Llanthomas Castle Mound


Llanthomas Castle Mound was built by the Normans after the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, probably after the Norman invasion of Wales in 1081, but before 1215. It was a motte-and-bailey castle design. The building materials were earth, rubble, and timber. The earth was probably obtained from the surrounding ditch and the timber from nearby woods.
Cadw are the Welsh government-funded regulatory body for the scheduling of historical assets in Wales. They describe Llanthomas Castle Mound as an important relic of medieval architecture which might extend knowledge of medieval defensive practices. Their scheduled area comprises the motte and a substantial area of lawn at the base of the motte, where related evidence is expected to survive.

History

sources have revealed the link between Llanthomas Castle Mound with Llanigon, Llanthomas and the River Wye.
In Tudor times, Theophilus Jones suggested that Llanigo was named after the first British female saint called Eigen. Saint Eigen lived around the end of the 1st century in the settlement called Trefynys. The pre-conquest nucleated settlement grew around a church. Possibly on the site of the existing church of St. Eigon, in Llanigon. The earliest reference to the church of St. Eigon is between 1148 and 1155. The oldest part of the current church building dates to the 13th century, suggesting that the current building was built on or near the site of an older church. Nothing is known of the history of the Trefynys settlement, "though some relationship with the motte at Llanthomas 700m down the Digeddi Brook seems assured". Lewys Dwnn suggests that the dedication of the church of St. Eigon in Llanigon and/or the derivation of the village name Llanigon is unclear. The dedications might be honouring the first century Saint Eigen or the 6th century Saint Eigion, both are local Welsh saints.
The "motte at Llanthomas" is formally called Llanthomas Castle Mound and was part of the Norman Llanthomas lordship, a sub-lordship of the Hay lordship. Llanthomas Castle Mound was built in the late 11th or early 12th century. Unlike Hay Tump, it is not known who built Llanthomas Castle Mound, but it is known to have existed from the early days of the Norman conquest.
John Leyland visited Llanigo and its castle between 1536 and 1539. He wrote about the castle, "Llanigo apperith a tour tanquam noxiorum custodiae deputata". That is, the castle was "intended for guarding against evil-doers". William Camden adds that "at Llanigo appears a castle or tower". The mention of a tower approximately 350 years after construction, suggests that the original wooden keep was refortified with a shell keep and/or a stone keep. These days the surface at the top of Llanthomas Castle Mound is uneven. This is often indicative of buried rubble from a collapsed stone structure. Conversely, a wooden keep tends to result in a level top surface after the above ground wood has rotted.
John Lloyd wrote "the tumulus below Llanthomas is said to direct to the ford on the Wye". William Morgan interpreted this to mean that the castle guarded the road leading down to the River Wye. An Ordnance Survey map shows that the road connects to the River Wye via the nearby ford called Little Ffordd-Fawr. CPAT indicate that Llanthomas is historically significant because it has "a motte from the early days of the Norman Conquest", and in the Tudor era its "ancient mansion" was owned by a high-status individual. Samuel Lewis reveals that around the time of Leyland's visit, the Lord of Llanthomas was Sir Walter Deveraux, the Lord Chief Justice of South Wales. Edwin Poole listed many of the other high-status individuals who had lived in Llanthomas up to the 20th century.
The Llanthomas area has had a rich history for at least the last two millennia. The history is associated with Saint Eigen and Caractacus and the Roman conquest of Britain, the Devereux family and the Norman invasion of Wales and more recently the diarist Francis Kilvert. Francis walked along both sections of Llanthomas lane to visit "Daisy", who lived in the modernised domicile of the Llanthomas lordship.
The history associated with the Llanthomas area may be older. When possible the Normans speeded up castle construction by building on existing Iron Age or Bronze Age hillforts, or Roman ruins or ditch, augmenting the castle's defensive architecture. Some antiquarian scholars believed that Llanthomas Castle Mound was built on an Iron Age tumulus. Until recently, many maps labelled Llanthomas Castle Mound as a tumulus.

