THE CASTLE OF PENRICE, IN GOWER.
THE castle of Penrice, or, as it was anciently called, Penrees, in West Gower, in the county of Glamorgan, is inferior only to Caerphilly, Cardiff, and Coyty, in the area contained within its walls, and is second to none in its strong, commanding, and picturesque position. Penrice stands at the bottom of Oxwich Bay, a mile within the shore, and about 150 feet above the sea. It occupies the rocky crest of a steep slope of greensward, at the base of which is a small lake, and beyond this a sort of lagoon communicates with the bay, here fringed by a line of sand-hills.
The castle, though high, is backed on the north-east by the long and still higher ridge of Cefn Bryn, about half a mile distant. It stands upon the south-eastern end of a platform formed by the crop edges of the mountain limestone, which here is almost vertical, having been lifted up by the old red sandstone of Cefn Bryn. On the south and east the castle is defended naturally by a cliff ranging from 10 feet to 40 feet in height; on the west the ground is broken and strong; on the north it is level, or nearly so; and this, naturally the weakest side, has been converted by works into the strongest and principal front of the place.
The position and outline of the fortress have been governed by the disposition of the ground; the general design is simple, but is by no means of one date, and to the original structure there have been considerable additions. In plan the castle is composed of a principal court, or bailey, of irregular figure, and about 60 yards north-east and south-west by 80 yards east and west. Three sides are curtains only; the fourth, or northern, is composed of the gatehouse and main buildings, or corps de logis, and a large drum-tower with its appendages. The curtain skirts the edge of the precipice on the east and south sides. It ranges from 30 feet to 40 feet in height outside, and is about 25 feet within, and from 8 feet to 9 feet thick. It is strengthened outside by a number of half-round buttresses, of about 12 feet diameter; these are solid, and have no projection within; they rise to the height of, or a little above, the walls, and form small flanking places of arms upon the ramparts. Of these buttresses there are none on the east, two on the south, and one on the west face; there is also one larger and loftier, but still solid, capping the south-western angle. There is besides a buttress tower near the south-east angle, of larger dimensions, and hollow; but this, in its present form at least, is probably a late addition built for a dovecote, as which it is still fitted up. The wall near this tower has been broken through and rebuilt, and again broken through to make space for a rectangular building, one angle of which is seen outside the line of the curtain; the rampart wall or battlement remains, and, though more or less ruined, is original. The merlons are about four times the breadth of the embrasures, and each is pierced with a loop; the rear wall remains.
The north, or upper, side of the court is occupied by the main buildings and front of the castle, extending about 70 yards. At the east end is the gatehouse, at the west the drum-tower and its appendages. Between these two was a large square mural tower, placed in the middle of the front. Westward, between this and the drum, was no doubt the hall; eastward, a single curtain connected it with the gatehouse. The gatehouse seems to have been an addition to the curtain wall; it contains a central passage and two lateral chambers, which occupy two flanking towers of bold projection towards the north or exterior front; these are neither rectangular nor half-round, but more near to the latter figure, the angles having been rounded off. The floors were all of wood. There is but one groove, and that of very rude construction, for a portcullis, which defended the outer gate; and there seems to have been a drawbridge which let down between the flanking towers, probably over a pit, for there are no traces of a regular ditch.
The drum-tower caps the north-west angle of the castle, and projects into the court. Its clear diameter is about 36 feet, the walls being 8 feet thick, and the space within 20 feet across. It is of three floors; the basement is entered from the hall side; the first floor by two doors, one of which seems originally to have been a window. Of these doors, one opened from the hall, and one from an appendage on the south-east; there is also a loop towards the court, and a small vaulted chamber and garderobe on the east or outer side, perhaps an addition. The upper floor of the tower is remarkable; it has no entrance whatever, and no opening in the walls; it must have been reached by a trap-door. The floors were all of timber.
On the south-east side of this tower is a concentric addition, a sort of chemise, or rather chemisette, covering less than a quarter of its circumference, and projecting into the court; it is entered by a door from below the hall, and is lighted by two loops towards the court; it ends abruptly by a square wall. There was an upper floor opening into the hall and into the first floor of the drum, and there is a curious curved opening in the jamb of the lower door, evidently for a squint, with a rebate for a wooden shutter. On the north, or exterior side of the drum has been added a rectangular building of three stories, with fireplaces and chambers for garderobes. This building projects and forms the end of the north front, facing somewhat towards the north-west. From it a subordinate building, also rectangular, and containing garderobes, projects towards the west. The space between this group of buildings and the central square mural tower was contained between two walls, one still remaining, which is also the wall of the court, and another now destroyed, which formed the exterior defence on this side. As the square tower is also destroyed to its foundations, the manner in which the space was occupied can only be inferred by the openings in the remaining wall. Probably there was here, on the first floor, a hall and below it smaller rooms, perhaps cellars; there is, however, a door opening on the ground floor through the wall into a very small building projecting into the court, and which appears to have had two lateral and one end or south longer window. This may have been a chapel, but its axis, without any necessity of position, is nearly north and south. Within the court, attached to its east wall, remains a gable end, which, no doubt, belonged to a great barn, storehouse, or barrack; it was not a hall, as it had no large windows.
