csg annual conference - hereford - april 2016 - …...the castle studies group journal no 29:...

66THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 29: 2015-16THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 30: 2016-17

CSG Annual Conference - Hereford - April 2016 - Richard’s Castle

Richard’s Castle. An interpretation of how the castle may have appeared at the end of the 14th

century. Image courtesy of Michael Roberts. See: http://www.ageoftheprinces.co.uk/latest-news.htmView from the east. The octagonal keep on the motte is dated to the late 12th century. (c. 1185-1200).The small round-fronted, apsidal annexe could have been a porch with a chapel above. Therectangular east gatehouse ( front, left) was probably late 12th century.

Richard's CastleThe ‘Richard’ in question seems to be Richardfitz Scrob, a Norman living in England beforethe Norman Conquest in 1066. Scrob was oneof several Norman lords who became favouritesof Edward the Confessor during Edwards up-bringing in France. When Edward became kingin 1042 he gave large English estates to manyof his Norman friends, including Scrob. Around1050 Scrob may have built the simple motte andbailey fortification here, one of the earliest Nor-man castles in the country and one of only fourthat King Edward allowed to be built during hisreign. The new castle, and others, possibly atnearby Hereford and Ewyas Harold, alarmedthe local inhabitants, who united in oppositionto the Norman presence under earl Godwin ofWessex, father of the future King Harold. God-win demanded that Richard’s Castle be surren-dered, but King Edward refused and exiled theearl temporarily. A settlement grew up around

the castle, and by the time of the DomesdayBook (1086) it had become an establishedborough. Following the Norman ConquestWilliam I gave the castle to one of his mosttrusted and powerful barons, William fitzOsbern. The church, St. Bartholomew’s, datesfrom the 12th century (now owned by theChurches Conservation Trust). Like many oth-er castles along the Welsh Marches, Richard’sCastle fell into the hands of the powerful Mor-timer family, though after 1537 it passed to thecrown. Henry VIII granted it to the Earl ofWarwick, and through him the manor passedthrough the Heath, Cornewall, and Bradshawand Sawley family, the latter holding it it forthe next 400 years. The ruins and earthworksare immediately west of the churchyard. It isprobable that it is the castle called Auretone(Avretone) in the Domesday Survey when itwas held by Osbern fitz Richard. It then passedto the families of Mortimer, Talbot and Pope.


‘Richard's Castle’, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Herefordshire, Volume 3,North West (London, 1934), pp. 170-174 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/heref/vol3/ pp170-174 [accessed 26 January 2016].An outer ditch and enclosing bank to the NE probably encompassed the church and town and mayhave been stone-walled. The detached church tower, probably late 13th century is seen on plan eastof the chancel, below the 600ft contour line..




Richard’s Castle. Plan from R Allen Brown’s ‘English Castles’, 1970, p. 45, originally publishedin Curnow, P. E. and Thompson, M. W.,1969, 'Excavations at Richard’s Castle Herefordshire1962-1964' Journal of the British Archaeological Association (ser 3) Vol. 32 pp. 105-128. Thewall towers are lettered A-F, anticlockwise from just north of the gatehouse.Inset: The North-East Tower ‘B’, is described elsewhere as a Solar or Chamber tower. It seems tobe a late insertion and could be the work of the Mortimers in the 14th century. Its corners mayhave been canted or chamfered, and the Mortimers may have had a preference for building withcanted corners as a recognizable motif (see Ludlow, Wigmore). Here it seems more rounded thancanted. Tower F’, with its small square nesting boxes has been converted into a dovecot, sometimein the 15th century. The arc of the inner ditch or moat was proven through excavation.



