KIDWELLY CASTLE, CAERMARTHENSHIRE.
DESCRIPTION.
THE reader who places before him the two sheets, 37 and 41, of the Ordnance Survey, may observe, between the ranges of Penbrè and Mynydd-Sulen on the east, and Mynydd-Garreg and Llangyndeyrn on the west, a valley of about ten miles in length, and from one and a half to three in breadth. The head waters of its stream spring from the well-known elevation of Mynydd-mawr, and its mouth opens upon the Bristol Channel, between the estuaries of the Llwchwr and the Towy, in the bay of Caermarthen.
This is the valley of the Gwendraeth (white-strath)—
“Gwendra that with such grace delib’rately doth glide”—
one of the larger rivers of Caermarthen. West of this valley, between it and the Towy, but of much smaller dimensions than either, is a second valley and stream, tributary to the former, and bearing, like it, the name of Gwendraeth (“fach,” or “the less,” being its distinction). The rivers meet in a sort of estuary, chiefly formed by the “Gwendraeth-fawr.”
These valleys are traversed by the roads leading from the strait and tower of Llwchwr to the castles of Llanstephan and Caermarthen, as well as by the northern and originally Roman road from Llwchwr to Caermarthen, so that the district lies in the way between England and Pembroke and Cardigan, and was, in consequence, known at an early period to, and often crossed by, the Norman invaders of South Wales, who attached considerable importance to its possession.
The castle and town of Kidwelly are placed upon either bank of the Gwendraeth-fach, on the verge of the hill country, here divided from the sea by a marsh of a quarter of a mile in breadth.
The new town, parts of which are of high antiquity, with its church and some remains of a priory, stands upon the left bank, and is traversed by the old road from Llwchwr to Caermarthen. A mile east of the town, the road crosses the Gwendraeth-fawr by an ancient and narrow bridge. Close west of the town a similar bridge crosses the Gwendraeth-fach, just below the castle, with which it is connected by a suburb, said by Leland to be the original town, and, in his time, enclosed within a wall with three gates.
The castle stands from 80 feet to 100 feet above the river, on the right bank, here steep and rocky. It thus protects and overawes the town and priory, which are opposite to and below it. The eastern face is defended naturally by the steep and the river. On the other sides the defences are wholly artificial. The castle weir and a leat lead the water from the river, cutting off a bend, to the mill, which is placed between the castle and the town bridge.
Kidwelly is distant from the tower of Llwchwr, eleven miles; from the castles of Llanstephan and Caermarthen, five and nine miles; and from those of Dryslwyn and Dynevor, thirteen and eighteen miles.
The Gwendraeth seems to have derived a part of its name from the “traeth” or “strath” of meadow land found along its course, the fertility of which may have led to the establishment of the town and priory of Kidwelly.
Cydweli is the name of one of the three commots of Eginoc, one of the four cantrefs or hundreds of the ancient county of Caermarthen, which included Gower. The adjacent commot of Carnwyllion, north of Kidwelly, contained the strong pass of the same name, and is often mentioned in local records.
The lordship of Kidwelly extends from the Llwchwr to the Towy, and includes the parliamentary borough of Llanelly, and the municipality of Kidwelly. The franchise of the corporation is reputed to extend beyond the town, around the castle precinct. Of this franchise the mayor is the lord, holding his courts in the town. The courts for the lordship are held in the castle.
Kidwelly is a castle of the Edwardian or concentric type, slightly modified from the perfect examples of Beaumaris and Caerphilly. It is composed of the “castle proper,” containing the inner and outer ward, and the “outworks,” containing the southern and northern platforms.
H. Smyth del.
J. H. Le Keux sc.
KIDWELLY CASTLE.
GENERAL SURVEY
PLANS OF CHAPEL
MAIN BUILDING
H. Smyth del.
J. H. Le Keux sc.
KIDWELLY CASTLE.
GENERAL PLAN
The castle is in plan nearly a semicircle, the main ditch forming the curve, and the cliff and river the chord. The long axis lies north and south, and the gateways are at opposite ends. The whole work measures 440 yards, by from 90 yards to 130 yards, and covers about three acres.
