Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)

by George Thomas Clark

TRETOWER, BLAEN-LLYFNI, AND CRICKHOWEL CASTLES, BRECKNOCKSHIRE.

AMONG the passes that communicate between the open country of the upper Usk and the Wye, in the neighbourhood of Talgarth, Glâsbury, and Hay, and the valley of the lower Usk, there are two especially dangerous, and which, therefore, it behoved the Norman settlers to guard with peculiar care. These are the pass of the Bwlch, between Buckland and Cefn Moel, and the valley of the Rhiangoll. The strip of land bordering on the Usk, which flows close to the west of Mynydd Buckland, is very narrow, and in wet seasons was formerly scarcely practicable; and was besides, to a considerable extent, guarded by the castle of Blaen-Llyfni, which was specially built for the defence of the Bwlch, close to the north of which it is placed.

The Rhiangoll rises in Cwm Catwg, a deep, dark hollow in the Black Mountains, and flows down to join the Usk about three miles above Crickhowel. Near its head, where it lies open towards the north-west, it was guarded by the hill-castle of Dinas, and lower down by Tretower. Still lower down, the Usk itself is protected by the castled mound of Crickhowel, and still lower by that of Abergavenny; so that between the seigniorial castles of Blaen-Llyfni, Dinas, and Abergavenny, and the private posts of Tretower and Crickhowel, the incursions of the Welsh of Brecknock and Radnor were liable to be checked in their advance, and altogether cut off in their retreat.

Tretower stands in the meads of the Rhiangoll, on the left bank of the stream, about a mile above its junction with the Usk, at a point where a tump of gravel rises on the margin of, and a little above, the general level of the meadow, once evidently an impassable morass, and even now by no means a favourable specimen of Breconshire farming. The meadow is traversed by several branches of the stream, here reinforced by divers springs and brooklets, which, added to the natural strength of the ground, made the place one of very difficult approach save from the slightly higher ground to the north-east.

Tretower is a chapelry in the parish of Llanvihangel Cwm Du, and seems to have been the private estate of the owners of the castle, who, when the conquests of Edward I. settled the Principality, deserted the small and inconvenient fortress for a larger house a little to its south, now occupied by a farmer, and showing some traces of the Decorated style of architecture.

The castle was a three-cornered enclosure, having two round towers at its northern and southern angles, or the ends of its base, and the keep at its western angle or apex. The two sides are each about 60 yards in length, and the base about 80 yards. The entrance was probably near the centre of the base or eastern curtain, in the line of the present road to the farm-buildings which occupy this outer ward. Fragments remain of the two round towers, and about half of the northern curtain. At the gorge of the southern tower, nearly buried, is seen the crown of a large pointed arch which probably opened into its basement, though its breadth is unusual.

The inner ward, within, or rather capping which, is the keep, is a square of about 23 yards by 18 yards outside, and 17 yards inside measurement, placed at the apex of the triangle; so that three sides of it are exterior to, and one within, the outer ward. It has been destroyed on the north and east sides; but the south side is perfect, and the west very nearly so. The foundations can be traced all round. This ward occupies the whole of a tump of gravel rising about 12 feet above the meadow, which is its defence on the west, south, and east; and it is so built that its lower part serves as a scarp wall, the ground within having been about 6 feet above the narrow bank or terrace outside. There were no towers at the two northern angles, which seem to have been chamfered off with a sort of spreading or buttressed base. From the south wall, at its west end, projects a half-octagonal tower, and at its east end another, much larger. They are but half-octagons, and have no internal projection. The wall was 8 feet thick, and 25 feet high to the battlements. In the remains of the west wall are traces of a recess, perhaps for a loop, a fireplace with a clumsy drop-arch, and higher up a window in the same style. These, in their present form, are late insertions, but probably represent original openings, as on the exterior is a broad flat buttress intended to carry the chimney-shaft. This wall has been a good deal pulled about at an early period. The south wall is exceedingly curious, and though evidently much altered, bears large marks of its original style. Near its west end, in the hollow angle, is a small round-headed doorway opening into a well-stair which led to the battlements, but has been blocked up. East of this, an opening in the wall (probably the place of a second door) shows a flight of steps descending in the wall to another door, also round headed, and now nearly buried. The stairs are lighted by an exterior loop. Higher up, at a different level, is a window recess having bold, heavy, flanking, engaged piers fluted in zigzag, and supporting a fragment of an arch-moulding worked in the same chevron pattern. It may be that this was a double window, or two arches of an arcade, for the fragments of the arch-head have somewhat that appearance.

