge already mentioned.

The tongue of land thus guarded was well suited for the purposes of defence, supposing the peninsula to have been converted, by a cross-trench, into an island. Water was abundant, pasturage at hand, and the morass would form a secure front. There is, however, no evidence that the spot was occupied by the Welsh, though it has been supposed that the stronghold of Senghenydd was here situated.

When the castle was constructed the surface of the ground underwent considerable alteration. The first business of the Norman engineer was to provide for the protection of his fortress by a large expanse of water. To effect this, the bed of the Nant-y-Gledyr was dammed up at one gorge, and the northern waters at the other, and the two divisions of the swamp thus formed into lakes, the southern of about 13 acres, the northern of about one or two.

Advantage was taken of a narrow and curved ridge, which proceeded from the root of the peninsula, to divide the northern water into two parts, of which the one formed the middle, and the other the inner, moat.

The inner moat communicated with the southern lake by two cross cuts; one, the old natural termination of the peninsula eastwards, the other, an artificial cut across it on the west; and thus the circuit of the inner moat was completed.

The island which was thus formed, and encircled by this moat, was scarped into curtains and bastions, and faced with stone; and the single cross-cut westward, not being deemed a sufficient defence, the peninsula was divided by a second cross-cut further westward, and the second island, thus formed, was converted into a sort of large horn-work or demi-lune, covering the western approach. This also was scarped and revetted.

Thus, then, the principal features of the ground plan are—the end of the peninsula converted into an island, and defended on the north by the inner north moat, on the south by the lake, on the east by the inner east moat, and on the west by the inner cross-cut—the whole making up the inner moat.

Proceeding outwards, we have, as the boundaries of this moat—on the west, the horn-work, prolonged on the north into the curved ridge forming the counterscarp of the inner moat; on the east, the natural bank occupied by the southern half of the grand front; and on the south, the acclivity of the bank of the lake, rising rather steeply. All these form the outer boundaries of the inner moat. The second, or middle, line of defence is less complete, and is confined to the west and northern sides. It begins with the outer cross-cut, west of the horn-work, which communicates at one end with the lake, and at the other with the middle moat. Beyond this middle line of defence is, upon the north-west, a high knoll, the summit of which has been carved into a redoubt; towards the north the northern bank, which is protected westwards by the northern brook, and thickened eastwards into a dam wall; and towards the north-east, east, and south-east, by the continuation of this bank, and the northern half of the grand front, built upon it.

These defences are again strengthened—on the north by one division of the outer moat, formed by the passage of the north brook, and on the east by the other division extending in advance of the grand front, and connected with the Nant-y-Gledyr, near the great drawbridge. These moats are divided by a sort of causeway at the north-east angle of the outworks, reserved for the passage of cavalry from a sally-port. A part of the earth excavated from these outer moats seems to have been thrown up outside, so as to form banks, one of which is occupied by the main street of Caerphilly, the other by the Nant-Garw road.

It is hoped that reference to the plan, and to the bird’s-eye view of the lake, will suffice to render the above description intelligible.

For the purpose of the description of the castle itself, the whole may be considered as composed of five parts, each of which will be further subdivided. These parts are:—

I.—The Grand Front. II.—The Horn-work. III.—The Redoubt. IV.—The Middle Ward. V.—The Inner Ward.

I.—The eastern or Grand Front of Caerphilly is a very fine and complete specimen of a mediæval line of defence. It is composed of a long curtain wall of considerable height and thickness, strengthened on the exterior by buttresses and buttress-towers, rising in the centre into a broad and lofty gatehouse, and terminated, at either extremity, by clusters of towers that protect its sally-ports, and prevent it from being out-flanked. Before it is a broad and deep moat, supplied with water, and crossed by a double drawbridge. In its rear is a second moat, also crossed by a drawbridge. The length of the façade is about 250 yards, the height varies from 20 to 60 feet.

It is divided into the great gatehouse, the northern curtain and postern, and the southern curtain and postern.

The Great Gatehouse stands a little on the north side of the centre. Its line of front is not exactly parallel to those of the curtains, the plan being irregular.

The Gatehouse proper is a lofty oblong building, 50 feet broad by 35 feet deep, and about 60 feet high. It is perforated below by the portal, but rises above as a broad tower. Its lateral portions project 6 feet beyond the portal, and form porters’ lodges.

DELAMOTTE & HEAVISIDE SC.

CAERPHILLY.

