Of these castles Ludlow stood next to Shrewsbury in importance, and was fully its equal in strength, and far its superior in dimensions and architectural display. It was, indeed, a superb Norman castle, the work of Roger de Lacy, in the reign of Rufus, and before it Stephen was foiled and very nearly captured in 1139. The rectangular keep, some of the mural towers, and most of the lower part of the containing wall are original. The curious circular chapel, though Norman, is rather later, and the magnificent hall, kitchen, and lodgings are later still. The castle is built on the eastern bank of the Lug, which here flows down a deep rocky ravine; the town also was strongly walled. Cleobury, to the east of Ludlow, attributed to Roger de Mortimer in 1074, is more probably the work of a later lord in the reign of Stephen. It was taken by Henry II. in 1155. Wigmore, of which the castelry is mentioned in “Domesday,” the chief seat of the great border family of Mortimer, is actually in Herefordshire, but belongs to the Shropshire fortresses. It occupies a rocky ridge, defended by a natural ravine and steep slopes. The small mound that bore its keep remains, and below is a Norman tower, and more or less of ancient masonry. The outworks seem to have been strong. Richard’s Castle, the Auretone of “Domesday,” founded by Richard Fitz Scrob in the reign of the Confessor, though also in Hereford, lies between Wigmore and Ludlow, and was closely associated with Shropshire. It retains its ancient mound near the church, and a part of its shell keep, and is still defended by a very formidable ditch. There is, however, no masonry of the age of the Confessor, nor is it probable that the keep was constructed before the reign of Stephen, if so early. Wigmore and Richard’s Castle were the advanced posts of Ludlow. Cleobury Mortimer was held by Ralph Mortimer at the Survey, and probably came to him from the forfeiture of Earl Roger de Britolio. Knighton and Knucklas are on the right bank of the Teme, just outside the Shropshire border. Their exposed position made them very important posts. In 1180 Randulf Puher, Sheriff of Herefordshire, accounted for the expenses of works at the castles of Knighton and Camerino, and a little later, while employed in building a border castle, he was slain by the Welsh. Of Knighton only the mound remains. The masonry, now removed, has been attributed to one of the Lords of Clun. Of Knucklas or Cnoclâs Castle there are scarcely any vestiges. It was probably built by Roger Mortimer soon after the Conquest, its mound, known as Castle Hill, being of course older. Clun Castle is three miles within the dyke, but the intervening country is very rugged, and exceedingly favourable to the operations of undisciplined troops such as the Welsh. Clun was held under Earl Roger by Picot de Say, and became afterwards the castle of Alan the son of Flaald, and the cradle of the House of Stewart. There remains a rough but grand square keep, a mound, strong circumscribing earthworks, and beyond the church an advanced bank and ditch of formidable dimensions. It is evident that those who laid out these earthworks were well aware of the peril of the position. Bishop’s Castle or Lydbury is well within the frontier. It was the residence of the bishops of Hereford from 1085 to 1154, and was taken by storm in 1235. By their possession of this castle the bishops became Lords Marchers. Montgomery was the centre and one of the most exposed castles of the frontier. It occupied the summit of a steep rock, and was almost impregnable. It has, however, been taken, destroyed, and re-built at least twice, so that little, if any, of its masonry is of the time of Earl Roger. It stands just within the dyke.