Richard's Castle… continued

The castle consists of a motte and bailey, bothsurrounded by a continuous deep ditch, withtraces of an outer enclosure on the west. Themotte occupies the west side of the site and is 65yards (60m) in diameter at the base, 21ft (6.4m)at the top, and rises 60ft (18.3m) above thebottom of the ditch on the west side. The baileyis protected by a rampart representing the for-mer curtain wall which survives in places. Thearea is divided by a scarp into two portions. Thebailey was entered on the south-east where theditch is now crossed by a causeway; the en-trance gateway is represented by a fragment ofmasonry on the S. side. The footings on the Nside include a garderobe chute. The survivingstretch of wall, on the north-east side of thebailey, is about 50ft. (15m) long and 18ft (5.5m)high. A further stretch of wall survives, climb-ing the north slope of the motte; it stands some12ft high; near the foot of the slope are remainsof a semi-circular tower on the outward face of

the wall. All these fragments are of rubble andretain little evidence of their date. When exca-vated in 1962-4, the top section of the moundwas unexpectedly found to have the buriedfoundations of an octagonal stone keep, 12m (40ft) across, with a small forebuilding / chapel onthe north-east side overlooking the bailey. Thebailey, to the NE and SE of the motte is 85m(279ft) in length, NE-SW, and 60m (197ft) inwidth at its widest point, north of the motte.Fragments of curtain walling stand to heights of6m (20 ft) along the NW side of the bailey andfurther excavated fragments of curtain wall andtowers around the N and E sides of the bailey,including the ‘D-shaped’ tower ‘B’ perhaps14th century. Surrounding both motte and bai-ley is a ditch with a small outer bank. RunningNE from the NE side of the outer bank is asecond bank with a ditch towards the NW. Thisbank extends for some (46m) and indicates theformer existence of an outer enclosure contain-ing the church and perhaps the early village.

Richard’s Castle. The bailey was entered on the south-east where the ditch is crossed by acauseway; the gateway is represented by a remaining fragment of masonry on the south side.



Richard’s Castle. View from the motte looking north toward the highest & longest stretch of bai-ley wall between notional towers ‘D’ and ‘E’. (RAB’s English Castle’s plan).


ABOVE: Looking north from the bailey. The motte, tower and eastern wing-wall from the south.BELOW: The remaining lower courses of a semi-circular (or ¾ round) tower ‘F’ at the base of themound, later utilised as a dovecote. Tower mid-late 13th century.




ABOVE: Left: Reconstruction of the 40ft diameter (with 12ft thick walls) octagonal motte top towerwith the later chapel annexe from the onsite display panel. View from the north-east. The three storeytower is shown with ladder communication. Right: The sloping east talus of the tower from the north.BELOW: The chapel from the west, from above the remains of the octagonal tower’s talus.Presumably the central recess is far a window and altar table.


Views from the motte looking south (above) and east, towards the church & graveyard (below).




ABOVE: Richard’s Castle. Left & Right: The Bell Tower - south (left) & east faces. The detached belltower of the church of St. Bartholomew. Detached towers are relatively rare, although there are sevenin Herefordshire (e.g. St. Marys, Pembridge) and it dates from the late 13th century or early 14thcentury. They were sometimes built detached, often, it is suggested, for defensive or military purposes,though this is a difficult argument to sustain in the early 14th century. The tower apparently had awooden spire, which burned down in 1800 and was replaced with a slated roof, and weathervane. Thebell tower openings, rather than louvres, now appear to have dove/ pigeon nesting boxes.

LEFT: The Bell Tower from the north. Thethird ‘Y tracery’ opening in the belfry. All theopenings in the tower face north, south or east,with the door on the west. The Y tracery issimilar to that seen in Ludlow Castle (Great Hallof the 1280s, and St Peters chapel, of the 1320s.Y tracery is a distinctive feature of the period,but enjoyed a relatively short period of popular-ity. It appears to have developed in easternFrance (Picardy, Burgundy, Champagne) andwas an important element in the English Courtstyle at the end of the 13th century (Bony, TheEnglish Decorated style, 1979, 11). Geoffrey deGeneville (d. 1314) came from Joinville inChampagne and he or his son Peter (d. 1292),who both stood high in royal favour with Ed-ward I, may have been the patrons; or possiblyRoger Mortimer in the 1320s. It was also usedat Robert Burnell’s palace at Wells. See R KMorriss in Shoesmith & Johnson, 2006, 164-6.



