THE CASTLE OF EWIAS HAROLD, HEREFORDSHIRE.
THE “Castellaria Aluredi Ewias” of Domesday was a tract, the particulars of which are not known, but which no doubt lay among those lines of hill and valley which converge like the fingers of a hand upon the Worm and the Monnow, between the Golden Valley and the Black Mountain, and form the south-western portion of the county of Hereford. The actual castle, “Castellum Ewias,” stands about six miles within the border, and about three miles outside or west of the presumed line of Offa’s Dyke at this point. The country is hilly, but fertile, well worth the defence, for which it affords many natural advantages. The immediate position is chosen with great skill, though it required an immense application of human labour to make it an almost impregnable fortress against the fierce and active hordes of Welshmen whose alienated patrimony it was intended to grasp. While the Mound of Builth remains an evidence of English rule, that of Ewias can scarcely be regarded as the advanced post, the “Castle Dangerous” upon the British territory; but it must nevertheless at all times have been a post of very great danger, and have borne, with Kilpeck, the brunt of the ordinary and frequent attacks of the men of South and West Wales upon Hereford.
In selecting the position advantage was taken of a tongue of high land, broad towards the west and north, but which came rapidly to a narrow and almost abrupt termination in a point about 300 feet above and within the junction of the two adjacent streams. Of these the larger flows along the northern front of the position, and the smaller down a deep valley along its southern front. The two meet a few score yards below the high ground; and upon the left or further bank of the larger stream, and a short distance above the junction, is the church, and attached to it the village, to which the castle and its English lord have given the distinguishing name.
It was decided to convert the point or eastern end of the high ground into the proposed strong place, and to form thus, in the northern fashion, an isolated mound. With this intent a broad and deep ditch was cut across the ridge, curved so as to embrace about one-half of the future elevation. At its north end the ditch was carried straight down the hill-side towards the brook. At its south end it came to rather a sharp conclusion, running out upon a natural bank and slope. Here, however, it was in some sort resumed at a lower level, and ended in a shallow ditch at the southern or principal entrance to the castle. The part thus isolated by the ditch formed the circular base of a mound of about 120 yards diameter and about 30 feet high. This the addition of the soil from the ditch raised to about 70 feet, and thus gave it, in the military sense, a command over the adjacent part of the original ridge. On its opposite, or eastern side, the mound does not descend at once towards the junction of the waters, but at its foot is a broad semicircular platform, which covers its east, north-east, and south-east fronts, and from the outer or convex edge of which descends a steep slope towards the water, which slope is again succeeded by inclinations of a far more gentle character, not included in the military works.
A fair general idea of this stronghold may be given by supposing a circular platform of 200 yards diameter to be bordered on the east and adjacent sides by a steep natural slope falling from its edge, and on the west and adjacent sides by a steep artificial slope falling to its edge. Then on the western margin is placed a conical table mound, 60 feet or 70 feet high, and about 120 yards diameter at the base, which necessarily converts the western slope into the further side or counterscarp of a ditch, and reduces the eastern side to an open crescent-shaped platform. Such is the original plan of the Castle of Ewias, and such its present appearance after the complete removal of the masonry which for about 600 years adorned or encumbered its earthworks.
The top of the mound is oval, about 34 yards north and south by 40 yards east and west. Upon it has stood a shell-keep, either circular or many-sided, about 30 yards diameter. Although no masonry remains, the outline of the keep is plainly indicated by the trench which has been dug while the foundations were being grubbed up. The keep seems from this to have stood, not in the centre, but nearer the eastern margin of the mound, probably to allow room for a couple of exterior towers, or perhaps a gatehouse, which seems to have stood where now are some circular pits. Towers would be well placed on this the weakest side, so as to give a still greater command over the approach along the high ground. There is no trace of any regular ascent to the keep,—no mark of an original winding path up the mound, that now in use being evidently very modern. The side is so steep that no wheeled carriage could ascend it, and scarcely any heavily-laden horse. Probably the way up lay by a direct flight of steps, as at Hawarden and Carisbrook.
There is no trace of a well. The material of the keep was evidently a hard schistose bed of the old red sandstone, fragments of which are seen in the excavations.
