CLIFFORD CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE.
CLIFFORD CASTLE is the most westward of the fortresses by which the line of the Wye is protected in its passage across the county of Hereford, and which appear to have been constructed, some long before, some shortly before, and others shortly after, the Norman Conquest, for the defence of that fertile acquisition against the ever-aggressive Welsh of Brecknock and Radnor.
As early as the first quarter of the ninth century, the Saxons, under Egbert, had reduced Wales to a nominal subjection. And that great prince, having conquered Mercia, and exercising power over all England, is not unlikely to have strengthened the Mercian frontier and the Saxon acquisitions generally on the Welsh side; and to this period may be due, not improbably, such earthworks as those at Cardiff, Caerleon, Shrewsbury, Old Radnor, and Builth, and, now partially destroyed, at Hereford, and wholly so at Worcester: earthworks which, in their main features, resemble those thrown up early in the tenth century at Tutbury, Tamworth, and Leicester by Eadward the elder and his sister, Æthelflæd.
But, whatever may then have been done, it is very certain that during the reign of the Confessor several of his Norman favourites settled in England, and that, among them, Richard Fitz-Scrob had lands in the north of Herefordshire, and there set up and gave name to Richard’s Castle. As this castle was a great cause of offence, it probably was something different from the fortified timber houses of the English Thanes, and may well have been of stone, after the rising Norman fashion. It was certainly a place of considerable strength, and was useful during the invasion of Prince Griffith, in 1052. The fashion, probably, did not extend among the English, for when the same prince invaded Archenfield, and burned Hereford city, in 1055, he entered, apparently without much difficulty, the strong place, or Gaer, by which it was defended, and of which no doubt the banks and ditches, yet remaining, and the mound, known to have been removed, were parts. Harold retook and fortified the city in 1056.
Herefordshire was at that time, and long afterwards, one of the most valuable and most threatened of the English acquisitions on the Welsh border. Before the Norman Conquest, it was under the vigorous sway of Earl Harold, who beat back the Welsh from Rhuddlan to Gloucester and Chepstow, although he was unable to prevent Caradoc ap Griffith from destroying the hunting-seat in course of construction for the Confessor at Portskewet. That Harold encouraged fortified places on these marches is pretty certain, seeing that of the small number of castles recorded in the Domesday Survey no less than ten are named as standing in the marches of Monmouth and Hereford: namely, Wigmore, Clifford, and Chepstow, of which Wigmore is reputed one of the oldest Honours in the kingdom; Monmouth; Ewyas, founded before the Conquest, and repaired before Domesday, by Alured de Marleburgh; Avretone; Caerleon, famous for its Roman walls and its mount; Ferrars Castle; Herdeslie; Waterleye. These and several others not mentioned in the Survey, but existing at the time, were strengthened and held by the Norman invaders.
Clifford Castle stands on the right bank of the Wye, at the bottom of one of those short, sharp bends so frequent along the course of this river, and which add so much to its beauty. It crowns a red sandstone cliff about 150 feet above the stream, and close to it. The scarp, naturally steep, has been recently made steeper by art, to allow of the passage of the Brecon and Hereford Railway between the castle and the river. The cliff is part of a knoll of high ground, about half a mile long, and cut by the long-continued action of the river into a semilunar figure. The highest part of this knoll is converted into a narrow tongue by a broad and deep ravine, which descends from the north nearly parallel to the Wye, and terminates in the river bank. A long, tapering ridge is thus isolated between the ravine and the river, and upon this stands the fortress. The ravine bounds the ridge on the south and east, and a natural depression of no great depth crosses the latter at the broad north end. The intermediate part is traversed by two artificial cross ditches, which run from the river to the ravine, about 100 feet deep, but still considerably above the level of either.
The central and highest part thus isolated contains the inner ward; south of this a very small but strong division constitutes the outwork; and on the north is the lower but broader expanse of the outer ward, the three being thus in a line.
