As I don't have any new gossip to report, I thought it would be nice to share an article I found in the May/June issue of British Archaeology magazine.
A community archaeology project took place around Longtown Castle - or more accurately, both Longtown Castles - in the summers of 2016 and 2017, in a project run by Herefordshire Archaeology. More than 130 volunteers worked on those digs.
I knew about the stone keep on top of a motte, with bailey earthworks - it's pretty obvious when you visit Longtown - but I didn't know that there was another motte at Ponthendre, only about half a mile distant. The project was set up to find out more about the relationship between the two castles.
They discovered that the motte at Ponthendre had not been finished, and had never been occupied. Longtown Castle itself, however, had been built in the remains of a Roman auxiliary fort. Previously it had been thought that there was no Roman presence in Longtown.
The ramparts were larger than would have been expected for a Roman fort, though, and the conclusion was that the ramparts had been made stronger by Harold Godwinson's army when they invaded Wales. Prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn had sacked Hereford in 1055, and this was a retaliatory invasion. The defences at Hereford were also strengthened.
It is thought that the motte at Ponthendre was built by Walter de Lacy, who was granted the lordship of Longtown after the Norman Conquest of England, to defend the border against the Welsh. As the motte at Ponthendre was never finished, it is thought that de Lacy preferred to use the castle that became his main stronghold, at Longtown, as his headquarters in the area, and it was around this castle that the de Lacys laid out burgage plots to encourage the growth of their "Longe Town of Ewyas Lacy".
There is a new book out from Logaston Press detailing the excavations and the findings. It is The March of Ewyas: the Story of Longtown Castle & the de Lacy Dynasty, by Martin Cook and Neil Kidd.
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