Huntington
Huntington castle, 2½ miles south west of
Kington, seems to have been
founded as the direct successor of Kington castle, although it must be realized that the earlier history of the vill or
manor is somewhat obscure. The first castle of Huntington is to be identified
with Turret castle, a motte and
bailey one mile south-east of the current fortress. As Huntington vill was
in the hands of the Crown until the 1090's it would appear likely that the first
castle was constructed under the aegis of William
fitz Osbern or his son, Earl Roger of Hereford. Between 1066 and 1075 the
two earls held the king's lands in Herefordshire. William fitz Osbern, after
invading Brycheiniog in the summer of 1070 and defeating the regal rulers of
South Wales, established several castles up and down his borders between Wigmore
in the north and Chepstow
in the south. Turret castle may well have been one of these fortresses. William,
who had switched his theatre of operations to the Low Countries of Flanders in
the winter of 1070, taking only ten of his knightly retainers with him, was
brought to battle at Cassel and there, according to Ordericus Vitalis, the
Norman Chronicler, he died how he had lived, by the sword.
William was succeeded in England by his second son, Earl Roger
Breteuil of Hereford. Roger did not receive either the royal favour or the royal
bounty of his father, and consequently at Easter 1075 he joined his new
brother-in-law, Earl Ralph of Norfolk, in rebellion. The uprising was soon
crushed by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury. Roger was tried for his crimes and
imprisoned. The earldom of Hereford consequently reverted to the Crown. King
William the Conqueror, after a suitable interval of time, began to repent of the
imprisonment of his relation who was also the son of his best friend, Earl
William. In an attempt to restore friendly relations he sent him a gift of fine
new robes, but Earl Roger in his prison called the guards together and burned
the gifts in defiance of the king. The king on hearing of this insult swore in
his wrath that Earl Roger would not be released in his lifetime. King William
kept his promise, but on his deathbed he ordered the release of the aging earl.
The earl had at least two sons and they both gave good service to King Henry I
(1100-35) in the vain hope of being re-granted some of their father's vast
patrimony. In fact all they secured was the castle and manor of Much Marcle in
Herefordshire which their descendants held under their maternal name of Ballon until the
fourteenth century.
After 1076 Huntington Manor, and the castle if it still existed after
the rebellion of 1075, remained in the hands of the Crown until King William
Rufus (1087-1100) granted it to Adam Port of Hampshire as part of the barony of Kington.
It would seem unlikely that Adam had a fortress here so near to his major castle
of Kington, which was smaller than both Turret and Huntington castles! It is of
course feasible that a knight held a castle at Huntington of Adam Port's barony
of Kington. As there are five castles in the barony (a five knight's fee barony)
this is a distinct possibility, though the question must be asked as to why Adam
would have granted such a powerful castle to one of his followers rather than
hold it in his own hands, unless of course the castle had already been
destroyed!
The first certain mention of the present
ruins called Huntington castle occurs in July 1228 when King Henry III
(1216-72) ordered the castle
seized for the Crown on the death of Reginald Braose. Reginald had been
lord of
Kington where the castle had been destroyed in 1216. It can be seen
from the
subsequent history of Kington barony that although Kington was still
head of the
barony, Huntington was now the fortress of the lordship. This change of
castle
obviously occurred between August 1216 and July 1228. As Reginald
Braose was
looting oak for his building operations between 1217 and 1224 it seems
quite
obvious when the new Huntington castle was built.
Huntington castle was obviously defensible in July 1228 and was again
taken under royal control in October 1228 when its new lord, William Braose, was
captured by Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in the mountains of the commote of Ceri. The castle was again taken
over by the Crown when William, who had since his capture established friendly
relations with Llywelyn, was captured in a compromising position in Princess
Joan's bedchamber at Llywelyn's court! Apparently William had been plotting with
Llywelyn's wife to assassinate the prince and seize the principality of Wales
for himself. Although William appears to have been the first 'Norman' to
have such a plan
he was not the last! Llywelyn was allegedly warned of the plot by Earl Hubert Burgh the
leader of the English government, who had a personal grudge against the Braose
family. In his outrage Llywelyn had Braose tried by a jury of his barons where
he was found guilty of adultery with the prince's wife, and therefore treason.