The Inner Ward contains the drum towers, the curtains, the chapel tower, the hall, and the kitchen.
The drum towers are four:—The north-west or black tower; the south-west or Astragun Tower; the south-east or Margaret Dun Tower; and the north-east tower. All are of one date, and nearly of one pattern,—cylindrical, 30 feet diameter, with walls 9 feet thick. They are 44 feet high, with a battlement, and each has a well-stair at the gorge, terminating above in a square turret, the top of which is 53 feet high. Each contains a souterrain, and three stages of circular chambers, looped outwards, usually with three openings. There are also the usual chambers in the walls, and doors opening upon the ramparts of the curtains. There are also some points of difference. The chambers of the south-west tower are vaulted; the rest have timber floors. In this tower the souterrain is entered by a long gallery in the wall, common to the south curtain and the kitchen, opening from the porter’s lodge. This is the “porter’s prison,” and possibly the vaulting was to allow the whole tower to be used for this purpose. The north-west tower is cylindrical below, but above it passes into a sort of heart-shaped plan, presenting towards the gorge a double bow, with a flat recess between. These two towers cap the angle of their curtains, and are engaged in about one-fifth of their circumference.
The north-east and south-east towers are placed, not at the angles, but on the faces of the north and south curtains, close to their east ends, and on the edge of the river cliff. Besides their junction with the curtains of the inner ward, they are connected north and south with that part of the curtain of the outer ward which is built along the edge of the cliff. The south-east tower is closely connected with the chapel tower, and has also a door opening upon the curtain of the outer ward, leading to the great gatehouse.
The curtains are four in number. That to the east is irregular, low, and weak; the cliff has been considered its defence. The other three are 6 feet thick, and 18 feet high to the top of the parapet. Along each is a rampart walk, having a parapet pierced with loops and a rere wall. The curtains enclose a quadrangle 80 yards square.
The north curtain is pierced by a gateway, 6 feet wide, with a low drop arch, and the groove of a portcullis worked from the rampart; it is near the east end of the wall, and nearly opposite the northern gatehouse. This curtain is pierced by two loops, which seem to have been defended from the ground level. The west curtain has three loops, two of which opened from the kitchen.
The south curtain is pierced near its centre by a gateway, 10 feet wide, with a low drop arch and portcullis groove. The wall has been thickened to give depth to the gateway, and possibly to allow of the superstruction of a low tower above it. This is the principal entrance to the inner, and opens towards the great gatehouse of the outer, ward.
The chapel tower, forming part of the east curtain, deserves particular attention. It is an oblong building, springing from a rectangular base; but, as the two outer or eastern angles are formed by buttresses, each of which is a half pyramid, cut diagonally, the plan of the upper part is an oblong, with the two eastern angles removed so as to form an apse. As this tower projects some way down the steep, its outer face is 56 feet high and its inner only 20 feet. Its top is 24 feet lower than that of the contiguous south-east tower.
Against the south side of the chapel tower is a small square projection containing a vestry. This does not rise to the clerestory.
The chapel tower has three floors, all ceiled with timber. The interior is 26 feet from the altar to the west end, and 18 feet broad. The east wall is 6 feet thick; the west wall, 3 feet. In the south-east corner is a mural gallery, leading to a sewer chamber below the vestry. In the north-east corner is a well-stair. The ground floor is below the level of the inner ward, and is entered by a curved stair from the adjacent hall. The next, or first floor, is on the level of, and entered directly from, the hall. Above this, and on the rampart level, is the chapel. This includes two tiers of windows, the upper being a clerestory, and is entered by a west door. The east window is common to both tiers. It is a long, narrow, and acutely-trefoiled loop, set in a broad recess, which nearly occupies the whole east bay of the apse, and has a flat drop arch with a plain rib.