Motte and Bailey Castle architecture

Llanthomas Castle Mound is the remains of a motte-and-bailey medieval castle. A typical castle architecture included:
  • a multi-storey wooden watchtower on the summit of the mound/motte,
  • a wooden palisade fence around the keep,
  • a wooden palisade fence around the bailey/courtyard and
  • a deep ditch surrounding the bailey.
The majority of Motte and Bailey castles, had a mound less than 5m in height, as is Llanthomas Castle Mound.
Nearly a millennium after the construction of Llanthomas Castle Mound the only above ground wood is a self-seeded hawthorn tree. The evidence of the castle today consists of the motte, the ditch and buried walls. The walls underpinned the wooden fence surrounding the bailey and near the top of the ditch "all the way down to the brook".
The typical enclosed bailey was often kidney/pear shaped, where the narrower end wrapped around the motte. The bailey will have included the living quarters for the garrison of soldiers/archers and perhaps the family of the Lord of the manor. The bailey contained facilities to sustain a military settlement. For example, kitchens, halls, workshops, forges, armouries, stables, barns for livestock, storage areas and a chapel.
A bailey covered a considerable land area, and may have used much of the level land from Llanthomas Castle Mound along the single carriageway section of Llanthomas lane in the direction of Llanigon. An Ordnance Survey map shows that the field that wrapped around the tumulus was fully enclosed by Digeddi brook and Llanthomas lane. The field was used as a grazing meadow and was called Bailey Court. In recent times the field has been split into multiple private plots/dwellings. Traces of a possible site for a kitchen area within the bailey has been found about 50m to the south-east of the motte. Digeddi brook runs along the base of the ditch offering a vital natural resource for any military settlement.

Field work

Motte and bailey castles were built in an age when written records were sparse, above ground wood has long since rotted and any masonry has been repurposed. These days evidence of a bailey can be discerned by geophysical surveys and/or excavation.
In 1921, the William Morgan vicar at the pre-conquest church of St. Eigon, Llanigon, an amateur archaeologist hosted a visit from the Woolhope club. The club studied the natural history, geology, archaeology and the history of Herefordshire, England. William dug a small excavation trench on the summit of the motte, but no artefacts were found from the brief excavation. There is no known record of any professional-level archaeological excavation or geophysical survey of Llanthomas Castle Mound.
In 1988, the professional archaeologist Peter Dorling with the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust conducted an excavation of a possible site for the bailey courtyard. They discovered activity associated with the motte. Artefacts were found including a sherd from the base of a medieval cooking pot. The work included topsoil stripping, site levelling and excavation of foundation trenches. Their report describes a number of visible stone-filled features. They state "Four definite features were noted during the excavation... The most distinctive of these was a stone-filled pit or ditch butt-end... its basal fill contained some quantity of charcoal". The archaeologist's report concluded it is likely to have been a kitchen within the bailey.

Toponymy

"Llan" is Welsh for the sacred land around a church. Llanigon may be derived from "Llan" and either "Eigen" or "Eigion". People and place names in Wales are derived from Welsh, Anglo-Norman, Latin, Anglo-Saxon and Middle English etc. Over time the nouns have evolved from language to language leading to uncertainty about the original noun.
Llanthomas was known as Trefynys from the 1st century to around Norman times. The Welsh words "Tref" and "ynys" mean "settlement" and "island", respectively. Trefynys is used in Welsh place names to denote a populated area or settlement. By the 14th century, Trefynys was known as Thomascherche. Sometime later it became known as Llanthomas, the French and English derivations of "Thomas church" respectively. The settlement contained a chapel of rest probably dedicated to Saint Thomas. Today, Llanthomas is a settlement within the village of Llanigon.
The French words "motte" and "bailey" mean "mound" and "enclosure" respectively in English. Motte-and-bailey castles without evidence of the original bailey are called castle mounds. Until recently, the grazing field around Llanthomas Castle Mound was called Bailey Court. The words "bailey" and "court" are of Norman origin. The Normans used the word "donjon" for the keep. It is derived from the Latin word "dominarium" meaning "lordship", emphasising the link between the castle and the Lord of the manor.
Antiquarian and modern sources identify Llanthomas Castle Mound with names reflecting its close proximity to Llanigon and Hay-on-Wye. It has been referred to as "Llanthomas Motte", "Llanthomas", "Llanthomas Mound", and "Llanigon Castle". Others group Llanthomas Castle Mound with the Hay-on-Wye castles. In 1961, castleologist, D. J. Cathcart King in his magnum opus aspired to list all UK castles. Hay Castle is listed as Hay No. 1, Hay Tump as Hay No. 2 and Llanthomas Castle Mound as Hay No. 3. The Hay castles are numbered 6, 22 and 23 respectively in his index. Also in 1961 the Ministry of Works published a list of UK monuments whose preservation was considered to be of "national importance". Llanthomas Castle Mound is associated with Hay Rural and Hay Tump with Hay Urban, referencing the post-1894 civil parishes. Some antiquarian sources allude to Llanthomas Castle Mound e.g. "the tumulus on the brook below Llanthomas", "the mound at Llanigon Castle", "the ruins of the castle at Llanigon to Llowes ford" and "the mound in Bailey Court".