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.
THE KEEP OF CLITHEROE, LANCASHIRE.
THE castle of Clitheroe, the chief seat of an ancient and extensive honour, though one of the smallest, is perhaps the strongest, the oldest, and from its position one of the most remarkable, of the fortresses of Lancashire. It is placed upon the left, or eastern, bank of the Ribble, here the boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire, three quarters of a mile from the stream, and about 130 feet above it. It occupies the summit and upper part of a limestone crag, which, precipitous in parts, and very steep on its northern flank, falls, according to the dip of the rock, less steeply towards the south or south-west. Hence, the northern point was selected for the keep and upper ward, and for the lower ward and approaches the shoulder and slopes upon the south. The Roman way from Manchester, by Skipton to York, ascends the dale about half a mile east of the rock, which could scarcely have been neglected as a military post by any people who held the district in other than very peaceful times. The town of Clitheroe has sprung up at the foot of the rock upon the north-east.
The keep stands within, but close to the east side of, a small rounded area of about 80 feet by 90 feet, contained within a curtain wall, which skirts the edge of the rock. This curtain is 6 feet thick, 12 feet high inside, and from 14 feet to 20 feet outside. The circuit, which has, no doubt, been complete, is broken for about 70 feet on the southern side. This is the breadth of the neck by which the upper ward was united to the lower, and the curtain at each end of the gap is extended southwards and south-eastwards down the steep to include the latter. Thus, what is wanting is none of the exterior curtain, only the interior and cross wall between the two wards. The open space is a steep of rugged, broken rock. Probably there was a cross wall and doorway above, and a narrow flight of steps leading to it from below.
