Historical Background

A 19th century view of the church of St Clodock at Clodock,  the parish church of Longtown and Clodock (courtesy of Hereford City Library).

On 29^th August 1070 the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury was consecrated.  The reluctant Lanfranc – he had to be directly ordered by the Pope to take the position - confessed himself baffled by the saints revered by his new English charges – many of whom he had never previously heard of and some of whom seemed to be of dubious sanctity.  If this was the case with the English diocese, it was even more so with the Welsh ones.

Clydog, according to the legend, was a gifted young man, possessed of piety and blessed with good looks.  As such, he attracted the attention of a certain young lady.  Another young man, spurned by the girl, thereupon stabbed Clydog in a fit of jealousy.

Lanfranc might well have considered that a young man killed in a brawl over a girl did not meet the usual Roman standard for martyrdoms.  But Clydog had not been canonised by Rome; he was a saint within the traditions of the British Church.  And the British church could claim continuity with the Christian church which had held sway in south-east Wales for generations before St Augustine of Canterbury was born.

And so the martyr, Clydog, became a revered saint in the area known as Ewyas, and the place of his death became Merthir Clitauc, from the Welsh for martyr – merthyr or merthir. This was the church of the Martyrdom of Clodawg and is now the church of St Clodock in the village of Clodock.

Clodock Church in April 2004

The Clydog story has obvious mythic elements and it is likely that the word merthir -martyrdom - is a misinterpretation of the Latin martyrium - a type of Christian burial place.  This interpretation may have given rise to stories explaining the name of the place, as it did elsewhere - Merthyr Maches and Merthyr Tewdrig (Matharn, Monmouthshire).

A possibility is that Clodock was a proprietary church.  The founding of churches by local magnates and landowners was commonplace from the time of the late Roman Empire onwards.  These churches could sometimes become 'dedicated' to their founders.  Sometimes an early priest may give the eponym.  At Lann Guorboe (Eaton Bishop, Herefordshire) the first priest was Guoroue - hence Lann Guorboe. Clydog then, may indeed have been a king of Ewyas as legend suggests.  Later oral tradition may well have elaborated the original facts.

The church built at Clodock, and dedicated to the eponymous saint, was already renowned when the brothers Libiau and Gwrfan, together with their sister-son Cynfwr, settled there and became the area’s first farmers and are recorded as builders of an improved church.  For the support of this church, Pennbargaut, King of Glamorgan granted them land on both sides of the Monnow.

Early medieval Ewyas (Longtown did not exist in this period)

Clodock and Longtown form the core of the early medieval Welsh commote of Ewyas.

A commote, or more properly commot, according to the OED, is a territorial and administrative division usually subordinate to a cantref or cantred and is the Anglicisation of the Welsh cymwd/kymwt.  In modern Welsh cwmmwd is neighbourhood or locality.  A cantref, literally a hundred towns or villages (cant = 100 + tref = town), was a sub-division of a larger unit, a kingdom.  The status of Ewyas seems to be that of a commote not forming part of a cantref, but the origins of this arrangement are unclear.

The northern boundary of the commote was marked by Cusop Hill (SO255 405) and its south-eastern one by the River Monnow.  To the south-west the Grwyne Fawr valley formed its boundary and the lower reaches of the River Dore seem to have marked its easternmost extent.  The name Ewyas, a purely Welsh name, may mean sheep district.  Within the parish of Clodock, the place-name Pont Hendre (Upper, Middle and Lower) refers to the bridge - pont - by the hendre.  Hendre, is originally hendref literally the old (hen) hamlet or township (tref), but used as a single word means 'a winter dwelling'.  The inference from hendre is that there is a corresponding hafod - 'a summer dwelling'.  The flocks would be taken out to the hills in summer and returned in winter in the classic transhumance pattern still practised in some alpine regions but which had begun to decline in Wales in the 16^th century.  

To the south-west of Ewyas was the main part of the kingdom of Glywysing/Gwent. The name Glywysing was the normal term used for the greater part of south-east Wales until the 11^th century, Gwent was its eastern part.  The term Morgannwg or Gwld Morgan – Morgan’s land – derives from Morgan Hen in the 9^th century.

To the east was the area known as Ergyng, which the English would call Archenfield.  The earliest records of Ergyng refer to its kings but this dynasty was later merged with that of Gwent.

Early medieval southern Britain (after John Davies - based on William Rees, 1959)

The West Saxons, had penetrated into the area around the mouth of the Severn following their Victory against the British at the battle of Dyrham in 577 and their subsequent capture of the old Roman city of Glevum (Gloucester).