The portal, 10 feet wide by 20 feet high, was defended by gates, portcullis, and stockade. It is guarded by loops on each side from the lodges. Those opening from the portal, measure 20 feet by 10 feet, have fireplaces, and were floored with timber. The walls are 9 feet thick, and are looped in various directions for defence.

Caerphilly Castle.

Passing through the gatehouse, behind it is a broad platform, which extends behind the southern curtain, and is scarped and revetted towards the inner moat; on the right of this is a prolongation of the gatehouse westwards, into the gatehouse tower. One of two doorways leads up this tower by a hexagonal well-stair, 9 feet in mean diameter; this opens upon seven apartments in two stories, and terminates in a lofty quadrangular turret. In the first story are devices for working the portcullis, and a small fireplace and oven, probably intended to serve the purpose of a cooking-place for the porter and his assistants. These rooms are vaulted. From this story a passage opens upon the rampart of the northern curtain, and led, probably by a temporary plank bridge, across an abyss in the thickness of the wall, about 29 feet deep and 5 feet wide, and opening below between the grates of a water gate. A passage, at the ground level, leads from the platform through the gatehouse tower, across the ditch or canal from the water gate, to the northern curtain, and was defended by gates, portcullis, and drawbridge.

From the gatehouse a dividing wall, 20 feet high and 6 feet thick, extends westward 80 feet to the edge of the inner moat, and thus cuts off the platform and the whole of the southern from the northern curtain. Each face has been embattled, so that should either curtain be taken, the other could still be defended.

At the union of the gatehouse with the northern curtain, in the latter, at the level of the water’s edge, is a low-browed archway, which could only have been accessible by a boat, and is a water gate. It is defended by two grates, and a cavity open above between them, and thence a covered way, once probably a sort of canal, leads close under, and north of, the dividing wall, to the edge of the inner moat.

This curtain runs northward for 130 yards, and is strengthened exteriorly by three buttress towers, quadrangular and solid below, but hexagonal and chambered above. Each has a projection of 20 feet; they are of unequal breadth. The chambers have each a loop in front, and one at the junction of the tower with the wall on either side. They were accessible only from the rampart.

In the curtain itself are six loops, opening in pairs between the buttress towers. The curtain ends, northward, in a pair of towers, connected by the vault of a portal, the north postern, regularly defended, and opening upon a plot of ground and causeway separating the two parts of the outer moat.

Behind, and parallel to this curtain, at a distance of 19 feet, was a slight wall, 4 feet thick, which formed the back wall of a postern gallery, leading from the gatehouse to the north postern, and forming above a broad flat walk for the defence of the ramparts. This gallery is said to have been fitted up as a stable.

Southern Curtain.—The general plan of this curtain is irregular; it passes south-eastward from the gatehouse, forms a large semicircle, and, passing off in a long straight wall, crosses the Nant-y-Gledyr, and terminates in a tête-du-pont and a postern. This wall contains a large mural garderobe tower at its angle, and is supported exteriorly by seven quadrangular solid buttresses. In one place it is perforated for the discharge of the waste waters of the mill, and in another for the passage of the Nant-y-Gledyr, being, at that part, where subjected to great pressure, 15 feet thick. This curtain is accessible from the tête-du-pont; and upon it, through the garderobe tower is a mural chamber, serving as a “place d’armes.” The face of the wall, between the buttresses, is wrought into a concavity, increasing towards the summit, so that any missile dropped from it would be projected outwards. The soil of the platform behind this curtain is 25 feet above the exterior level.

The Platform is a large surface of sward behind the southern curtain, between it and the counterscarp of the inner moat; upon it stood the mill, and from it dropped the inner drawbridge. It increases in breadth from the dam to the dividing wall, where it measures 94 feet.

The Tête-du-pont terminates the southern curtain. It consists of a curve of the wall, westward, into a semicircle, with towers and a postern gate, protected by a bifurcated wall, intended to prevent the curtain from being outflanked. It rests upon the outer edge of the lake.

In front of this great line of defence is a moat, about 60 feet wide, and crossed by a double drawbridge of two spans of 18 feet each at the great gateway, connected with a large pier in the centre of the moat, capable of being converted into a sort of barbican. This moat communicates with, and admitted of being filled from, the Nant-y-Gledyr.

Such is the principal front and eastern line of defence, not only calculated to withstand attacks from the front, flanks, or rear, but also capable of being held out, the southern against the northern part.