The outer ward or crescent-shaped platform, below and west of the keep, runs out to a point towards the southern end, but to the north or north-west it is stopped at a breadth of about 42 yards by the prolongation of the keep ditch. The breadth of the ward at its greatest is about 60 yards. Along the north-west front it is strengthened by large earth-banks thrown up from the contiguous ditch, but elsewhere the natural slope of from 30 feet to 40 feet, steeply scarped, needed neither ditch nor bank. This ward had a curtain wall along its outer edge, of which the foundation diggings remain open. The north-west end was continued up the mound, and probably the circuit on the opposite side was completed in a similar way, so as to make the mound and keep, as at Tamworth and Durham, a part of the general enceinte. A group of excavations shows that this ward contained a considerable number of domestic buildings placed in its north-eastern and eastern part, near to the curtain wall. At the foot of the mound to the north is a sort of notch in the line of bank, possibly indicating a postern. The main approach evidently rose gradually from the village bridge, and skirted the foot of the eastern slope of the outer ward nearly to its south end, where it turned inwards and entered that ward by a roadway or slight cutting.
There is no trace of masonry to be seen within or about the castle enceinte; the material seems to have been in request as building-stone, and to have been everywhere collected and even grubbed up with most covetous care. There is a limekiln on the south side, near the line of the entrance, no doubt built of the materials of the castle, and a sort of house, now a shed, between it and the brook, but the material shows no mark of the tool and no old mortar.
There are some mounds between the castle and the brooks, possibly thrown up on the occasion of some attack by the enemy. On the other or high side there are no outworks nor any indications either of attack or defence.
There are no remains of the priory save what are included within the parish church. This is a good-sized building, recently repaired or restored, and in excellent order. It is composed of a tower, nave, south porch, and chancel. The nave has been so completely restored that little of old work is to be seen in its walls or roof. It is probably in substance of Decorated date, judging from the buttresses on the south side. The porch is new. The chancel has in the north wall a sepulchral recess, of Decorated pattern, covering the original recumbent figure of a female with her hands in prayer, holding what looks like a covered cup. In the south wall are two lancet windows of one light, under pointed recesses, and between them a late Decorated window of two lights, trefoiled, with a plain four-sided opening in the head. The whole is in a round-headed recess. The arch into the nave is new.
The tower is the best part of the church. It is of large size, square, and short for its size, probably having had another story. It rests upon a bold plinth, about 5 feet 6 inches high, at the top of which is a bold half-round cordon, with a band. The south-west angle is covered by the pilaster buttresses, of 8 feet 6 inches breadth, and a foot projection, which die into the tower, near the present summit. In this angle is a well-stair. In the south side is an unusually large door, of 8 feet opening, with high lancet arch. In the centre of the flat jamb on each side is a half-column, 2 feet diameter, with a water-bearing moulding, and a sort of bell-cap, with several bands of moulding above it. The arch is plainly chamfered, and the cordon of the tower is carried round it as a hood. Above this is a clumsy window of two lancet lights under a pointed head, very plain. Above this again is a small broad window, with a trefoiled head, and above all an early English window of three lights, with three-quarter shafts before each mullion, with bell-caps. In the nooks of each jamb are two similar shafts, seven in all. The head is a drop-pointed arch, plainly chamfered. There is a window similar to this in the north wall. The church contains nothing earlier than this mixture of the early English with the Decorated style. The masonry of the castle was probably, from its plan, of a late Norman, or transitional date. The earthworks are of the regular Herefordshire type; attributable to the English of the early part of the tenth century. They resemble generally, in the presence of a mound, those of Kilpeck and Builth, Caerleon and Cardiff, of Brecon, Abergavenny, and many places in this county or district. No doubt this and the similar works were thrown up when the early Saxon inroads were made into Wales, and were the strongholds of the invading chiefs.
Ewias Harold certainly does not bear the name of its founder, and that founder was probably as completely forgotten in the eleventh century as now.
There are two places called Ewias in Herefordshire, distinguished by the names of their eleventh-century owners, as Ewias Lacy and Ewias Harold. Both are mentioned in Domesday, and both as the seats of a castelry, a sort of Honour or superior lordship attached to the castle. Under the lands of the church of Hereford, we are told that “in the manors of Dodelegie and Stane are ten hydes, all waste save one in Dodelegie. Of the nine, one part is ‘in castellaria Aluredi Ewias,’ and the other in the King’s enclosed land.”