In about 620 or 39 Tewdrig defeated the West Saxons at The Battle of Pont y Saeson (the Bridge of the Saxons) in the lower Wye valley.   This stopped their advance and South Wales was never again to be seriously threatened by the English peoples.

During the subsequent respite from major foreign incursions the native British society continued as normal.  It was essentially rural (no towns would exist in Wales for centuries) and possessed an influential Christian Church.  In Ewyas, north of the present site of Longtown, a religious centre was founded at Llanveynoe, where what is probably the oldest stone cross in the modern county of Herefordshire stands.  A grant here has been dated to around 600 AD (Davies, 1979).

At Clodock, the storey in the Book of Llandaff tells, the brothers Lybiau and Gwrfan lived a life of piety and celibacy, but their nephew Cynfwr had four sons which led to the partition of the estate into five parts.  Lybiau, Gwrfan and Cynfwr are recorded in the book of Llandaff as the first occupiers and farmers at Clodock. 

Whatever obscure event this story refers to, there is evidence of  an early medieval settlement at Clodock in the form of a memorial found beneath the church, dated to the 9^th century and inscribed ‘to the dear wife of Guinddo, a resident of this place.’

The boundaries of Merthir Clitauc in the 8^th century.  Based on Wedell, 1998.  Llanveynoe was perhaps a 6^th or early 7^th century religious site (see above) and Llanthony may also have been early - it was alleged to be founded on an old chapel of St David.

The estates of the church at Clodock seem to have been confirmed or re-established in the early 8^th century when King Ithel of Gwent/Glywysing granted ‘Merthir Clitauc’ to the church of Ergyng/Llandaff.  The western boundary of Merthir Clitauc, as defined in the Book of Llandaff, ran along Hatterall Ridge, now the border between England and Wales.  From Hatterall Ridge the boundary ran east to the River Olchon, meeting it at a point west of Longtown, from whence it ran south, downstream.  At some point this boundary crossed the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Olchon and the Monnow, and so included an area called Ynys Alarun, before crossing the Monnow and running up Mynydd Merddin.  The boundary so defined appears to exclude the area to the north-west of Ynys Alarun which is now occupied by Longtown.

In 722 the British won a victory over the English at Pencon, an unknown site but which may have been in Ergyng.  The victor would have probably been Ithel ap Morgan who had made the grant at Clodock, and the temporary result would have been the security of Ergyng.  However, the initiative passed to the Mercians by 743 when Cuthred of Wessex joined the Mercian king, Æthelbald, in laying waste the border lands.  In 745 Ithel had regained control of Ergyng and returned 11 churches there to Bishop Berthwyn after the Saxon devastation. 

In 757 Offa became king of Mercia and after a battle at Hereford in 760, seems to have established a truce with Glywysing/Gwent.  Ithel had died some time shortly after 745 and the British (or by now perhaps Welsh) would have been led by one or more of his sons – Ffernfael, Rhodri, Rhys and Meurig.  There is no record of the terms of this truce but direct evidence for grants of land in Ergyng by kings of Glywysing ceases in the time of Ffernfael ap Ithel who died in 775 (Noble, 1983).  Increasingly under pressure from Mercia and the Mercian sub-kingdom (that of the Magonsaetan) based in northern Herefordshire, Ergyng seems to have been forced into direct political subservience to its powerful neighbour possibly from this time, and by the end of the 9^th century at the latest.  Although it maintained its own British laws and customs for centuries, it became more and more part of the Mercian and finally Saxo-Danish kingdoms.  This development brought the English power to the eastern border of Ewyas.

By the early 10^th century there was also a threat from the south.  In 914 Danes raiding up the Severn Estuary captured Bishop Cyfeilliog of Ergyng.  The seriousness of the Danish threat often brought the English and Welsh into alliance, and it was the English who ransomed the bishop.

It was not only from the east and south that Ewyas was to be threatened.  In 904 Llywarch ap Hyfaidd died and his kingdom of Dyfed was taken over by his brother-in-law Hywel ap Cadel ap Rhodri (Rhodri Mawr's grandson), king of Seisyllwg, better known to history as Hywel Dda - Hywel the Good.  Hywel also took over Brycheiniog, on Ewyas’s north-western border, and the combined territory became the kingdom of Deheubarth.  In 942 Deheubarth was united with Powys and Gwynedd, and Hywel was master of all Wales except for Morgannwg (Glamorgan).  As was the case with that of his grandfather, Rhodri, Hywel Dda's unified kingdom of Powys, Gwynedd and Deheubarth did not survive for long, splitting up again into its original component parts.  The only time Wales was to be united under one monarch was during the reign of Gruffydd ap Llewellyn (see below).

