Ewias Harold
Ewias Harold is reputed to be one of the oldest castles
in Britain, although in this it has a bit of competition, viz.
Clavering, Dover, Herefordshire Beacon, Howton, Richards Castle and Thruxton to name a
few. The early history of the commote of Ewias, from which the
castlery of Ewias Harold was carved, is both complex and obscure.
The land of Ewias, the name is thought to be derived from the same word
as the modern ewe, giving a meaning of sheep district, lay at the
eastern end of the Black Mountains. Much of the commote was a
late Anglo-Saxon conquest from the Welsh and the castle now known as
Ewias Harold may have been founded by a Norman known as Osbern
Pentecost, possibly soon after 1046. In 1052 at the latest,
Hereford gained a Norman earl in the form of King Edward's nephew,
Ralph Mantes, often rather inaccurately known as Ralph the Timid.
It has been suggested that he was responsible for building Hereford
castle and he certainly encouraged other Normans into the
district. These would seem to have included Richard Fitz Scrope
of latterday Richards Castle, Robert Fitz Wymarch of Thruxton castle
and Osbern Pentecost who quite likely controlled the commote of Ewias
from his castle at Ewias Harold.
In 1052 an anti-Norman revolution caused ‘the Frenchmen in London
to flee west to Pentecost's castle and north to Robert's castle'.
Pentecost's castle was most likely that now known as Ewias Harold while
Robert's castle was probably Clavering. That Ewias Harold was
later, according to Domesday, refortified by William Fitz Osbern in the
period 1067-71, probably suggests that the original fortress did not
survive the devastations of the Marches in the late 1050s and early
1060s. In the face of the English opposition to their continued
presence in the country, Osbern Pentecost and his companion Hugh,
surrendered their castles and went to Scotland in the service of King
Macbeth in 1052. By implication this otherwise unknown Hugh may
have had his castle quite near to Ewias Harold at Howton. The
Norman defeat of 1052 possibly marked the end of the first Norman
castles in Ewias, while the Normans in Scotland were later killed in
present day Ayrshire when Macbeth was defeated by Earl Siward in 1054.
The Domesday survey found that part of the bishop of Hereford's 9 hides
lay within Ewias Harold castlery, where Roger Lacy (d.1106+) also held
land as too did Henry Ferrers (d.1089). It was further noted that
Roger [Lacy] held of him 3 churches, a priest and 32 acres of land
paying 2 sesters of honey and that Henry had 2 dwellings (masuras) in
the castle itself. The 3 churches were possibly Clodock,
Llancillo and Llanveynoe, which were all mentioned in charters copied
at Llandaff in the twelfth century, other alternatives include Dulas,
Kentchurch and Kenderchurch. Another undertenant at Ewias Harold
was William Devereux whose descendants would be lords of Lyonshall
castle. The main section on Ewias Harold noted that Alfred
Marlborough held Ewias castle from the king who had himself granted him
the lands which Earl William, who had refortified the castle, had given
him, viz 5 carucates in Mulstoneston and 5 in Manitone. These 2
places now form the current parish of Ewias Harold. The king also
granted him the land of Ralph Brenay which belonged to the
castlery. The value of the ‘castle' was recorded as
£10 in 1086, but no 1066 value was given. There were then
listed the vills which pertained to the castle, namely Burghill,
Brinsop, Monnington, Bredwardine, a manor of Thornlaw hundred, Hill of
Eaton, Pembridge, Stretford and Much Cowarne. Outside of the
county Alfred held a further 42 vills. In total this gave him an
income of over £300pa which put him amongst the top 40 wealthiest
landholders in the Conqueror's England.
It was also noted in Domesday that Osbern [Pentecost], the uncle of
Alfred, had held Burghill and Brinsop before 1066 after Godwin and
Harold had been exiled. If this was true it would suggest that
Osbern was holding Ewias before the exile of Godwin in 1051, otherwise,
why would not the same have been said of Ewias Harold and its castle?