Another entry explains that Alured was Alured de Merleberge or of Marleborough, a great tenant in chief, especially in Wiltshire. We read, “Alured de M. holds the castle of Ewias of William the King. For that king conceded to him the lands which William the Earl [Fitzosbern of Hereford] had given to him. Who refortified [refirmaverit] this castle.” Of it held seven knights, whose Christian names are given, besides other persons. The castle was then valued at £10. Agnes, the daughter of Alured, married Turstan of Wigmore.
How or when Alured gave up the castle does not appear; but in 1100 it was held by a certain Harold, also a large tenant in Domesday, though not in Herefordshire. He is called “Heraldus filius comitis Radulphi,” and as such held Sudeley, in Gloucestershire. Earl Ralph, called the Timid, was the Earl of Hereford who was beaten by the Welsh and English forces in 1055, when his son was a mere child. Ralph was a considerable man by descent, being great-grandson of Æthelred and great-nephew to the Confessor. Harold probably obtained some of his father’s possessions when he came of age, and Ewias may have been part of them. He and his descendants were liberal donors to St. Peter’s, Gloucester, in its behalf founding the Priory near the Castle of Ewias.
The names and order of Harold’s sons are preserved in the Gloucester Cartulary, and they correct Dugdale and all other authorities. They were Robert, Roger, John (to whom his father gave Sudeley, and whose issue were barons), Alexander, and William. Robert de Ewias, the eldest, is described in the “Gesta Stephani” as “vir stemmatis ingenuissimi.” According to the “Liber Niger,” he held in capite upwards of forty-seven fees, the mesne tenants of which were twenty knights. Dugdale mentions only twenty-two fees, and confounds him with a second Robert, his son, also Lord of Ewias. The elder Robert had by his wife Sybilla, Robert, and Richard de Ewias, who left a daughter and heiress, Sybilla, who married Philip Spenser, and left issue.
Robert de Ewias, the third owner of the castle, and the second baron, married Petronilla. He was living 1194–6. He also left a Sybilla, daughter and heiress of Ewias. She married, first, Robert de Tregoz; second, William de Newmarch, whom she married during her father’s lifetime, in the reign of Richard I. He was living 11 John. Third, Roger de Clifford, probably the second brother of William de Clifford. From this match spring the Earls of Cumberland. Newmarch had no children. Sybilla was dead 20 Henry III., and was followed by her son, Robert de Tregoz, slain at Evesham 1265. He was father of John and Henry, father of a line of barons who ended about 1405.
John de Tregoz died 1300, leaving two co-heirs, Clarice and Sybil. Clarice, who died 29 Edward I., married Roger la Warre, and had John, aged 23, in 1300; and Sybil married Sir William de Grandison, ancestor in the female line of the St. Johns, Viscounts Grandison. In the partition, John la Warre had the “body of the castle,” of which, 4 Edward III., he enfeoffed John de Cleydon. He died 21 Edward III. John, his eldest son, died before him, and as early as 12 Edward III. he had enfeoffed his grandson, Roger la Warre, and Elizabeth his wife, with Ewias Castle and Manor.
Roger la Warre died 44 Edward III., seized of Ewias Harold, and was succeeded by John, his son. 13 Richard II., Sir John de Montacute, sen., is seized of Ewias Harold, and three Wiltshire fees in the Honour of Ewias, and Teffont-Ewias, in Wiltshire, besides other Ewias lands in Herefordshire. 18 Richard II., these same lands were held by Margaret, wife of Sir John Montacute, Bart.; and 10 Henry IV., by Thomas de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.
The nature of this alienation is obscure; for, in the midst of it, 22 Richard II., Sir John de la Warre and Elizabeth his wife are seized of the Castle of Ewias Harold. However, there seems to have been an actual and permanent alienation to the Montacutes; for, 7 Henry VI., Thomas, Earl of Salisbury, has Ewias Harold. Thence it passed to the Beauchamps, of whom Joan, widow of Sir William Beauchamp, of Bergavenny, had the castle, vill, and lordship in 14 Henry VI.; and, finally, the Beauchamp heir, Edward Nevile, Lord Abergavenny, died seized of the castle, &c., in Herefordshire, and of Teffont-Ewias, in Wiltshire.