In the mid 10^th century there were seven cantrefs in Glamorgan.  These are listed in the Book of Llandaff.  The sixth was Gwent-iscoed and the seventh, ‘Gwent-uchcoed, and Ystrdyw and Ewyas’.  At this time Deheubarth moved to annexe Ewyas and Ystradyw.  Both Welsh kingdoms recognised the English king Edgar, as suzerain, and it was to him that they turned for arbitration.  The result was that Glamorgan/Gwent retained the commote of Ewyas for the time being and resisted what was may have been a threat to its independence.

In 1039 Gruffydd ap Llewellyn killed Iago ap Idwal and gained possession of Gwynedd and Powys.  In that year he defeated Leofric, earl of Mercia at Rhyd-y-groes, near Welshpool.  It may have been in response to the growing power of Gruffydd that, with domination of Ergyng, or Ircingafeld (Archenfield) in English, complete, moves were made to expand the English territory.  In about 1046 Osbern Pentecost, a Norman follower of Edward the Confessor, built a castle within Ewyas, at the place now known as Ewyas Harold.  This castle, together with one at Richards Castle, appears to be the first built in Britain.  The Ewyas castle was a portent.  Short-lived as the first castle proved to be, it was nonetheless the castle of a Norman lord on Welsh territory, and as such deserves its place in history.

The re-instatement to favour of Earl Godwine and his sons led to the expulsion of the Norman party and Osbern and a companion, Hugh, surrendered their castles and fled for shelter with King Macbeth of the Scots, who received them kindly.  The castle at Ewyas was probably dismantled at this time.

For the English worse was to follow.  In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llewellyn, gained possession of Deheubarth and led a Welsh army towards Hereford.  With him was Aelfgar, the outlawed Earl of East Anglia, with a force of eighteen ships companies of Vikings from Ireland.  Ralph led his force of Normans and English to meet them.  In the battle that followed Ralph was decisively beaten and the Welsh, with their Viking allies entered and burnt the town of Hereford.  The cathedral was plundered and seven priests killed, and of Gruffydd, the Brut y Tywysogyon records – ‘and thereupon with vast spoil and booty he returned to his land happily victorious.’

The combined militias of England were put under the command of Harold Godwinson who forced the Welsh back into the Black Mountains, west of Hereford, while he camped somewhere beneath, building a military burh beyond the Dore.  The stalemate was utilised by Harold to rebuild the defences of the town of Hereford. 

In 1056 the new Bishop of Hereford, Leofgar, who had been Earl Harold's chaplain, led an army into Wales.  He and many of the Hereford gentry were killed at a battle at Glasbury.  Some sort of negotiated peace followed in which parishes, which had been lost by Llandaff to Hereford with the English expansion, were returned.

Repulsed, but not defeated, by the English, Gruffydd seized Glamorgan, expelling its ruler, Cadwgan ap Meurig, and for the first time Wales was unified under a single king.  The unity died with Gruffydd.  On 5^th August 1063 Gruffydd was murdered in Snowdonia and his unified kingdom disintegrated.  Gruffydd's half brothers, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon became rulers of Gwynnedd and Powys, and Maredudd ap Owain became king of Deheubarth.  Caradog ap Gruffydd ap Rhydderch seized Gwent and Gwynllŵg, leaving the rest of Glamorgan under the rule of the reinstated Cadwgan ap Meurig.

The Norman Conquest of England radically changed the balance of power on the border.  William fitz Osbern become Earl of Hereford, and was granted wide powers.  He built castles at Chepstow, Monmouth, Clifford and Wigmore.  In 1073 the Normans ravaged Ceredigion and Dyfed, moving into areas that the English had never penetrated.  By 1086, the ancient Welsh kingdom of Gwent, with its origins in Roman Britain and the civitates of the Silures at Caerwent, had ceased to exist. 

The new reality is demonstrated by a death-bad grant of 100 acres, made to the church by Caradog ap Rhiwallon in about 1075, in which he remembered his many sins, including the murder of his brother Cynan.  This is made with the guarantee of Roger, Earl of Hereford and lord of Gwent, son of William fitz Osbern - 'comitis heηordie & domini guenti Rogerii filii Willelmi filii Osberni.'

In the castlery of Ewyas Earl William (fitz Osbern) gave 4 carucates of waste land to Walter de Lacy.  Walter was the younger brother of Ilbert de Lacy, who founded the Honour of Pontefract in Yorkshire (Wightman, 1966) and was himself a member of fitz Osbern’s household.  He held this land, which included what is now Longtown, of the earl.  Walter’s other holdings included land elsewhere in Herefordshire including Weobley.  The various Lacy family holdings have given the suffix to villages throughout Herefordshire – Holme Lacy, Stoke Lacy, Mansell Lacy.  William fitz Osbern died in 1072 and in 1074 his heir, Roger of Breteuil inherited the earldom. 