As most of Alfred's 1086 lands had earlier been held by King Harold
(d.1066) it suggests that Earl William Fitz Osbern had claimed the
royal lands of the dead King Harold under King William I's gift of the
earldoms of Hereford and Gloucestershire and that the earl had
subinfeuded them to Alfred together with the refortified castle.
Other lands hived off from the old Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog went to
form the new Norman districts and honours of Archenfield, Ewias Lacy
and Clifford as well as smaller sub-lordships like Bredwardine and
Dorstone. Snodhill honour was formed some time later in the early
twelfth century.
Alfred Marlborough had a married daughter, Agnes, before 1086, but on his death
before 1100 his lands were divided with Ewias Harold going to Earl
Ralph the Timid's son, Harold. The reasoning behind this grant is
unknown as normally Alfred's heir would have been his grandson via his
daughter Agnes, viz. Ralph Wigmore (d.1190+). Harold must have
been born before 1057 when his father died and in 1066 was in the
wardship of Queen Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor. He
was of age by 1086 when he was lord of Burton Dassett and Chilvers
Coton in Warwickshire, Sudeley and Toddington in Gloucestershire and
Droitwich in Worcestershire. By 1100 he had added to these lands
the vills of Pencombe, Monnington Straddle, Ashe Ingen and Eaton Tregoz
as well as other manors in Hampshire, Somerset, Surrey and
Wiltshire. These estates probably gave him an income of over
£200pa.
It is possible that he received these lands as heir to his mother, who
is occasionally recorded in the Domesday Book as Countess Gytha, the
widow of Earl Ralph of Hereford (d.1057). She was still living in
1066 and dead by 1086. All of the 47 lands associated with her in
modern readings of the Book were in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. However there is
‘another' Countess Gytha mentioned in Domesday Book and this is
Countess Gytha the widow of Earl Godwin (d.1053). She is
occasionally recorded in counties further to the south and modern
editors of the Book have associated 37 places with this Gytha in
Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire,
Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire. Despite this there seems
not reason to assume that these 2 Gythas were not the same woman.
The latest birthdate for Earl Swein's wife, Gytha Thorkelsdottir, would
be about 1010 assuming her eldest son, Earl Swein (d.1052) was not born
until after 1024. Similarly, if she was the same person as the
widow of Earl Ralph of Hereford (d.1057) she would have been a minimum
of 48 if she gave birth to Harold Ewias posthumously and only 44 if he
was born soon after their postulated marriage which could have taken
place in 1053, Earl Godwin dying on 15 April 1053. She was
certainly dead by 1086, by which time she would have been a minimum of
76. In short there seems every possibility that this was the same
women referred to by the lands of her 2 consecutive husbands.
Whoever was Harold's mother, he went on to give the lordship its
lasting name, Ewias Harold. He had acquired Ewias Harold with its
castle as the caput of his estates by 1100 when he founded Ewias
priory. By his foundation grant of that year he granted to St
Peter's of Gloucester the church of St Michael with its chapel of St
Nicholas in Ewias castle, together with the chapels of St James of
Ewias, Kentchurch (St Kaene) and the chapel of Kenderchurch (Caneros)
to found a convent in Ewias. To support this new foundation he
also gave the church of Foy with a carucate of land, the tithes of Foy
fish-trap and mill, as well as the churches of Lyidard (Lidred),
Allington (Alyngetone, Wilts) and Burnham (Somerset). By 1291 the
priory, never a rich house, was recorded as holding rights in Teffont
(Tefunte), Allington (Albecaning), Elmerton (Helmerton) and Lydiard
Tregoze in Wiltshire. It is also apparent that Harold had failed
to acquire some lands of Alfred that were previously appurtenant to
Ewias Harold, namely the vills of Walterstone, Lancillo and
Rowlestone. These were henceforth held by the Lacys who also
later annexed Dulas just north of Ewias Harold.