William was then castrated and hung by the
neck until dead. Apparently many of the Braose family enemies came to see the
doleful end of the last Braose lord of Brecon and Huntington castle.
The death of William Braose was to bring about another war in thirty years
time, though no one would have thought it then. William left four young
daughters as heiresses. One took the lordship of Abergavenny to the Cantilupe
family; one the lordship of Brecon to the Bohun family and one the lordship of
Radnor to the Mortimers of Wigmore. A fourth daughter Isabella took the lordship
of Buellt, centred on Builth Wells castle, to Prince Dafydd (d.1246), the eldest
legitimate son and heir of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d.1240). The Mortimers, however, always felt
that they had not received their full share of the division of the Braose lands
and this was one cause of the civil war of 1263.
In the meantime the barony of Kington with Huntington castle passed to
the Bohuns as part of their share of the Braose inheritance. In 1231 and 1233-34
Prince Llywelyn invaded the lordship and did much damage, though Huntington
seems to have remained just beyond his reach. After the death of Llywelyn in
April 1240, his son Prince Dafydd invaded the lordship and in 1244 defeated the
armies of Ralph Mortimer and Humphrey Bohun in his attempt to regain the land
and castles. Although Dafydd won his battles in the Middle March, he failed to
take Huntington castle and the question of its ownership between Mortimer and
Bohun was brought to an abrupt end in 1246 by the deaths of Prince Dafydd and
Ralph Mortimer. Dafydd had no children, but Ralph was succeeded by his under-age
son, Roger, the grandson of Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth.
By February 1254 Roger Mortimer succeeded in being assigned certain
lands in Brecon barony as part of the Braose settlement, although the Bohun's
successfully stalled from giving him anything. In November 1256 war again came
to Wales when Prince Llywelyn
ap Gruffydd and his brother Dafydd invaded the Marches of Wales and annexed
them to the principality of Gwynedd. War generally favoured Prince Llywelyn in
this period and in November to December 1262 he convincingly defeated Roger
Mortimer and seized much of Radnorshire and Breconshire from the Marchers. On 3
March 1263 the Marchers counter-attacked and defeated the princes of Deheubarth
at the battle of Abergavenny. At this point the Lord
Edward, later to be Edward
I (1272-1307) and known as the Hammer of the Scots, arrived with an army
from Gascony and transferred to Roger Mortimer the castles of Brecon, Huntington
and Hay on Wye, which Mortimer claimed against the Bohuns.
Two months later Humphrey Bohun Junior, the disenfranchised lord of
Brecon, was amongst those who raised the standard of rebellion against King
Henry III and his son and heir, the Lord Edward. This was the beginning of the
Barons' War of 1263-66. In July 1264 the famous Earl Simon Montfort appeared
before the walls of Hay on Wye castle and forced its Mortimer garrison to
surrender. Huntington Castle was probably also besieged, but did not surrender
before Roger Mortimer himself was surrounded at Montgomery
Castle and forced to surrender at the end of August. The Mortimer garrison
in Huntington castle remained true to their lord's cause and despite the many
defeats suffered by Mortimer they kept the baronial army from occupying the
castle until, on 4 August 1265, Roger Mortimer commanded a third of the Marcher
army. This force under the overall command of Lord Edward, defeated and killed Earl Simon Montfort at
the battle of Evesham. Another baronial casualty, who in fact survived to fight
another day, was Lord John Ballon of Much Marcle, the direct descendant of Earl
William Fitz Osbern!
