The remaining parts of South and West Wales containing much open and tolerably fertile land, and having a long and exposed frontier towards the purely Welsh districts of Brecknock, Caermarthen and Cardigan, were the scene of perpetual inbreaks from the Welsh, and required more than usual strength in the defences. The castle of Gloucester, already mentioned, was the base of all extended operations in South Wales. Here the kings of England often held their court, and here their troops were mustered. Brichtric had a castle at Gloucester, but his mound has long been removed, and with it all traces of the Norman building.
Next to Gloucester in strength and importance and far more exposed came Hereford, strongly posted on the Wye, and surrounded by a very fertile territory. Unlike most other cities Hereford is of purely English foundation, though by whom founded is not precisely clear. It was fortified by Harold, and probably received the Norman additions to its castle from Osborne soon after the Conquest. The castle was attacked by Edric the Wild in 1067. Part of the defences of the city remain, and of those of the castle an immense bank and deep wet ditch, now in part being filled up, and formerly communicating with the river Wye. The keep stood upon a large mound now levelled. Herefordshire contained many castles, mostly, however, intended for the protection of private estates, and placed accordingly. Goderich on the Wye is one of the chief. It is large, well built, protected by the river, and has a small but early rectangular keep. It was long held by the Talbots. Ewias Harold and Kilpeck commanded from either side the valley of Irchenfield. Both were strong and had shell keeps built upon mounds of large size. Of Kilpeck parts of the wall remain, and a small Norman church. In 1134 Hugh, son of William Norman, gave to Gloucester Abbey the church of St. David at Kilpeck and the chapel of St. Mary in the castle. Ewias was a stronger place, but nearly all the masonry is now gone. The Harold from whom it derives its distinctive name was an English proprietor before the Conquest. Of the lesser castles were Croft, for centuries the seat of a still extant family of that name; Lingen, an early castle built by Turstine de Wigmore; Lyonshall, an early D’Evereux castle; Kingston, of which no trace remains; Almley, reduced to its original mound; Kingsland, reputed a Saxon seat; Weobley, a De Lacy castle in the reign of Stephen; Castle Frome, also built by the Lacys, and now a mound only. Asperton, a Grandison castle built on the edge of the Roman way, is now destroyed, as are Ellington and Mortimer’s Castle at Much Marcle. Of Huntingdon, on the Radnor border, a De Braose castle, the mound remains, as of Eardisley, called in “Domesday” a “domus defensabilis.” Cubbington was a castle of the De la Fields, and Bredwardine of a family of that name who gave place to the Baskervilles. Whitney Castle stood on the Wye, as a little higher up did Clifford, of which the masonry was the work of Ralph de Todeni and his successor Fitz Pons, ancestor of the great house of Clifford, who hence derived their name. The Castelry of Clifford was held at “Domesday” by Roger de Lacy. Wilton Castle on the Wye, the seat of a well-known barony, was built by Longchamp in the reign of Henry I., and of that age were Pembridge and probably Tretire, a Fitz Warine castle now destroyed. Besides these there are others of which less is known; Longtown or Ewias Lacy, built in part of Roman material; Snodhill, probably Norman; Twyford, and Urishay in Peterchurch, a De la Hay work; Eccleswall and Castle Comfort reduced to their mounds; the bank and ditches of the latter seen on a hill-side half a mile from Leominster, are the reputed remains of the palace of Werewald, King of Mercia, late in the seventh century. Mention is also made of Mouse Castle, near Hay; Dorston, a Soler’s castle; Cusop, a mere tower; Bransil, on the Worcestershire border, now a ruin; Kinnersley; Eaton Tregoz, a Baskerville seat in 1251; Moccas, of which the moat remains; and Penyard, probably Norman. It is to be remembered that most of the castles in masonry in Hereford and Radnor were built upon earthworks of far earlier date.
Brecknock, though a wild and mountainous and therefore strongly Welsh county, is penetrated both by the Usk and in some measure by the Wye, of which Bernard Newmarch and his invading followers well knew how to take advantage. The castles on the Wye being common to Radnor and Brecknock, have duly been enumerated. The strongest of them all, Builth, which played an important part in the local wars, was held by the Barons de Braose, the successors of Newmarch. Of masonry there remains but little, but the mound and annexed ditches and platforms are of a very formidable character, and justify the reputation of the fortress for strength.