The inner ward, of which alone any buildings remain, is roughly quadrangular, about 100 feet square. Along the west or river front are the hall and withdrawing-room. On the south front is a half-round tower and a curtain. The east, or ravine, side is destroyed to the ground level, as is nearly all the north end, in which was the gate-house. The hall, 20 feet by 40 feet, was on the first floor. There was a store or cellar under it, of which the east and south walls are gone. Its entrance, and any light it may have had, were probably given on the court or east side. The hall had a timber floor. It was lighted by three windows in the west or river wall. Of these, the recess of one remains, with a rather low, pointed arch. A door in the north wall led into the withdrawing-room, and one at the south end into the mural tower. The east and south walls are gone. The withdrawing-room occupied the curved angle of the ward between the hall and the gate-house; beneath it was a ground-floor. The south end of the hall, like the west side, was an outer curtain. It abutted against a half-round tower, 30 feet diameter, with walls 9 feet thick, and a gorge wall, 5 feet thick, flush with the inner face of the curtain. This tower seems to have had an under ground-floor, now filled up. The basement has a door from the court, in the gorge; another door on the west side, probably a postern, and two loops with wide recesses, opening towards the field. The upper floor also had two loops to the field, a window in the gorge, and on each side a door, one leading obliquely into the hall, and the other into a mural chamber within the curtain, and containing a garderobe, double. The floors were of timber. There is no staircase nor fireplace.
The curtain breaks off towards the south-east angle, where it seems to have expanded and probably abutted against a tower. In it is a mural chamber, a garderobe, single, on the first floor level, and which evidently opened from the destroyed tower. The two garderobes mentioned open by oblique shoots in the wall, about 5 feet from the ground, without any projection. As the whole east or ravine front is gone, it is difficult to say whether there were towers at the south-east and north-east angles; probably there were, and round ones. In the north front are two circular depressions, evidently the place of the two towers of the gate-house, and between them is the entrance. This leads from the outer ward, and crossed the ditch upon a causeway of earth, about 6 feet broad at the top, and the ascent up which from the counterscarp of the ditch to the portal is very steep. The causeway appears to be original, and has been pitched with stones on edge. At the end of this ditch, where it opened on the river bank, it is crossed by a curtain, 6 feet thick, intended to prevent enemies from crawling up the river bank and surprising the adjacent gateway. This curtain is now about 6 feet high, and probably was 25 feet or 30 feet.
The outwork, south of the inner ward, and divided from it by a very narrow but deep ditch, is not easily to be explained. It is the extremity of the ridge, of a triangular figure, 60 feet on a side, and level, showing no trace of earthwork or masonry of any kind. The three scarps are very steep indeed, and quite sharp and clean cut, the soft rock being covered with excellent firm turf. This outwork is so dangerously near to the inner ward, and at so high a level, that it must have been occupied, probably by a stockade or timber structure. It is a very curious work.
The outer ward, at the north end or root of the ridge, is 60 feet or 70 feet lower, and much broader than the inner ward. Its defence on the south is the cross ditch, over which passes the causeway to the inner ward; on the west is the river-cliff, 80 feet to 90 feet high; and on the east and north a steep scarp, partly of red rock, partly rivetted in masonry, and from 10 feet to 20 feet deep. Beyond it is the upper part of the ravine, and the natural depression connecting the ravine with the river bank. This ward is something between a square and a circle, and about 300 feet in diameter. It has evidently been defended by a curtain, probably a low one, on the east and south, or exposed, sides, and the ground, usually level, rises in a sort of ramp to what appears to be the remains of the wall. This ramp is wanting on the river and south faces, which, being covered by the river and the river ward, were probably palisaded only. About the centre of the east front is a low mound, apparently the foundations of a round mural tower.
The depressed ground in the centre of the south front indicates that the outer entrance was there; and midway between this and the causeway, leading to the inner ward, are two long heaps of earth and stone with a passage between them. They much resemble the remains of a long gate-house, between the outer and inner gate; but if so, this must have been in the middle of a wall dividing the outer ward into two, of which no trace remains.