After Evesham Roger Mortimer took Hay
on Wye Castle back and used this and Huntington Castle as a base for
regaining Brecon Castle
from Prince Llywelyn, who had taken the castle in May 1263. On 15 May 1266 Roger
Mortimer's army was all but annihilated in battle just short of
Brecon. This disaster was
followed by another Civil War with Roger marching against the earl
of Gloucester who had seized London for the barons. As the royal army
approached a novel plan was put before the king. Burn London to the ground by
sending small birds with burning twigs tied to the feet over the town walls!
Thankfully more humane methods prevailed and a truce led to final peace which
included Roger Mortimer returning Huntington and Hay on Wye
castles back to the
Bohuns as part of a general peace settlement.
The young Humphrey Bohun received Huntington castle back and
immediately began planning the reconquest of Breconshire from Prince Llywelyn.
Huntington castle was undoubtedly used as a base for this operation. With this
reoccupation of Brycheiniog Huntington castle ceased to be a major fortress, but found a new lease of life
as a baronial centre for the governing of the lordship of Kington. In the 1370's
there are many documents which detail the agricultural activities which were now
operating from the castle. The old fortress was also re-mortared and re-roofed
in this period.
In 1402 Owain
Glyndwr defeated a Mortimer army at Pilleth and once more Huntington castle
was put on a war footing with the keep and other buildings re-roofed. The
castle successfully held against any Welsh attack, but the lordship and many
mills were wasted by the rebels before 1406. After this the castle was allowed
to fall into decay, although the keep was still in use in the sixteenth century
as a prison. By the English Civil War of 1642, the castle was totally ruinous
and all fighting passed it by.
Huntington castle is situated above a steep drop to the Belleau
Stream, a tributary of the Gladestry Brook. To the south is relatively level
ground on which stands Huntington church and the failed borough. Three-quarters
of a mile to the south-east of Huntington lay Turret castle on its ridge end
site. It is immediately noticeable that Turret castle occupies a ridge end site,
whilst Huntington does not. This again seems to suggest which is the older of
the two.
The entire castle earthworks at Huntington consist of a roughly parallelogram-shaped
site about 500 feet north to south by 300 feet east to west. This is then sub
divided into an inner (south) and outer (north) court. The 'motte' lies at the
south western extremity of the site. In every respect the size of this castle is
vastly superior to the cramped site of Kington castle.
The main 'earthwork' feature of the castle now appears to be the
'motte'. Its minuscule summit is approximately 25 feet above
the upper bailey interior and 45 feet above the ditch to the west. The fact that
the 'motte' rises to a pinnacle and not to a platform should at once raise
questions over the validity of its description. It is in fact most likely merely
the collapsed remnants of a large probably octagonal tower, now turfed over as
is the fate of many such once noble structures.
The primary part of Huntington castle is undoubtedly the inner bailey
which itself is internally divided into an upper and lower court. Externally it
appears to be a whole. The bailey defences, which might otherwise be described
as a ringwork, appear to have been formed by digging a deep ditch around the
site, except to the north west where the steep slope down to the Belleau Brook
precluded the need for such a feature. The steep V shaped nature of the ditch
and its position against the Belleau Brook ravine strongly indicate that the
ditch was and was always meant to be dry.
If the castle was begun as a stone structure on a virgin site around
1220 it is to be presumed that the spoil from such a ditch was used to encase
the foundations of the simultaneously rising towers and curtain of the enceinte.
Other spoil seems to have been thrown out to the south and east to form an
impressive counterscarp bank. The main entrance to the site seems to have been
towards the north end of the eastern wall of the enceinte. To the south,
commanded directly by the keep, the ditch is blocked and this probably was the
access to the inner ward postern mentioned in the fifteenth century.
The outer ward forms an irregular ellipse towards the east. The
defences do not seem to offer what is generally expected of a strongly fortified
castle outer ward. There is no real defensive rampart, but there are three
apparent 'terraces' to north and south. Presumably these would also have existed
to the east, but this area has been disrupted by the Castle Cottages and the
approach road to them. It is to be assumed that the 'terraces' would have been
graced with the hawthorn hedges planted during the late fourteenth century and
later. Indeed this entire ward may date to a period much later than the more
powerful inner ward.