Builth was placed near the junction of the Yrfon with the Wye, and thus commanded the entrance of an important pass leading into Caermarthen. It was, however, by the Usk that Bernard Newmarch marched in 1096 against Bleddyn ap Maenarch, and it was at Brecknock, not far from the Roman Bannium, that he established the strong and spacious castle of which the earlier mound and much of the masonry can still be seen. The possession of Brecknock, Builth, and Abergavenny castles secured the district, which Newmarch parcelled out among about fifteen of his chief followers, some of whom built castles which they continued to hold under his son-in-law, Milo Earl of Hereford, and their successors the Barons de Braose and Cantelupe. Next above Abergavenny was Crickhowell, of which the mound, ditches, and a tower remain. This was the castle of the Turbervilles. Near it is Tretower, an early and very curious structure, where a rectangular keep has been gutted and an early English round tower erected in its centre. Tretower stands in the marshes of the Rhiangol, higher up which stream is Dinas, a hill castle now in ruins, in form much resembling Morlais in Glamorgan, and commanding the pass from Abergavenny to Talgarth and the Wye. Higher up the Wye, upon a pass by which the road cuts off an inaccessible bend of the river, was Blaenllyfni, a large and strong castle usually held by the chief lord himself. Near it towards Brecknock was Pencelli Castle. At Devynock was the tower of Rhyd-yr-Briew, and some miles above Brecknock, near the head of the Usk, a tower at Trecastle, of which the mound remains, was placed at the summit of the regular road between Brecknock and Caermarthen. On the Honddu above Brecknock was Castell Madoc, probably a Welsh fortress, and on the Llyfni between Brecknock and Hereford the Peel of Talgarth and the very remarkable cylindrical tower of Bronllys. The remains of the castle of Hay stand upon the Wye at the north-eastern angle of the county. It was built by Sir Philip Walwyn, destroyed by Henry III. in 1231, and probably rebuilt soon afterwards. A part of it is still standing. The town was walled and had three gates.
Besides these were Scethrog, the tower of Sir Miles Pichard; Burghill, built by Sir Humphrey of that name; Langoed and some others, fortified houses rather than castles, and of which in most cases nothing remains but the moated mounds, only a few of which have been occupied by the Normans.
Monmouthshire, though exposed to occasional inbreaks, was, in the eleventh century, and especially after Harold’s Welsh war of 1063, as completely a part of England as Hereford or the contiguous parts of Gloucester. Its western border was the Rhymny, but by much its more important part lay between two very deep and rapid rivers, the Wye and the Usk, and upon each were posted formidable castles; those of Monmouth and Chepstow upon the one river, and those of Newport, Usk, and Abergavenny upon the other. Chepstow is placed upon a cliff on the western or right bank of the river, evidently, like Newport, intended as a “tête du pont” to cover the passage of troops, the river not being there fordable. As the name imports, the settlement is of English origin, though its Domesday designation, Estrighoil, corrupted into Striguil, is Welsh. The castle is divided from the town by a deep ravine, and is altogether outside the wall, which was unusual. The keep, of Norman masonry, may be the work of William Fitz Osborne, Earl of Hereford, or at latest of Roger de Britolio, his son and successor. As early as in the reign of Henry I., Chepstow had come into the possession of the De Clares of the Strongbow line, often called Earls of Striguil. Its possession enabled the Mareschals, successors to the De Clares, to hold their earldom against Henry III. Monmouth Castle occupied the top of a promontory of rock between the Wye and the Monnow, and was long held by a line of border barons to whom it gave a name.
Upon the Usk, the old castle of Newport has long been replaced by a later structure, but parts of Usk Castle, some miles higher up, are old, and Abergavenny, which descended from De Braose through Cantelupe and Hastings to the Nevilles, is still held by the chief of that family, though little remains of it save the original mound. It was at Abergavenny Castle that William de Braose slaughtered, in 1175, a number of unarmed Welshmen, in revenge for the murder of his uncle, Henry of Hereford. Caerleon, between Newport and Usk, though founded by a Norman upon an earlier English site connected with very celebrated Roman remains, was the heritage of a Welsh family, and continued long in their occupation. Between the Usk and the Wye the ground, in itself strong, was strongly occupied.
Upon the Monnow were placed Scenfrith and Grosmont, which with Whitecastle formed the famous trilateral, so important in the war between Henry III. and the Earl of Pembroke. The keep of Scenfrith is a round tower of early date placed within a right-lined enclosure. Though small, it was very strong, and its remains are tolerably perfect. Grosmont, also of early date, is somewhat larger, and its remains are also considerable. White Castle is an enormous shell of lofty walls and mural towers placed within a most formidable ditch, beyond which are very extensive outworks both of masonry and earth. It stands very high, commands a most extensive view, and its defences are wholly artificial. All these three castles are reported to have been originally Welsh seats; but their earthworks have an English aspect. They were obviously intended for the general defence of the country, and, as usual, were always in the hands of the great Lords or of the Crown; there were besides several smaller castles or fortified houses, the centre of private estates. Of these were the castles bordering the chase of Wentwood: Dinham, long since a ruin; Penhow, the cradle of the House of Seymour; Pencoed, which still retains some early masonry; Llanvair, built by the Pain or Pagan family; and Castroggy, where is seen a part of the hall and some other masonry. Upon the Ebbw, west of Newport, stood the small castles of Greenfield and Rogeston, and at Castleton is a mound, said at one time to have been accompanied by masonry. On the hill above Ruperra is a very large and very perfect moated mound, but without any trace or tradition of masonry. Llangibby is an old Monmouthshire castle.