North of Montgomery, and protected by the well-known Long Mountain, is Cause Castle or Alreton, the earliest seat of the Corbets, who named it from the Pays de Caux, whence they came. It was built towards the close of the reign of the Conqueror, and is remarkable for its massive keep and capacious well, and for the rare example of the substitution of a Norman for a native name. North of Cause is Abberbury, the seat of the Fitz Warines before they held Whittington. It was held under Cause. Knockin Castle, the head of the Barony of Strange, was probably built by Guido le Strange in the reign of Henry II. Far more exposed, and having the mountainous ground of Denbigh in its front, is Oswestry, supposed by Mr. Eyton to be the Castel Luare (L’Ouvre) of “Domesday,” the work of Rainald de Ballieul, and long celebrated as a seat of the Earls of Arundel. It is now reduced to a mound and the foundations of a keep. The outworks have been levelled and built over by the encroaching town, and the ditches filled up. The town walls are also removed. Very near to Oswestry is Whittington, founded as a Norman work by William Peverel in 1138, but better known from its later lords the Fitz Warines. This is the castle that defied the Welsh in 1223, and the strength of which lay not only in its shell keep, towers, and gatehouse, parts of all which remain, but in a curious arrangement of outworks in earth, with several broad and deep ditches connected with a morass, the limits of which may still be traced. The original mound, scarped and enclosed like Bungay in a revetment wall by the Norman engineer, is a good example of the manner in which those early fortifications were adapted to the masonry of later times. Ellesmere is a Peveril castle, but was held by the Welsh Princes as late as the reign of Henry III. Whitchurch was founded probably by William de Warren, whose wife was stepdaughter to the Conqueror. It was the Weston of “Domesday,” and by a singular inversion became widely known afterwards as Blackmere. These complete the outer line of defence of the Middle March.
Connected with these were a large number of other castles, mostly, though not always, held by men of lesser rank and power. Wem, now entirely destroyed, was founded by William Pantulf, holding under Earl Roger. Middle Castle was held of the Fitz Alans by the Lords Strange, as was Ruyton. At High Ercal is a moated mound, but whether masonry was ever added to it is doubtful. Srawrthin or Sharwardine had a castle, probably before 1165. There seem also to have been castles at Charlton, Howgate, Braincroft, Corshall, Shipton, Ryton, and Le Botwood. Pulverbach was the castle of Robert Venator in the eleventh century. Tonge was Earl Roger’s private demesne, but the castle achieved its fame under the Pembrugge family. Church Stretton or Brockhurst Castle was held direct by the Crown, but was demolished at an early period. At Broymeron, near Tugford, there seems to have been a castle. Corfham was held by Fitz Ponce, the ancestor of the Cliffords. Wattlesborough, an early Corbet castle, still preserves a small but tolerably perfect rectangular keep. Stone has some traces of a castle, and at Hopton is a square keep of Decorated date, on a slightly raised knoll, with some extensive and marshy outworks. Besides these may be mentioned Castle Holgate, thought by Mr. Eyton to be one of the four earliest castles built under Earl Roger, the others being Shrewsbury, Montgomery, and Oswestry, all in some shape of earlier date than the great Survey. Holgate was built by Helgot de Stanton, and used by Henry II. in 1109. Bryn Castle was an early seat of the Gerards; Bromfield and Cainham are destroyed; of Shiffnall little is known; Stottesden was granted in 1159 by Henry II. to Godfrey de Gamaches or Gamage; Stokesay is said originally to have been built by Picot le Say; Tirley, near Market Drayton, was the work of Roger de Corcelle, but taken by Ralph le Botiler of Wem, who left it unfinished in 1281. The Fitz Alans seem to have had a castle at Wroxeter, the Lords Strange at Cheswardine, and at Morton Soret, now Corbet, the Sorets built a castle. West of Ludlow was a castle at Stapleton-en-le-Harness, built probably by the lords of Richard’s Castle. Kinnerley Castle, taken by Llewelyn in 1223, has long since disappeared. Alveton was held by Theobald de Verdon in 1389.