Little now remains above ground of the masonry at Huntington castle,
but the original layout with the aid of fourteenth century surveys can quite
easily be suggested. What is left of the standing masonry shows quite clearly
that the original mortar bonding the stones of the castle together has not
weathered well. The same can be said of numerous other castles in the locality,
viz Richard's Castle, Hay on
Wye, Clyro, Longtown, etc, etc. At Huntington the
oft heard cry of antiquarians that the walls consisted of "well fitted
stone with minimal amount of lime mortar on the exposed surfaces and a core of
less regular stone bonded with mud" is again encountered. Other castles are
claimed to have been totally clay laid - the excuse given that lime was
difficult to find in the locality. Such claims are not well founded as the
accounts for the fourteenth century show. A modern house has to be repointed
every thirty years or so. If they are not the external mortar is washed away by the
elements and the internal mortar attacked until that too is gone - or is reduced
to a substance that might be mistaken for clay or mud. Mortar has a certain
shelf-life depending on its constitution and that found in castles is well
beyond its sell by date! The good mortar seen in the remaining fragments of the
castle undoubtedly date from the time of the excavations undertaken by Dr Logan
Jack and the Ministry of Works in 1970.
It is to be suggested here, as at Clifford castle, that a major reason
for the state of the ruins is the quarrying of the site for stone. At Clifford
in the more inaccessible parts of the site stone still remains and in the
ditches too the collapsed rubble of former structures is still piled, where it
is more difficult to reach. The same is also true of Huntington where most of
the 'easy' stone appears to have been carted off, though a lot of the remains
seem to be turfed over and buried in their own debris. The photographs of the
site in the late nineteenth century suggest that little has occurred to the site
since then except for its almost complete immersion in vegetation, particularly
bracken. Such would suggest that sheep have not been allowed on the site this
century and would account for the sudden inundation of the site.
Three features exist in remains of the enceinte of Huntington castle
which suggest mural towers though only two seem to be named in fourteenth
century surveys. All of these and two gates seem, not surprisingly, to have lain
in the more exposed eastern and southern fronts of the castle. The northern and
western sides of the inner ward were effectively screened by the steep ravine
down into the bed of the Belleau Brook. The first feature encountered moving
east from the keep is the overgrown site of the south tower. The dimensions
currently available would suggest that this was a D-shaped mural tower of an
approximate 30 to 35 feet external diameter. A modern dry stone wall now covers
the recently exposed levels of this tower.
North-west of the gateway is the most visible and best preserved, but
heavily altered, fragment of any tower at the castle. The north tower has mostly
vanished, but what remains is a fragment of its junction with the curtain wall
(shown at right). An old photograph of around 1870 and a drawing of 1847 show
this fragment still standing to a height of about twenty feet and obviously
consisting of two storeys, though there is no reason why there should have not
have been a further third one, which had not survived. The masonry in the
photograph seems to show a doorway from the first floor of the tower which would
suggest that an internal building butted up against the tower in the same manner
as one did to the south tower. The flight of steps down into the basement of the
tower can just be made out and appears as it is today, partially buried. These
steps were probably internal and the shape of the wall seems to suggest a
building, possibly projected into the curtain immediately east of the north
tower.
Some 25 feet west of the present fragment stood a second much smaller
'stack like' fragment. It is likely that this formed the other return of what
was probably another D shaped tower. That the tower was west of the surviving
fragment is suggested also by the uncovering of a buried room in this vicinity
at the turn of the century, when, according to local tradition, a cache of
fifteenth century arms was found in the chamber underneath. Apparently one iron
'flintlock' with a 1½ inch bore survived at Huntington for many years before
being presented to Hereford museum in the 1950's by Dr Logan Jack. The fate of
the rest of the cache cannot now be ascertained.
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Copyright©1994-2007
Paul Martin Remfry