From the northern extremity of this front, at the northern postern, a bank of earth, lined inwards, or on its southern face, by a wall, and at one part thickened into a dam, divides the middle from the outer moat, at present skirted by the Nant-Garw road. This is the north bank.

From the same front, from the end of the covered way, close to the dividing wall, a second bank of earth is given off, and, passing westwards to unite with the horn-work, divides the inner from the middle moat, and forms a part of the northern defences of the castle. Its inner face is partially lined by a wall, in which is a sluice-tunnel. This is the curved ridge.

II.—The Horn-work covering the western front of the castle, and placed between the middle and outer gates, is an irregular polygon of about three acres, revetted all round with a wall of 15 feet high, above which is a talus of about 8 feet more. From its south-western face issues one of the feeding springs of the lake. On the eastern, or longest face, is a semi-pier, to receive the drawbridge, of 20 feet span, from the opposite gatehouse of the middle ward. On the north-western face a similar semi-pier, between half-round bastions, seems to have supported the drawbridge, also of 20 feet span, giving access to the castle in this direction. Possibly each bridge was of two pieces, one dropping from each bank upon a central tressel or timber structure in the ditch.

III.—The Redoubt has already been mentioned as being formed by scraping down a knoll of gravel on the north-west quarter of the castle.

The body of this earthwork is quadrangular, capped at the three outer angles by three bastions, and excavated in the centre into a sort of casemate. The curtain, towards the castle, is intersected by two trenches, separated by a mound or cavalier, and leading into the centre of the work.

Outside the redoubt, and following the curve of its bastions, is a ditch, upon the outer three sides broad and deep, on the fourth side but slightly marked.

The ramparts of the redoubt are unprovided with either parapets for canon or banquettes for musquetry, and the scarp is continued unbroken to the rampart. Neither scarp nor counterscarp, though steep, has any retaining wall.

Beyond its main ditch is a spacious glacis, terminating in three low bastions and a shallow ditch. Both ditches were probably dry.

The whole work resembles much those thrown up in haste during the wars between Charles I. and the Parliament, and has either been partially destroyed, or, which seems more probable, has never been entirely completed. No doubt it was stockaded.

The inner and middle wards of the castle occupy the island, which has already been described as formed out of the end of the peninsula.

This island is scarped into a parallelogram, 111 yards east and west, by 96 north and south. The four angles are capped by large bastions, parts of circles. The intervening straight lines are termed, in fortification, curtains.

The sides or scarps of these bastions and curtains are faced with a stone wall 30 feet high, and surmounted by a parapet of from 5 feet to 12 feet more; and within this enclosure are contained the middle and inner ward.

The inner ward is formed by placing a second parallelogram, smaller than the last, within it. This forms the inner, and the concentric space between the two, the middle, ward.

IV.—The Middle Ward thus presents four divisions, towards the cardinal points, all forming terraces of from 16 to 20 yards broad, and the opposite sides being of nearly equal length. Upon the east and west are the gatehouses; on the south, offices, and a water gate; and, on the north, an open terrace, overlooking the outer defences of the castle on that side.

The Eastern Gatehouse is formed of two low towers, with half-round projections towards the moat, and a portal between the two. The walls are thick, and there is a lodge on each side, lighted by three loops. Above these lodges was the battlement. On the north side is a square building, the use of which is unknown. This gatehouse was connected with that of the inner ward, and between the two there seem to have been side doors.

One of these, on the south, led to the Water-tank, lined with masonry, 50 feet long by 20 wide, probably a fish-preserve connected with the kitchen.

In front of this gatehouse, and dividing it from the platform of the grand gate, the moat is about 45 feet wide. As there are no traces of a central pier for the drawbridge which must have crossed this space, it seems probable that it rested on an intermediate tressel of timber, as at Raby and Holt, which admitted of being removed or destroyed in the event of a siege.

The Western Gatehouse is placed opposite to the horn-work, and between them is a moat 60 feet wide. The portal is loftier, and the front broader, than in the eastern gatehouse. There are two chambers on either side of the portal, and above them a first story, with fireplaces and chimneys.

Between this gate and the north-west tower of the inner ward are some later buildings, and a wall, which seems to have been intended to cut off the communication between the gatehouse and the north terrace. On the south side is a similar wall, shutting off the south terrace.

The offices and water-gate passage occupy a part of the south terrace of this ward.