Further ReadingBrooks, Alan, 2012, Herefordshire (Pevsner Archi-tectural Guides: Buildings of England).Yale Uni-versity PressMorgan, T., 2012, ‘Richard’s Castle: conservation ofstanding remains 2011-12’ Transactions of the Wool-hope Naturalists’ Field Club Vol. 60 pp. 121-28Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650(Yale University Press) p. 52Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moat-ed Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) pp. 246-49Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses ofEngland and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central Eng-land and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress) p. 476Salter, M, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire & Worces-tershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) pp. 57--8Remfry, Paul M., 1999, Nine castles of Burford Barony,1048 to 1308 (SCS Publishing: Worcestershire)1998-99, 'Pre-Conquest Castles in Herefordshire'Castle Studies Group Newsletter No. 12 pp. 33-4Remfry, Paul M., 1997, Richard's Castle, 1048 to1219 (SCS Publishing: Worcestershire)Halliwell, Peter, Archaeological Research SectionWoolhope NFC, 1997, Herefordshire ArchaeologicalNews Vol. 67 p. 29Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by coun-ties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 101Harfield, c. G., 1991, 'A Hand-list of Castles Record-ed in the Domesday Book' English Historical ReviewVol. 106 p. 371-392Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles from the Air (Cam-bridge University Press) pp. 196-7Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (pri-vately published) pp. 16-17Helen Clarke, 1984, The archaeology of medievalEngland (British Museum Publications, London) pp.117-20King, D. J. C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (Lon-don: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 210Thorn, F. and Thorn, C., 1983, Domesday Book:Herefordshire (Phillimore).Fry, P. S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (Davidand Charles) p. 284-5Renn, D. F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain(London: John Baker) p. 293

King, D. J. Cathcart, 1972, 'The Field Archaeologyof mottes; Eine kurze übersicht' Château GaillardVol. 5 p. 101-112Currow, P. E. and Thompson, M. W.,1969, 'Exca-vations at Richards Castle Herefordshire 19621964' Journal of the British Archaeological Associ-ation (ser 3) Vol. 32 p. 105-128Brown, R. Allen, 1969, ‘The Norman Conquest andthe Genesis of English Castles’ Château GaillardVol. 3 pp. 1-14Davidson, Brian K., 1969, ‘Early earthwork castles:a new model’ Château Gaillard Vol. 3 pp. 37-47Hogg, A. H. A. and King, D. J. C., 1967, 'Masonrycastles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeolo-gia Cambrensis Vol. 116 p. 71-132Thompson, M.W., 1965, ‘Richard's Castle’ TheHundred-and-Twelfth Annual Meeting at Hereford,1965, CAA pp. 22-4Renn, D. F., 1964, ‘The first Norman Castles inEngland 1051-1071’ Château Gaillard Vol. 1 pp.125-132.Toy, Sidney, 1953, The Castles of Great Britain(Heinemann) pp. 40-1RCHME, 1934, An inventory of the historical mon-uments in Herefordshire Vol. 3: North-West p. 172No. 2 (plan p. 173)Oman, Charles W.C., 1926, Castles (1978 ednBeetham House: New York) pp. 6, 136Armitage, Ella, 1912, The Early Norman Castles ofthe British Isles (London: John Murray) pp. 192-3Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns ofEngland (London: Methuen and Co)Gould, I Chalkley, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCHHerefordshire Vol. 1 pp. 245-6 (plan)Allcroft, A. Hadrian, 1908, Earthwork of England(London) pp. 430-1Mackenzie, J. D., 1896, Castles of England; theirstory and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2pp. 115-16Clark, G. T., 1884, Mediaeval Military Architecturein England (Wyman and Sons) Vol. 2 pp. 401-4Robinson, C. J., 1872, A History of the Mansionsand Manors of Herefordshire (Logaston Press,2001 reprint)Robinson, C. J., 1869, The Castles of Herefordshireand Their Lords (London: Longman) pp. 118-20

csg annual conference - hereford - april 2016 - …...the castle studies group journal no 29:...

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