- Examination of an
- 'Earthwork' at Winforton
Over two days, 19-20 October
1991, Peter Halliwell, Roger Stirling-Brown, David Spoors and myself excavated
two trial trenches on an enigmatic earthwork at Mount Close, Winforton
(SO.302.463). The site had been visited by the Woolhope Archaeological Research
Section on 17 March 1991 when a preliminary sketch plan was made. The object of
the investigations was to ascertain what, if anything, lay below the earthworks.
At the southern end of the site was what was thought to have been a
semi-circular bank, initially construed to have been half of a damaged ringwork.
Leading away to the north of this was an earthen bank which had a circular
earthwork, or 'ring' towards its northern extremity, immediately before what is
probably a modern pond. From this pond an east-west running drainage ditch may
have marked the northern extremity of the site. The depression that marks the
western side of the earthwork may be either a defensive ditch, an old river
channel of the 'isle of Winforton', or a more modern drainage ditch.
The history of the site, as far
as it is known, is quite illuminating, and armed with this information it is
possible to conjecture what this structure was. In Domesday, Ralph Tosny of
Clifford castle, held Willersley and Winforton and had one Welshman holding one
hide in the later vill. It is possible, as the hermitage was dedicated to a
Welsh saint, that the Welshman holding one hide at Winforton was in fact a
hermit, or the leader of a Welsh 'Clas' here. At some time, probably in the
early twelfth century, the Tosnys sub-infeudated the Muscegros family with their
holding in Winforton. Consequently in 1265 it was stated that Walter Muscegros
had held Monnington on Wye and Winforton from Roger Tosny by the service of one
knight. Of the Muscegros family we can trace much of their early history. One
Roger Muscegros witnessed a charter of the Tosnys as early as c.1080 and soon
afterwards he appeared in Domesday holding two manors in Wolphy Hundred, Upton
and Laysters, of the king. By 1143, Miles Muscegros may have held Winforton of
the Tosnys, when Miles was sheriff of Herefordshire. He is followed in the
remaining records by his son Walter whose mother was one Petronilla. This Walter
married Evet (Jveta) and was succeeded by another Miles who married
Margery Blenknidon and was succeeded by their son Walter who died childless in
1265.
The history of the thirteenth
century hermitage itself is difficult to unravel, not so much due to lack of
evidence, but lack of reliable dating. As has been said above, the original
religious site at Winforton may have been a Welsh 'Clas'. In the very early
thirteenth century (before 1221, when Walter Clifford died), Walter, a Canon
Regular of Wormsley priory, 'betook himself to a hermetical life in a little
island in the River Wye within the manor' of Winforton. There he built a chapel
and dedicated it to St Kenedred. Blount in the seventeenth century
mentions that the foundation stones of this chapel had lately been grubbed up,
and only a Yew tree remained to mark their position, which, except in times of
flood, could scarcely be termed insular. This is undoubtedly the rectangular
crop mark at SO.295.456, where the shattered remains of the yew tree still
stands, the only tree in the vicinity. If this is the site of the chapel, which
seems almost certain, then what are the earthworks at Mount Close? This would
suggest that the site at Mount Close is therefore the hermitage and not the
chapel of St Cynidr. Indeed this view is confirmed by the surviving charters to
the foundation.
Sometime, probably after the
death of Walter the hermit from Wormsley, Walter the son of Walter Clifford
(1173-1221) and Agnes Cundy his wife (living 1208-16+) granted to St Cynidr and
Friar Stephen of the hermitage in the Isle of Winforton, nine acres of land in
his manor of Middlewood, whereon ½ acre lay on the upper part of the chapel of
St Oswald (Tuswell) and one half towards Galweye, and the remainder
towards Lythe, and also common pasture in Middlewood, with lands in
Winforton, and a tenement by St Oswald's Chapel and the lands of Rhys ap Philip.
Probably after the death of Walter Clifford (dead by February 1221) in the
period 1221 to 1234 when Hugh Folliot was bishop of Hereford (1219-34), Walter
Muscegros, the son of Miles and Petronilla Muscegros, with the consent of his
wife Evet and his son Miles gave to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary and the
Blessed Cynidr and to the servants of God in the chapel of St Cynidr in the Isle
of Winforton, the land of Brother's Acre (Brotheracre), two acres in his
wood next to the land of The Stowe (Steuma) called Exmo, two and a
half acres next to Brotheracres, 1½ next to those which Philip Raxley
held, all of his moor of Linacre (Lynacres) as far as Assarhem Eynan,
another acre under The Stowe, the site of the mill with its appurtenances on the
River Wye in the lordship of Winforton, with the grist of the village, the moor
that belonged to Aluuredus Knav, some pasture for three cows and a palfrey in
the lordship of Winforton, and 'all the croft next the chapel which adjoins the
land of the church of Winforton upon Wye'. This was given for the performing of
divine service in the chapel. The Clifford grant was augmented, probably earlier
rather than later in the period 1230 to 1264, by Robert Whitney, lord of
Whitney, who granted to Friar Walter the hermit in the Isle upon Wye, all the
land with the wood standing on it which lay between the land of 'Domini
Eustachii de Stowe' and the wood of Lord Walter Muscegros, to be held by the
said Walter (the hermit) and his successors for ever. Although it is not certain
which Walter Muscegros is meant, the inference must be that it is the older
Walter, who was married to Evet as this grant complements that of the elder
Walter's. Therefore both grants would appear to date to the period 1230 to 1234.