The occupation by the Normans of the valleys of the Wye and the Usk no doubt served to protect the exposed flank of Monmouthshire, but beyond the Rhymny in Glamorgan this protection ceased, and the hill territory of Glamorgan contained a native population ever ready to assist their countrymen, who frequently invaded that Lordship from the north-west. The Norman settlers all dwelt in the strip of open and more fertile land from six to twelve miles in breadth that intervened, like the Concan of Western India, between the mountains and the sea, where the remains of their castles are placed so near together as to raise a question as to whence the inhabitants derived their means of subsistence. The chief castle of the Lordship was that of Cardiff on the Taff; but the lord also held castles at Dinas Powis, Llantrissant, Kenfig, and by an early acquisition, at Neath, all which may be presumed to have been intended for the general protection. Cardiff, upon the “via maritima” of the Romans, is a very remarkable fortification. It is rectangular, protected on three sides by a very high bank and ditch, and on the fourth, towards the river, by a very strong wall. In one corner at the river end is a large moated mound still bearing the Norman keep, and which stood upon the line of a second wall now destroyed, by which that end of the area was cut off and protected from the rest. The analogy of this work with those of Tamworth, Wareham, and Wallingford, and in some degree with Leicester, is remarkable. It also has some points of resemblance to Hereford. Dinas Powis is a small oblong enclosure of the type of Dinas Brân and Dolforwin, probably of Norman date. It occupies the top of a rock in the gorge of a deep valley, and must have been strong against any mere assault. Llantrissant Castle was of rather larger dimensions. It stood, and indeed a fragment of it still stands, in a notch in the hill high above the plain and many miles from the sea. Kenfig, which stood upon a brook near the sea coast, has been completely swallowed up by blown sand, “consumptum per sabulonem,” and only a fragment is now visible. Neath, the most exposed castle in the whole county, was founded by De Granville, said to be the brother of Robert Fitz Hamon. Save those of the Lord the only castle in the Lordship held by a public functionary was that of the Bishop at Llandaff, which seems to have been always a place of strength, though the gatehouse and enclosing wall still remaining are probably as late as the reign of Henry III. or Edward I.
Proceeding westward, the nearest castles to Cardiff were Sully and Barry, held by families from whom the manors derived their names, as did Bonvileston or Tre-Simon and its castle from Sir Simon de Bonville. Penmark was the seat of the Umfravilles; Fonmon, with its rectangular keep, of the St. Johns; Wrinston, of the De Reignys and Raleighs; Wenvoe, of Le Fleming; and St. Fagan’s, of the Le Sore family. Of Peterston and St. George’s there remain fragments of masonry. East Orchard, the seat of the Berkerolles family, and Beaupré, of the Bassets, probably were originally castles; but the one shows the ruins of a fortified house, the other of a manor-house of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Part of Castleton Castle is old; of Liege Castle there remains a light earthwork only. Llandough was built by the Welsh family, and Llanquian, a round tower, by the De Wintons. Llanblethian Castle was the seat of the St. Quintins, Talavan of the Siwards: at Penlline is a part of a rectangular keep with herring-bone masonry, built by the Norrises. Cowbridge town was an appanage of the chief Lord, and was walled and strongly fortified. St. Donat’s, in its present form, is very late, and it is doubtful whether the Haweys, the early lords, had a castle in this county. Part of Dunraven is old. It was built by the Butlers, who held it under Ogmore. Ogmore, the chief seat in this lordship of the De Londres, lords of Kidwelly, has a square keep. It stands on the river whence it is named. Near it are the remains of a small castle of the Cantelupes, known as Cantelupe’s-ton or Cantleston. At Bridgend is a late Norman gateway, the entrance to a small walled enclosure, also probably Norman. It bears the name of Newcastle. Near it is Coyty, a famous Welsh seat, but built or rebuilt by the Turbervilles. The buildings are considerable and tolerably perfect. The adjacent priory of Ewenny was fortified. The Welsh Barons of Avan had a castle upon the Avon river at Aberavan.