TRETOWER CASTLE.
TRETOWER CASTLE—GROUND PLAN.

Next, east of this, at the same level, is a doorway of 4 feet by 6 feet opening, in the same fashion and style as the window, with jambs fluted in zigzag and the chevron moulding above. The work is rude, and the ornamentation only partially executed. All these openings have been walled up with early masonry. The east half of this east wall is occupied by a rectangular projection, forming a chamber 10 feet deep by 18 feet broad, which may have been a kitchen, since it contains a fireplace with a round back and gathering up to a cylindrical shaft, and at the ground level is a water-drain; also there are three round-headed loops, of which one is in the west wall, and in the east wall is a small round-headed door, 2 feet 9 inches broad, and opening upon the outer ward; it has no portcullis.

The openings, of which traces remain in this wall, seem to show that the building was originally a rectangular Norman keep, having a basement and a first and a second floor, indicated by the lower door, the entrance to the wall stairs, and the door and window above. The southern projection is probably original, as is the small door in its side. The battlements, of which a part remain on the west wall, are, no doubt, restorations. They are composed of broad merlons with a cruciform loop in each, the cross-arm being very short.

In the exterior of this building, near its ground level, a breach in the masonry discloses a cavity about 14 inches square, which pierces the wall parallel to its faces. This was evidently occupied by a beam, inserted as a tie, as at Brunlas, where also the timber has rotted away, and the cavity been exposed, and has given rise to a number of ingenious conjectures. In the centre of this square enclosure, and leaving only a space of from 7 feet to 9 feet between its exterior and the centre of each side, is the interior keep. This keep is a cylindrical tower, at its base about 43 feet in diameter, and battering inwards to a height of about 10 feet, where it is girt by a very bold, rather more than half-round bead or cordon, which marks the summit of the slope and the first-floor level. Here the tower is about 38 feet in diameter. From thence it continues to batter, though slightly, perhaps 2 feet, to the base of the battlements, which are gone. It is now 70 feet high from the ground level, which originally may have been 5 feet lower, and the tower 5 feet higher, making a total of 80 feet. About half-way up is a plain set-off of about 6 inches, reducing the diameter of the tower by a foot. With this exception the exterior is quite plain. The present entrance to the basement or ground floor is on the north-east side, by a broken entrance of modern date, the making of which has been aided by the first-floor entrance, which is immediately above it, and of which it now makes a part. The tower is composed of a basement and three floors, and its interior diameter at the base and first floor is 20 feet. The floors were of timber, and are gone; and the roof seems to have been flat. The basement, now about half filled up, was about 10 feet high, and the wall at its floor about 11 feet 6 inches thick. It was lighted by two loops in the north-west side, the splayed recesses of which are square-headed, and, as in Canterbury keep, have their inner opening closed above, so that the loop was on the level of the first floor. These loops are stopped up outside, evidently by very early masonry. In the south-west side is a door, of which the top is seen unburied, whence a flight of steps leads in the wall upwards and southward into the floor above, and this was evidently the only entrance to the basement floor.

The entrance into the first floor was also the general entrance into the keep. The doorway, much broken, was 4 feet wide and 6 feet high, and about 10 feet above the original ground level. Over the doorway, outside, is a curious drip or hood, forming an equilateral arch, a sort of pediment; and on either side of the doorway are two holes, at the base and near the top, which seem to have carried the base of a wooden structure, probably covering an exterior stair. There is no portcullis. The door enters a passage vaulted with a drop arch, which traverses the wall leading direct by a second door, viz., into the first floor. From this passage, on the left, a door opens into a mural stair, 3 feet 3 inches wide, which ascends in the curve of the wall to the upper floors.