This outer ward, never very strong, was evidently intended for the reception of villagers and cattle during the inroads of the Welsh. The earthworks, though deeper and broader than the Normans usually gave to so small a fortress, have nothing of the character of British or Saxon work, and are probably not older than the Conquest, or the reign preceding it. But of the existing masonry none can be safely called Norman. The walls are of inferior and rudely-coursed rubble; no ashlar remains, save a bold cordon or bead, which runs along the top of the lower or battering part of the wall, and this is not carried all round. The arches of the mural tower are flat-pointed. On the whole, the general appearance of the buildings points to the reign of Henry III., and none of it seems of older date. Certainly no decidedly Norman work is seen.
The ditches were substantially dry, though they may have received and retained more or less land-water.
At the base of the slope of the outwork the ravine has been deepened for a rectangular pond, probably a fish-stew, and an early drawing shows water here collected.
Looking from the inner ward upon the river, there is plainly seen, just above the castle, the line of the old mill leat, now a green ditch, and the small eyot upon which must have stood the castle mill. A ripple on the river, here somewhat expanded, shows a ford; and opposite, on the edge of a broad expanse of low, level mead, is the village of Cabalva, said in Welsh to mean a horse-ford. Thus is seen at one view the cliff and the ford which, under the Saxon sway, gave its appellation to the parish, and from which one of the most celebrated of the great English families derived its name.
Clifford, though the cradle of a great race, could have been valuable only while Herefordshire was an unsafe possession. With the settlement of the country under Edward I., it probably fell into disuse and decay. It is far too small and too inconvenient of access to be held, except for safety; and such history as it has is confined to a very early and warlike period.
The castle is reputed with Striguil or Chepstow, Ewyas, and Wigmore, to have been founded by William Fitz-Osborn, one of the companions of the Conqueror, and the first Norman Earl of Herefordshire. He was killed in 1070, and his third son, Roger de Bretuil, who succeeded to his English lands, had forfeited them before the Domesday Survey, when the castle was held by Ralph de Toni, who, by Dugdale, is said to have married Alicia, one of Roger’s daughters. However this may have been, he possessed Clifford Castle at the time of the Survey, and died 1102.
How the castle passed from De Toni is unknown, but here Simon, son of Richard FitzPons, was seated, and founded a priory, and he and his brother Richard are said by Dugdale to have adopted the surname of Clifford. Walter de Clifford, son of Richard, was a great Marcher Baron, and living in 1165. His son, Walter the second, was a still more powerful Baron. He died 1222, having married Margaret, daughter of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and was father of a third Walter, and of Roger, ancestor of the great house of Clifford, Earls of Cumberland. He may well have been the builder of the existing castle.
Walter, who died 1263, closed the elder line. Maud, his heiress, is said to have married, first William de Longspée, Earl of Salisbury, and, second, John Giffard, of Brimmesfield, who held, probably during her life, Brunless Castle, the manor of Glasbury, and the manor and castle of Clifford, being seized of them at his death, 27 Edward I. Maud’s daughter by Longspée married Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and probably upon her mother’s death she obtained her heritage, for in the inquisition held upon De Lacy and his wife, 4 Edward II., the manor and castle of Clifford are included. The castle had probably now ceased to be of importance, for it does not again occur in the inquisitions. It is not usually regarded as having been the caput of an Honour; but Giffard’s inquisition mentions its tenants by knights’ service, and John de Solars, 4 Edward II., holds Paunteleye manor of the “Honour of Clifford,” in the county of Gloucester, which in those days was not always distinguished from other parts of the march.
The Church of Clifford throws no light upon the architecture or owners of the castle. The tower, of considerable size and solid aspect, may be moderately old, but the rest of the building has been rebuilt in the churchwarden manner prevalent in 1836, the roofs, however, having been preserved. Also, from the old building, are preserved a good coffin-lid cross in a circle, placed most unwisely as a cill to the north door; a font, or rather the octagonal bowl of one, probably of Decorated date; and in the chancel, loose on a shelf, a very fine life-sized effigy of an ecclesiastic, robed and tonsured, boldly designed and excellently executed in wood, and which deserves better care.