The Water-gate Gallery leads from the hall to the lake, and is big enough to contain a boat. It is vaulted by a succession of narrow arches, in steps, instead of by one sloping vault. Above it are chambers, probably for cooks and attendants in the kitchens.

Against this passage, upon its eastern side, is the Kitchen Tower—a low tower of great strength, having the ground floor vaulted, and recesses, apparently for boiling and stewing, on a large scale. The fireplace is in the upper story.

The kitchen communicated with the hall, and with a sort of yard occupying the eastern end of the south terrace. A well-stair leads down to the lower, and up to the upper, kitchen.

In the yard is the oven, and a passage leading to the tank. Here, also, against the south curtain of the inner ward is a low oblong building, with one or two bows to the south, which seems to have been connected with the kitchen, and, in modern days, would have been the still-room.

V.—The Inner Ward is a quadrangle, measuring 200 feet east and west, by 160 feet north and south. It is contained within four curtain walls, capped at the angles by four round towers, and broken on the east and west sides by two lofty and magnificent gatehouses. The south side of the court thus formed is occupied by the hall and state apartments.

Of the Curtains, those on the north and east, are about 30 feet high, including the battlement. That on the south is higher by a story, and the rampart walk is continued along it—below, as a vaulted triforial gallery in the thickness of the wall, above, as an open walk. The triforial passage in the southern curtain is called the Braose Gallery, why, it is difficult to say, since the barons of that name, though lords of Gower, had no property east of the Nedd, in Glamorgan.

The four Bastion Towers which cap the angles of this ward are very marked features in the appearance of the castle. They have a projection, outside the wall, of three-fourths of a circle; are of three stages, with timber roofs and floors; and measure, in exterior diameter, 36 feet, and within, 18 feet; the walls being 9 feet thick. Each story is lighted by loopholes, very large within, but appearing exteriorly as a line. A well-stair leads to the summit of each. These towers open into the court, and upon the battlements. Their type is best seen in the north-west tower.

The Eastern Gatehouse is a superb pile. It is oblong, and has two half-round bows on its eastern side, and two round turrets, of three-quarter circle projection, at the north-west and south-west angles, within the court. The building is traversed by a portal, entered between the bow towers. The arch is “drop,” and the entrance is defended by gates, palisade, and portcullis. Above the opening into the court is a shoot for dropping missiles upon those below. On each side of the portal are lodges, and the second story is a spacious hall or council-chamber, with a large fireplace, and two large and handsome windows looking towards the court. Above this chamber is the battlement. On the north and south sides of this gatehouse are a number of small apartments, mostly vaulted, and some of them used as portcullis rooms. Over the door leading to the ramparts, on the south, is a small oratory or chapel, with a ribbed and vaulted roof, and two Decorated windows.

The Western Gatehouse is on the same plan, but rather smaller, and without turrets towards the court, its staircases being contained within the thickness of the wall. The lodges on each side of the portal are vaulted and ribbed, with ornamental corbels. They open direct into the court. The state chamber above is not so large as in the eastern gatehouse. It rests upon a vaulted floor.

The Hall is built against the south curtain. It measures 73 feet by 35 feet, and was about 30 feet high. It is lighted by four large and lofty windows towards the court, with ogee arches and reduplicated bands of the ball-flower moulding; within are crocketed canopies, in a somewhat stiff, but excellent, style. Between the windows is a broad fireplace, and to the east of them a door, which was the principal entrance on the south side. A door in the curtain leads down a long vaulted passage to the water gate of the lake, and another door leads to the kitchen and bakehouse, in the middle ward. A plain door at the west end opens into some state apartments, and other doors, and a large window at the east end, communicate with a cellar and the chapel.

The roof, of timber, sprung from fourteen short clustered pilasters, resting upon heads as corbels, placed against the north and south walls. The north wall is of dressed stone, and carried a stringcourse with ball flowers, about 3 feet above the ground. On the east wall is a stringcourse connected with the drip-stone of the chapel window. The east, south, and western sides were plastered, and probably painted, or hung with tapestry.

The Chapel, east of the hall—evident from its position and large east window—presents nothing remarkable. There are four state apartments west of the hall, two on the ground and two on the first floor. They are lighted from the north, and one of the windows is of great length and cinquefoiled, with a quatrefoil in the head. A staircase in the thickness of the curtain wall leads into the Braose Gallery, as well as to the upper rooms, and to some appendages connected with the sewage, and which seem to have been added.

In the grand court, a little to the north of the eastern entrance, is the well, about 4 feet diameter.