The ruins of the castle, though very considerable, are so devoid of ashlar and ornamental work, and the masonry throughout is so uniformly of a rude and inferior character, that it is exceedingly difficult to arrive at any certain conclusions as to the extent of the original building, or the order of construction of the parts now remaining. All that can be inferred with absolute certainty is that the round tower and the contiguous east curtain are the oldest extant parts, and, though without bond, nearly of the same date; that the north-west lodgings are much later than either; that on the north front were other lodgings now destroyed, and that the enceinte wall of the court, including the gatehouse, are additions to the original building, converting what was at first an exterior curtain into an interior wall looking into the enclosure.
The curtain next east of the tower looks older than the tower, but this is probably not the case. The tower was more probably the original building, and the whole of it. It would be a refuge in case of attack, either from the Welsh or from pirates, capable of holding out until the garrisons of Pennard, Llandremor, Webley, or Llwchwr, or those more distant of Swansea and Oystermouth, could bring up assistance. The tower is probably of very late Norman date, in the transition or pointed style. The curtain eastward was probably the first addition to the tower, and is the remnant of the rectangular appendage upon its north-eastern side. This curtain has been much cut into, and contains several later openings; but the door on the ground floor next to the tower is evidently original, and of early English date. It now leads into the enclosure of the chemisette, but was obviously once an outer door, and possibly the main entrance to the rectangular building. The court was probably next enclosed, and the concentric building, or chemisette, added to the round tower, either as a prison or a cellar, the door leading into it being the old main entrance above mentioned. The gatehouse and the north-west tower are somewhat later. Recently three stones, evidently parts of a window or door-jamb, have been dug up near the round tower; these show a simple half-round bead moulding, six inches diameter, and are evidently parts of a Norman jamb, perhaps of the lower and pointed doorway of the round tower. The north-west tower has a small trefoil-headed window in the third floor, which may be of Decorated date, though the building has rather a Perpendicular aspect. The masonry generally is of a very rough character; the round tower windows within had coigns of ashlar, but the gatehouse is of very inferior workmanship, even the portcullis groove being in rubble.
This is a very curious ruin. A round tower of this early date is a very rare feature; the chemisette may be compared to the more perfect envelope at Tretower and Launceston, but it is evidently an addition. The dimensions are nearly those of Bronllys, which is, however, rather later, and of far superior work. It is singular that the original castle should have been placed so far from the edge of the cliff which constituted a part of its later defences. The excavations now in progress may yet throw a light upon the precise age of some of the parts. It is something to have found mouldings of the Norman period.
The only parts absolutely destroyed belong to the north front, where the wall has certainly been blown down by gunpowder, probably during the occupation of Gower by Cromwell.
This is not the only stronghold within the parish and manor of Penrice. About half a mile south-west of the castle, and west of, and very near to, the parish church, is a circular earthwork, composed of a single mound, with an exterior ditch, and an entrance on the north-west side. The diameter of the interior space may be 100 feet, and the mound from 6 to 10 feet high. This is a very perfect, and evidently a very early work, and no doubt was stockaded with timber.
The adjacent church, though much altered in recent times, has a Norman wall and arch, masked with plaster, between the nave and the chancel, and a remarkable south porch of early Decorated and a south door of early English date. Outside the south door of the church and in the porch, on the right on entering, is a water stoup, hollowed out in a sort of stone seat. The upper part of the tower and a small north transept are said to have been rebuilt in the last century.
The church stands upon a strong position, superior in many respects to that selected for the castle. The adjacent church of Nicholaston has a rude coupled east window of early English date.
The castle, the ruins of which have been described, was for many generations the seat of a considerable Gower family, who no doubt derived their surname from their estate, therein differing from several of their neighbours, the owners of Nicholaston, Reynoldston, Leysanston, and Scurlage, whose names were bestowed upon and are preserved in those manors. Either custom was here common, and there are several examples of each in the Vale of Glamorgan.
No doubt the lords of Penrice were followers of the Bellomonts and early Norman settlers in Gower, where they probably erected, before the close of the twelfth century, that part of the castle to which the lately-discovered Norman fragments may be assigned. The castle descended by a Penrice heiress to the Mansels, and is at this time the property of their descendant, Mr. Talbot.