In the face next south of the altar-place is a small trefoiled piscina, and next to this a broad recess or sedile under a drop arch. On the south side, a small, acutely-pointed door leads to the vestry, and west of this is another recess, with a flat drop arch, and in it, close to its east side, a loop, long since blocked up, intended to defend the nook between the vestry and the south-east tower, and to rake the adjacent curtain. There is also a trefoiled loop in the north wall, and a door long closed up.
The clerestory is lighted by nine windows, three on each side, and three, including that to the east, in the apse. They are all alike—long, narrow, acutely-trefoiled openings, within broad recesses, plainly ribbed, and with flat drop arches. All rest inside upon a string, a filleted half round, which dips to pass under the east window. Between each pair of windows is a plain corbel block for the roof timbers. There is nothing, save the battlements, above the chapel. The walls have been stuccoed. The west wall has neither ashlar dressings nor string course, and is of different date and inferior work to the rest of the tower.
The hall, 60 feet by 25 feet, filled up, with the retiring-room, the whole east side of the inner ward. Its south end is formed by the south-east tower, the circular face of which has been patched and plastered to present a flat surface towards the hall, and this addition still shows the height and pitch of the hall roof. The west wall of the chapel forms part of the east wall of the hall; and in another part of this, which was also the outer wall towards the river, are traces of a window recess, like those of the chapel. Near this, also connected with the chapel, is a projecting space from the curtain, which may have been a sort of oriel or small chamber attached to the hall. In the west wall, at the south end, is an ashlar door or window jamb. The west wall is destroyed.
Mʳˢ. Traherne delᵗ.
J. H. Le Keux sc.
KIDWELLY CASTLE.
INTERIOR Of CHAPEL.
The retiring-room is of the breadth of the hall, and 30 feet long. It communicates with the north-east tower. Its west wall is tolerably perfect. It has been stuccoed, and includes a doorway. The cross wall, and perhaps the place of its door opening into the hall, may be traced. A trefoiled and recessed loop, of the date of those in the chapel, remains on the east side in the curtain; and close south of it is the fireplace, with a carved base to the chimney shaft. The whole of the east curtain seems to have been employed to carry the roofs of the hall and retiring-room, and was probably defended by a battlement accessible from the roof gutter. The commanding position of the north-east and chapel towers and the steep rise from the river would render this the least accessible side of the castle.
The kitchen is placed opposite to the hall, in the south-west corner of the court. It is 30 feet by 17 feet, and appears from its remaining gable to have had a highly-pitched roof. At each end, north and south, is a large fireplace, with magnificent tunnels. On the west side, which is formed by the curtain, a window of narrow opening but broad recess opens into the outer ward. Towards the south end is a third fireplace, of smaller dimensions, apparently intended for stewing and similar operations, like a modern hot closet.
In the east wall is a narrow doorway, placed within and on one side of a wider arch, which at breast high is opened to its full breadth. This seems to have been devised to allow servants to carry out large dishes without opening a doorway of unnecessary breadth. On each side of this door are low, broad openings, evidently intended for buttery hatches.
The north-west angle of this ward is occupied by an enclosure 45 feet square, of which the two curtains form two sides. It is walled in, and may have contained offices or barracks.
The Outer Ward is nearly semicircular, the inner ward being built upon the middle of its chord. Its parts are the great and lesser gatehouses, the curtains, the mural towers, and the offices. The inner ward has no ditch, and the space between the walls of the two wards is on the north side, 90 feet; on the west side, 60 feet; and on the south side, 80 feet.
The great gatehouse is a fine pile of building. It is an oblong mass, 80 feet broad by 50 feet deep, and 62 feet high. The gateway is 11 feet high, and 8 feet broad, and has a high drop arch. It is placed in a very flat, segmental, arched recess, 20 feet high. The sill of the doorway is 12 feet above the bottom of the ditch, and on either side it is flanked by a conical round tower, 24 feet in diameter below, and 20 feet above. Above the gateway, between and on a level with the top of the towers, runs a bold machicolation of three flat arches upon two corbels.