This grant of Robert's may have been a confirmation, or expansion of an earlier
one dated to the wide period 1230 to 1300 whereby Robert Whitney, gave to St
Cynidr and Friar Stephen, and his successors in the hermitage, nine acres of
land in the old 'Hay, which lay near the land of his brother Eustace 'parson of
Pencombe' and the wood of the lord of Winforton, and the Lord Llywelyn ap
Llywelyn ab Einion. This grant was afterwards confirmed by Sir Eustace Whitney,
Robert's successor. When the grandson of Walter Muscegros, Walter (d.1265), the
son of Miles Muscegros and Margery Blenknidon, held Winforton he confirmed the
grant of his grandfather Walter to the hermitage and chapel of St Cynidr; and to
Stephen the hermit there he also gave an increase of his land between the said
chapel and the Wye (cum tota vina Haya), with all the quick hedge which
by his consent Friar Stephen had planted about the said hermitage. He also
ordained that it would not be lawful for anyone to take anything out of the
enclosure that he had hedged.
Walter Muscegros took the
Baronial side in the wars of the early 1260's and was one of the custodians who
defended Hereford from the attacks of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore (1246-82) on
10-11 November 1264. This undoubtedly led to the loss of Winforton to the
family. Walter, the son of Miles Muscegros, in a lost charter seen by Blount and
Silas Taylor, is said to have granted lands in Winforton to Alexander the son of
Roger Monnington (Monyton, allegedly a name used by the Lestrange
family). This land was granted to Alexander subject to homage and service owed
him, and for twenty shillings, with leave to give it or sell it to whom he would
except for clerics or Jews. Interestingly he was also given licence to brew
alcohol in his own boiler or kettle whenever he should be able. It would seem
that Alexander's elder brother John took advantage to convert this grant into
firm occupation during the disturbances. When Walter Muscegros died before 2
December 1265 an inquest was held on his estates. This found that his heirs to
the manor of Blechesdon in Gloucestershire were Walter Blakeneye and John
Dudmerton. It also found that Walter Muscegros, the grandfather of the deceased
Walter had nine daughters. The son of the eldest(?) daughter, Petronilla, was
Walter Huntly knight; Margery Mabauncku/Maubanc, was another daughter, now dead,
who had three daughters, Lucy, Alice and Jueta; the other children of Walter
were Juliana, Agnes, Alice, Joan, Matilda, Elizabeth and Amable/Mable. All these
are now jointly the next heirs to Lessendon and Bulleye in
Gloucestershire. In Herefordshire, Ryttyr manor was held in chief by
service of finding three footmen for the king's army for fifteen days at
Walter's own cost. Monnington on Wye (Moniton) and Winforton (Wynfreton)
vills were held of Roger Tosny by the service of one knight, while Bodenham (Bodeham)
and a mill there was held of the honour of Brecon and another of William
Furches. The heirs to all this were the same as for Lessendon and Bulleye,
but the king has no seisin in these lands because John Lestrange the younger
(the nephew of Alexander?) holds the lands by force, and does not permit anyone
to have seisin in the king's name. It was probably around this time that John
Lestrange (probably the elder), calling himself lord of Monnington (Monyton)
and Winforton, granted the hermitage of Winforton (Wynfreton), with the
consent of Stephen the Hermit to Wormesley priory (the church of St Leonard), in
return for them celebrating divine service for the souls of Walter Muscegros (d.
before 2 December 1264) and his own. Sometime later, before Matilda's death in
1284, John the son of John Lestrange with Friar Stephen quitclaimed a field held
of the lady Matilda Longspey. This grant was probably made after 1262 when
Matilda was a widow and in charge of the barony of Clifford. In 1270 she was
abducted by John Giffard, and later married him. It was in this period 1271 to
1284, before she died in October 1284, that she, and her husband, John Giffard
(died 1299), confirmed to the prior and convent of Wormsley the grants made to
Friar Stephen by Walter Clifford, Matilda's father. Probably around the same
time, and certainly before 1283, a grant was made to the chapel of St Cynidr on
the island of Winforton (capellanus de Insula de Wilfreton), where the
chaplain was brother Stephen.