Harold was still living in 1120 when he was at least 63 and had at
least 5 sons. His major estate, Sudeley, presumably passed to the
eldest son, John, but Ewias was given to Robert who was still living in
1148. Consequently their descendants took the surnames of Sudeley
and Ewias. At some point before 1137, when he was killed, Pain
Fitz John of Ewias, seized Dulas from Robert. This may have caused
Robert to remove Ewias priory from that vill to Ewias itself.
Later in 1147, Robert Ewias founded Abbey Dore, only just over a mile
north from Ewias Harold. Robert also seems to have been
responsible for increasing the knight service owed to his reduced
barony of Ewias Harold with 2 of the earliest subinfeudation
charters. These are retained to this day by the Scudamore family.
Robert Ewias was succeeded by a son of the same name who died in
1198. The barony then passed to his only surviving daughter's
family, the Tregoz. Her son, Robert Tregoz, was killed at Evesham
in 1265. The barony was eventually divided between his 2
grandchildren, Clarice and Sibyl. Their mother, Julianna
Cantilupe (d.1285), wrote a short account of her Cantilupe family
origins, one of the earliest such accounts in the kingdom. On the
death of John Tregoz in 1300 Ewias Harold castle passed to Julianna's
son, John le Ware (d.1347). Sometime in the late fourteenth
century the castle was taken from his grandson, another John le Ware
(d.1399+) and given first to the Despensers and Montacutes and then to
the Beauchamps. Earl William Beauchamp fortified it during the
Glyndwr wars. On the death of Earl Richard Beauchamp of Worcester
in 1422, the castle passed via his daughter to Edward Neville with
whose family the castle then descended for centuries in a state of
abandonment, although as late as 1477 it appeared in the inquest post
mortem of Edward Neville. By 1540 Leland had reported that:
a great part of Mapheralde Castle yet stands and a chapel of St
Nicholas in it. There was sometime a park by the castle.
The castle stands on a mean hill and on the right bank of Dulas brook
hard in the bottom by it. There is a village by the castle called
Ewis Haralde.
Much collapsed in the next hundred years and in 1645 Richard Symonds
could not even see any foundations of the castle or priory church he
described as ‘ruinous and gone'.
Description
Ewias Harold is a ridge end castle site. The spur it rests upon
runs to the south-east and is bounded to the north by the Dulas brook some
distance off. It is generally thought that the original castle of
Pentecost consisted of the rectangular inner bailey the defences of which now mainly
consist of the scarp of the ridge to the east, west and south. It is thought that
the motte was added to this by William Fitz Osbern (d.1071) on the
north-east front, looking up the ridge. There is also an impressive ditch
and in its northern half a rampart. Along the south-western half
of this front is a giant ditched motte standing some 30' higher than
the bailey interior and 50' higher than the ditch bottom. The
summit is about 100' in diameter and 240' at the base. The large
summit has been much damaged by robbing operations for the foundations
of what was apparently once a large shell keep about 80' in diameter.
Within the sub rectangular bailey, some 400' east to west by 330', are
numerous apparent building foundations. Without excavation it is
probably fruitless to try to make sense of these earthworks as
certainly much has been altered at the site on the northern front on
either side of the motte and possibly elsewhere. A further bailey
or town ward lay to the south-east and still shows traces of a 6' high,
ditched rampart. The area enclosed seems to have been about 250'
by 500'. To the south-west of the site seems to be traces of wet
defences or at least fishponds. Modern buildings have much
interfered with the site.
As both Longtown and Ewias Harold have mottes that are some 30' higher
than the bailey and also some 50' above the ditch bottom, it puts them
in a league with the tallest mottes in the country, ie. those over 30'
high. Such large mottes are often taken to denote a massively
rich lord as well as an early building date. It is therefore
possible that both of these are part of the same Norman move into
Brycheiniog made in the few years of Earl William Fitz Osbern's tenure
of the district as he was often acting as king's justiciar at the time
(1067-71).
Copyright©2021
Paul Martin Remfry