Robert de Belesme, the son of Roger and the third Earl of Shrewsbury, built two castles which played a part in the struggles of the time, and are mentioned by historians. One, Carregchova, was in advance of the frontier, and in Montgomery. It is said to have been built about 1101–2 in great haste. In 1160 it was held and garrisoned by Henry II. It has long been utterly destroyed. The other, Bruges or Bridgenorth Castle, was upon the Severn below and inland of Shrewsbury. Earl Roger had built a castle not far off upon the ancient earthworks of Quatford, opposite to Oldbury, one of the burhs thrown up by Queen Æthelflæda. This castle, of which there remain a mound and a deep well, Earl Robert removed in 1102 to the top of a steep rocky platform above the Severn. It was strong and spacious, and had the church of St. Mary Magdalen for its chapel, and within its area accommodation for some thousands of men. Of all this there remains now little save a fragment of the keep and parts of the containing wall. It was besieged by Henry II. in 1155, and was surrendered for political rather than for military reasons.
In advance of the borders of Shropshire are two or three castles of doubtful origin, and which were frequently held by the Welsh. Such were Powis or Pool Castle, attributed to Bleddyn ap Cynfin about 1109; Mathraval, on the Vyrnwy, the residence of the Welsh Princes, but fortified by Robert de Vipont. This was one of the few local castles that resisted the Welsh outbreak of 1212, soon after which it was destroyed. Dolforwin is a small hill-castle on the left bank of the Upper Severn, much resembling Dinas Brân, and far to the west. Deep in the defiles upon the western flank of Cader Idris is the castle of Bere, the remains of which fell into the friendly hands of the late Mr. Wynn of Peniarth, who has shown that the building was of the Early English period of architecture, and unusually ornate in its details. How an early castle came to be placed so far from the border, and in a position by no means abounding in the means of subsistence, is a mystery.
The plain of the Upper Severn, open and fertile, outside the Shropshire border, was contested from a very remote period between the Mercians and the Welsh, and was at times completely and permanently occupied by the former. The Mercian fortresses of this very perilous district were moated mounds similar to those thrown up in England in the ninth and tenth centuries. Of these there are very many along the course of the river or in its tributary valleys, of which the chief are Keri, Hên-domen near Montgomery, Nantcribba a fortified natural knoll, Guilsfield, a burh at Chirbury thrown up by Æthelflæda and now removed, Welsh Pool designated in 1299 as Mota de Pola, a mound on the Luggy, Winsbury, Dudston, Brynderwen, several mounds about Llanidloes and Moat-lane, Tafolwern, a fine mound upon the junction of two streams with the Afon Lwymyn, and whence some of the charters of the Welsh Princes are dated, and a remarkable mound at Talybont near Towyn, whence Llewelyn dated a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and which was visited by Edward I. Very few of these “Mottes” were surmounted by works in masonry, and the accompanying extract from the Close Roll shows that even as late as the reign of Henry III. timber was the recognised material for their defences:—
“Rex etc dilecto et fideli suo Godescallo de Maghelins salutem. Recipimus tibi quod ex parte nostra firmiter precipias omnibus illis qui motas habent in valle de Muntgumery quod sine dilatione motas suas bonis bretaschiis firmari faciant ad securitatem et defensionem suam et parcium illarum. Teste Rege apud Weston xxx die maii, 9 H iii, 1225.” (Close Roll.) The Brut y Tysogion says that the castles of Llandwnyl, Trevuverw, and Cynfig were begun in 1092 to be built stronger than before; for before that time castles were of wood, and before long the Frenchmen had built their castles over the whole country. Although it is evident that the moated mound was an English and not a Welsh fortification, yet many of these mounds are found in situations where no English household could have lived, and others, like Tafolwern and Talybont, are known to have been Welsh residences, so that it would seem that the Welsh, finding this form of fortification both simple and strong, easily thrown up, and when burned easy to repair, had recourse to it in imitation of their foes. Almost all the castles in Shropshire on the border were held of Earl Roger, or some Lord Marcher by the tenure of castle guard, and many of the lesser castles had lands attached to them held by the same honourable service. The usual condition was attendance upon the lord in time of war, armed, for a period of forty days, or an engagement to defend and sometimes to repair a particular part of the lord’s castle. Lord Coke indeed speaks of tenure by castle guard as always attached to some specific part of a castle. The manor of Hodnet was held by the service of seneschal, and in war by attendance in the outer bailey of Shrewsbury Castle. The inquest on William de Bollers in 1299 shows that he held a tenement in Mariton by the tenure of providing one soldier in war time at the Mote of Poole with a bow and arrow and a bolt for a night and a day. Mr. Eyton takes the Mote of Pool to be Powis Castle, but may it not more probably be the mote which is seen, or was recently to be seen, near the Welshpool railway station? In an old map in 1610 this mound is lettered, “Domine Castell,” and a mill near it the Domen (Tomen, Tumulus, Tump) Mill.