The gatehouse has a circular projection eastward towards the river; and at its north-west angle a square turret terminates in a watch-tower, which rises 93 feet above the court, and is known as “Pigin Tower” [Pigwn, Beacon].
The portals, both towards the field and towards the court, have plain chamfered ribs in ashlar; the portal vault is turned in rubble, with a portcullis groove at either end. The gates open inwards, so that the gatehouse could be defended on either side. There are also three chases in the vault, intended for the passage of gratings. The middle one appears to have been long closed up.
The drawbridge dropped across the moat, here reduced 16 feet, upon a pier connected with the barbican.
Entering by the great gate, on the right and left are dungeons and guard chambers, with loops commanding the approach. The doorways are small, with arches nearly half round, or very slightly pointed. One chamber on the right contains a large domed water-tank below the floor, two singular recesses in the wall, and a garderobe. A well-stair at the north-west angle leads to the first floor, which is also reached by an exterior and state staircase from the court, under which is a porter’s lodge. The subterranean chambers and those on the ground floor are vaulted.
The first or principal floor contains a state-room, 40 feet by 17 feet, with two large windows opening upon the court, and a fireplace between them. The windows appear to have been of two lights, trefoiled, and they are placed in large, flat, segmental recesses. The roof has been of timber, flat, and rather low. On the same floor are three smaller rooms and a portcullis chamber; and on the east side, over the tank-room, is a vaulted kitchen, with a large fireplace and oven. From the kitchen a small door leads to the east rampart, and along it to the south-east drum tower. Two well-staircases lead to the second floor, which contains also a large chamber, with windows of two lights, and trefoiled, opening upon the court, and a fireplace. Here also are several bedrooms, with doorways of carved ashlar. This floor seems intended for the accommodation of persons of condition. The well-stair at the north-west angle is continued upwards to the watch tower; and from near this stair a narrow door leads to the rampart of the curved curtain, and so to the mural towers of the outer ward.
The watch tower is considerably higher than any other part of the castle, and commands an extensive view over both sea and land.
H. Smyth delᵗ.
J. H. Le Keux sc.
KIDWELLY CASTLE.
The lesser or northern gatehouse is in great part destroyed, and appears to have been hastily built. It is on a small scale, and composed only of two half-round towers, the back or gorge walls of which, and part of the portal, have been destroyed. There appears to have been an upper story entered by a staircase in the adjacent western curtain. The portal arch is gone, but there are traces of a drawbridge which worked between two side walls, looped to rake the ditch. That on the east remains. The portal was 10 feet wide, and the bridge dropped with a span of about 18 feet upon a pier still remaining, and projecting from the counterscarp of the fosse. The bridge walls are later than the towers, and these probably than the curtain. This gateway is placed at the north extremity of the outer ward, only a few yards from the river bank. It appears to be an addition.
The curtain of the outer ward is in three parts: one, 330 feet long, and curved, encloses the ward on the west or landward side, and connects the gatehouses with the mural towers. This wall is 6 feet thick, and 20 feet high, and is defended by the main fosse. Besides openings from the gatehouses, there is a direct access to this rampart from the court by a mural staircase built against the wall. The rampart walk is protected by a parapet and a rere wall, both of which, to give breadth to the walk, are thrown out upon corbels or false machicolations.
The second part of the curtain is straight, or nearly so, and extends 50 feet in length along the river cliff, from the great gatehouse to the south-east drum tower. Its rampart is accessible from each end. This wall is 30 feet high and 7 feet thick.
The third portion of the curtain also runs along the river cliff, and extends 90 feet from the north-east drum tower to the north gatehouse, near which it makes a salient angle. Between this angle and the gate it is 5 feet thick; elsewhere, only 2 feet. Possibly there was a tower at the angle.
The mural towers are three in number, all placed in the western curtain. They are half round, 30 feet high, 22 feet in diameter, with an external projection of 8 feet, and a slight square projection within formed by the gorge wall. They have a ground floor, looped, a first floor with a fireplace, and a chamber on the level of the rampart walk and forming a part of it. The walls are 5 feet thick. The middle tower of the three has fallen into the fosse. The masonry of these towers is rude, and they are ill-bonded into the wall.