The first floor is 20 feet in diameter, and its walls about 8 feet 6 inches thick; its floor rested on two large parallel beams laid north-west and south-east. To the north-east and south-west are large window recesses, 4 feet 6 inches broad, with drop chamfered arches, and having stone seats. In each was a window of one light, about 2 feet opening, with an equilateral arch, and chamfered edges. In the south jamb of the south-west window is a door, the termination of the staircase, vaulted, and lighted by two external loops, and which has been already mentioned as rising from the basement floor. In the north-west wall is a large fireplace, with a bold flat stone hood dying into the wall above, beneath a bold bead moulding, and below resting upon two short columns with bell caps of a stiff early English character. The columns are cut away below, and in fact form corbels. On either side is a rude circular corbel, either to hold a light, or as at St. Briavel’s, to support the lateral thrust of the hood. This floor is 18 feet high. It was the state-room.

The staircase leading to the second floor, after ascending in the curve of the wall a few steps, terminates in a well staircase 6 feet in diameter, which continues the ascent to the second floor, and passes on to the battlements, as at Chepstow, Carlisle, Ludlow, and Newcastle. The staircase opens into the first floor by the intervention of a small recess or lobby in the thickness of the wall, where a door, now broken, opens into the main chamber.

The second floor was also 18 feet high, and had two windows under drop arches, about 2 feet broad and 5 feet high, with equilateral arched heads, closely resembling those below. One opens to the south-east and one to the north-west. The latter has over its outer opening an angular drip, or hood, or pediment, like that over the great entrance below. Here also is a fireplace, and exactly above that in the lower room, and similar to it, only the jambs are rather shorter. The hearth-stone was supported upon a kind of bressummer, formed by a table projecting about 18 inches from the wall below, and appearing as a carved moulding in the lower room. There is a set-off of about 6 inches at this level, to support the floor.

Following the staircase, the third floor is entered by a lobby similar to the one below. The stair is lighted by loops, those near the bottom being flat-topped, those above lancet-pointed. There is one long loop divided by a transom, which forms a part of the set-off on the outside. The third floor has no fireplace, but it has two windows, similar to the others, opening north-east and south-west. The roof seems to have rested upon one main beam, stiffened by spars at either end, the supports of which remain in the shape of two stout plain stone corbels. Thus stiffened, the platform above would have carried an engine of almost any weight. The wall is about 8 feet 6 inches thick at the summit; its thickness above the cordon is, in fact, uniform. To give greater strength to the masonry along the course of the staircase and about the lobbies, the wall is thickened internally by a sort of pilaster, the sharp edge of which remains.

Tretower is a rare, probably a solitary, example of a rectangular Norman keep, which has been gutted, and its central part occupied by an early English round tower. The space between the tower and the keep walls was then roofed in, probably in two floors. The alterations in the exterior Norman wall, blocking up the doors and windows, &c., were probably made when the inner tower was built.

The material of the keep is a hard variety of old red sandstone. The workmanship is good coursed rubble plastered within. The door and window quoins and the fireplaces are of ashlar, well worked, though plain, as is the whole building. The arches of the doors and window recesses are drop. Those of the windows are equilateral, and many of the loops lancet. The inner tower is wholly of one date, apparently late in the early English period.

It is said that Tretower was a residence of the Welsh Lords of Brecknock before the Norman era. If so, they were attracted by the dry gravel tump, covered on three sides by a morass. The Norman occupants seem to have constructed a square tower or keep on the knoll, having, on one side, a base-court, probably also walled in. Late in the reign of Henry III., the Norman keep was gutted, and a central stone tower built, and the triangular base-court enclosed by a curtain and mural towers.