The Southern, commonly called the Western March, from its extension in that direction, included the counties of Radnor, Hereford, and Monmouth, the eastern part of Brecknock, much of Caermarthen and Cardigan, Pembroke and the whole of Glamorgan; that is to say, the country from the Teme to the Bristol Channel, and the whole seaboard of South Wales from Chepstow to Aberystwith, all which territory was thickly set with castles, the footprints of the Norman, and before him to some extent of the Englishman.
Included in South Wales, but in a military point of view more connected with Shropshire and the Middle March, was the county of Radnor. This was a mountainous tract, very Welsh, and but a small strip of which was on the English side of the dyke, but the imminence of the danger seems to have led to great encroachments upon the Welsh territory, and to the establishment of a considerable number of castles along the lines specially exposed to attack.
Knighton, the chief castle of Radnor, and Knucklas, both upon the Teme and bordering Shropshire, have been mentioned. South of Knighton was Norton, and again south Old Radnor, Cruker or Pen-y-Craig destroyed by Rhys ap Griffith in the reign of King John, and New Radnor, of which there remains a large mound with concentric entrenchments, and parts of the walls of the town are still to be seen. The castle is said to have been founded by Harold in 1064. Pains Castle or Llanbedr, in Elvet, near the southern border of the county, was so called from Pagan or Payne de Cadurces, Cahors, or Chaworth, Lord of Kidwelly, who built it about 1130, possibly to secure his passage into Caermarthenshire. A few fragments of masonry still remain. Pains Castle was taken by Rhys in 1196, and subsequently besieged by Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powis, in 1198. Near to Pains Castle, on the left bank of the Wye, was Boughrood Castle, said to have been held by Eineon Clydd in 1140. Fragments of its masonry long remained visible. The passage of the Wye is commanded in this district by the strong castle of Builth. Just outside the county and higher up the river, which here divides Radnor from Brecknock, was Aberedw Castle, built by Ralph de Baskerville, one of the Norman invaders, but speedily taken and held by the Welsh. Still higher up is Rhyader-Gwy, founded it is said by Prince Rhys in the twelfth century, but better known as a castle of the Mortimers. It was taken by assault by the Welsh in the reign of Henry III. The outline of the works may still be traced. Nearer the centre of the county, upon the Ython and the Aran, were other castles. Moelynaidd and Castell Colwyn or Mauds Castle, fortified by the Earl of Chester in 1143, were on the former river, and near them was Cefn-Lys or Castell-glyn-Ython, a rather celebrated Norman castle, but often taken by the Welsh. It was held latterly by the Mortimers, and rebuilt by them in 1142. Dwybod Timpath or Tilloedd, also on the Ython, was a place of great strength of which many fragments of masonry remain. The name has been said to be a corruption of Talbot. This castle was levelled by Llewellyn in 1260. Cwm Aron, on the Aron river, was an early Norman castle, destroyed by the Welsh and restored by Hugh Earl of Chester in 1143. This also came to the Mortimers. There are considerable remains of the earthworks. Near to Presteign were Warden and Stapleton Castles, the latter built by Chandos the founder of Goldcliff Priory. There was also a castle at Clyro, and one upon the Lug at Castell Haled or Vallet; and at Clâs Cwm on the Arrow is some masonry said to represent Brynllys Castle.