The offices in this ward are represented by the walls of a detached building, 65 feet by 30 feet, with high gables, placed west of the inner ward; another room, 60 feet by 35 feet, built against the river curtain, near the northern gatehouse; and some outbuildings, kitchens probably, and a bakehouse, built against the curved curtain, close west of the same gatehouse. These buildings were probably intended for the accommodation of the garrison.
The main ditch sweeps round the north, west, and south sides of the outer ward, opening upon the river cliff at, and rising towards each end. The opening at the south-east end, near the great gatehouse, is closed by a batardeau, which seems to have been embattled towards the river, and to have been approached from the barbican. There are some traces of a similar wall at the other end, next the north gatehouse. This ditch is high above the river, but is fed by land waters, and part of it is still wet. It is about 30 feet broad, and of considerable depth. Westward it gives off a branch which divides the north and south outworks, and communicates with the ditches of the former.
The barbican appears, from the traces of its foundations, to have been a small, circular tower. It occupied a rocky knoll on the counterscarp of the main ditch, opposite the great gateway, and on the edge of the steep bank of the river. It evidently was intended to cover the drawbridge, and to force those who arrived by this entrance to pass exposed to the fire of the adjacent western curtain. This work seems to have been cut off from the other outworks by a dry ditch, or covered way, leading from the river, south-west of the barbican towards the main ditch.
The outworks are divided into north and south platforms by the branch of the main ditch already mentioned.
The south platform is defended on the east by the mill leat. It was walled in, and seems to have been about 170 yards long by 130 yards broad. Part of the wall remains on the west side and on the north, along the edge of the branch ditch. At the south end, the approach still lies through the outer gatehouse, part only of which is destroyed. The portal, a drop arch with portcullis grooves, remains; above it are three windows with flat, segmental arches. From the sill of the central window a hole opens upon the outside of the portal, probably for the passage of missiles. The building has a ground and upper floor. There are no traces of ditch or drawbridge. The work is rubble. There does not appear to have been any ashlar. The style is Perpendicular—possibly of the date of the great gatehouse, probably later. Grose gives a drawing of this gatehouse in 1786, in which it appears much in its present condition.
The northern platform covers the north and west quarters of the castle. It measures about 130 yards long by 90 yards broad, and is enclosed within a wet ditch, a branch of which nearly cuts off its northern portion, leaving a narrow neck towards the river, across which lay the approach to the south entrance. Within the ditches of this work are high banks, and indications of a slight wall, and perhaps of a tower, near the entrance passage.
This castle has sustained less injury than might have been expected. It has been dismantled, and the ironwork and timber removed, but none of its towers or walls appear to have been blown up. The mural tower missing from the outer ward has probably slipped into the ditch from some defect in its foundation.
The castle is easy of access and examination, not being overgrown with ivy or brushwood.
H. Smyth del.
J. H. Le Keux. sc.
KIDWELLY CASTLE.
MAIN ENTRANCE.
GATEWAY.
The details of Kidwelly afford some general indications of the age of its several portions. There is nothing which can safely be pronounced to be Norman work, although no doubt the present was preceded by a structure partaking both of this and the early English style.
The general plan or arrangement of the castle seems, from its style, to be of one date—probably that of Henry III., or early in the reign of Edward I. The chapel is of this age. Its west wall, however, appears, from the peculiarities of its bond, to be of earlier date than the rest, and of the same date with the south-eastern drum tower, say 1260–80, which would be the date of all the towers and curtains of the inner ward, for all are in the same style.
The great hall seems a little later than the south-eastern tower, the face of which has been flattened to suit its gable.
The walls and mural towers of the outer ward may be a little later than the inner ward. That they are part of the original plan may be inferred from the want of strength in the inner gatehouses.
The great gatehouse is decided, but early, Perpendicular, perhaps of the reign of Richard II. or Henry IV., 1388–1400. Pigin tower is a later addition.