The loss of Winforton to the
Muscegros family, however, was not initially accepted and in the winter of
1281-82 the heirs of Walter Muscegros (d.1265), viz Walter Huntly, Petronilla,
Agnes, Matilda, Alice, Joanna and Anabella Muscegros jointly claimed their
hereditary rights by the edict of Kenilworth (1266) in Walter's lands of
Winforton (Wulferton), Keythur and Bodenham (Bodehan) which
King Henry III was said to have given to John Lestrange. They obviously lost
their claim for in the Quo Warranto proceedings of 1291-92 the claim was again
restated, but this time against the new holders who had apparently acquired the
lands from John Lestrange. Thus in 1292 at Tretire, Walter Huntly, Nicholas
Monmouth, Walter Maryns, Thomas Pappeworth, John Dundewell, Juliana the daughter
of Geoffrey Malebrauntes and Anabella Muscegros claimed, as the heirs of Walter
Muscegros, the manors of Ryther against John Tregoz, the lord of Ewias
Harold, and Winforton against Roger Mortimer (of Chirk). John and Roger came to
answer the claim against them. John claimed he held the manor in right of his
wife Mabel and was therefore not answerable. Roger Mortimer claimed that it was
his mother Matilda who held Winforton and similarly he was not answerable to the
plea against him. Consequently once more the claim failed and, on the death of
Matilda Mortimer, the manor passed to her son Roger Mortimer of Chirk (d.1326).
In 1304 he was granted free warren for Winforton (and Hampton Wafer and
Bredwardine), and in 1318 a fair and market there. This suggests that prior to
the black death there was quite an economy at the village, no doubt servicing
the hermitage. At some time during his life, when he was at Chirk, Roger, as
lord of Winforton, 'for the welfare of his soul, considering the priors whereby
they might pass and re-pass into the ground belonging to the hermitage, gave and
ordained a competent and sufficient way for all their use necessary at all times
of the year, ad carros & carrettas servientibus & ad animalia
frapaganda through the north gate. The said way was to be ten feet in
breadth directly to Holowe medewe to the passage (ford?) of Middlewood, a
Heremite way to remayne there for the future'. This 'Heremite' has been
suggested as the narrow lane which still leads towards the hermitage from the
village. However it may be the current path which runs from the site of the
hermitage - the mound thought to be the 'ringwork' is the 'north gate'? - past
the chapel and to the suggested ford over the Wye at SO.287.456. The only
problem with such a scenario is that the 'north gate' is at the south end of the
'hermitage' site.
The Excavation
The first excavation was
made
roughly E-W through the raised northern 'ring' on its western side.
This feature consisted of a circular embankment about 1' high and
approximately 30' in diameter. The cut made was 20' long and 3' wide
and stretched from the centre of the ring to a small lip some 2' down
the side of the scarp to the ditch/old river channel. At a depth
of six inches a considerable amount of rubble was encountered at the
external
lip of the ring. Removing this fall revealed what may have been a
facing of a
rubble filled wall. Three courses of clay-laid (or mortar that had lost
all of
its lime) masonry was found. Eight feet east of this was found a
similar
(slightly less convincing) face. Both faces had a slight curve and
would appear
to be best interpreted as the remains of a round tower. Such a tower
would
therefore have had foundations 8' thick, and an internal diameter of
approximately 25'. Where the bank running from the 'half ringwork'
feature
joins this 'tower' a small tump is present in the ground. This would
appear to
be the best place for a second trench to see if this covers anything,
such as a
stair turret. As time was pressing it was decided to put another trench
through
the 'half ringwork' feature at the southern end of the site. At a depth
of two
to three inches much rubble fall was discovered. However time precluded
its
removal to see if a wall face underlay it as at the other cut.
The preliminary excavation
produced the following results. The 'ring' towards the NW corner of the site was
probably a (defensive??) round tower set in a curtain wall, the bank along the
ridge marking the site of this. The 'half ringwork' to the south appears to have
been a stone building of irregular, or perhaps rectangular shape, and probably
is the same as the rectangular building shown on the 1778 Estate Map at 'Mount
Close'. An examination of the Chapel Mead Site at SO.275463 showed a rectangular
yellow crop mark that is almost certainly the chapel of St Cynidr in the 'Isle
of Winforton'. Consequently with the limited knowledge available from the trial
excavation it would appear to make the site at Mount Close a masonry hermitage
site, distinct from the chapel linked to the site by the path to the west.
Paul
Remfry
29 January 1995
Copyright©1994-2004
Paul Martin Remfry