In 1074 Roger of Breteuil, rebelled.  Walter de Lacy, together with Urse d’Abitot, Sheriff of Worcester and the Saxon clerics Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester and Æthelwig, Abbot of Evesham, raised an army against Roger and prevented him crossing the Severn.  In 1075 Roger forfeited his lands for revolt; Walter became a tenant-in-chief of the crown.  Walter was killed in an accident in 1085 and his lands passed to his son Roger de Lacy, who is recorded as holding them in the Domesday Book.  In Domesday, Roger’s total Herefordshire holdings amount to 14 demesne and 50 tenants’ manors.  To the south of Clodock the village of Walterstone, may have been named after Walter de Lacy.

Domesday records that Alfred of Marlborough held the castle of Ewyas of the king.  This was presumably the re-built Pentecost Castle.  On Roger's holding at what became Longtown (within the boundary of Ewyas - 'in fine Ewias') were 4 Welshmen who pay two sesters of honey.  They had 1 plough and 3 slaves.

In 1088 Roger de Lacy rebelled against William II.  His father’s old ally Bishop Wulfstan, stopped him, in turn, from crossing the Severn.  He made peace with the king that time but rebelled again and was finally banished in 1096 and his brother Hugh (Hugh I de Lacy) took over his estates.

To the west of Hatterall Ridge is the Vale of Ewyas, the valley of Afon Honddu (the river Honddu).  It was here that William, a soldier and kinsman of Hugh’s, is recorded as chancing across a ruined chapel.  The religious experience inspired by the site – allegedly where St David once lived as a hermit – led to him deciding to become a hermit himself.  Ernisius, a former chaplain to Henry I’s queen, Matilda, joined him.  Here was founded the Augustinian Abbey of Llanthony.  The de jure extent of Hugh’s lands are reflected in the endowment of the abbey with lands in the Honddu valley, as well as in Walterstone, Llancillo and Rowlstone.

Hugh died some time between 1115 and 1120 and many of his lands passed into the hands of his son-in-law Payn fitz John.  In about 1135 Gilbert de Lacy, probably the son of the banished Roger, arrived in England and began the process which by 1157-1158 would gain him most of the lands which had been held by the family at the time of Hugh’s death.

Gilbert became a Templar in about 1160 and left England to fight in the Holy Land, having passed his estates to his son Robert.  Robert appears to have died around 1162 and the de Lacy estates passed to his brother, the second Hugh de Lacy, a major figure in his time.  After participating in Henry II’s invasion of Ireland, Hugh was granted Dublin and the kingdom of Meath - Irish lands endowed Llanthony.

The Normans in Ewyas

On 25^th July 1186 Hugh II de Lacy was decapitated by Gilla-gan-inathair O’Mee, an Irishman of his household, as Hugh was showing him how to use a pick in the moat of Durrow Castle.

One cannot avoid the conclusion that the de Lacys were unfortunate in their involvement with construction work.  In 1085 the death of Walter I de Lacy had been caused by falling from St Peter’s Church in Hereford while it was building.  It should perhaps be added that some versions have O’Mee concealing an axe beneath his cloak. 

Until Hugh’s lands were returned to his son Walter in 1189, the de Lacy lands in Herefordshire were administered on behalf of the crown.  During this period money was spent on the castles of ‘Euvias, Novi Castelli et Wibelay.’.

What this implies has been the subject of some dispute.  Euvias and Wibely presumably refer to Ewyas Lacy and Weobley castles - but what is the Novi Castelli - the new castle?  The most common interpretation is that the motte and bailey castle at Pont Hendre is the original castle at Ewyas Lacy and therefore that is the Euvias referred to.  Longtown, by this reasoning would be the new castle.  Peter Ellis (1997) disputes this, arguing that a demonstrably long developmental sequence at Longtown castle must imply a fairly early post-conquest date for its motte.  It is difficult to see how this debate can be resolved.

The possibility that the original rectangular earthwork at Longtown Castle is the burh that Harold Godwinson built west of the Dore has often been considered.  This presents a problem with the suggested sequence of movement of the de Lacys from Walterstone, first to Pont Hendre and then to Longtown.  To build at Pont Hendre when there was a substantial earthwork a short distance away which could be held against you would be a little strange.  However, there is no other earthwork west of the Dore which could be Harold's and the suspicion that the original rectangular enclosure at Longtown is this fort must be strong.

Walter II de Lacy founded a Grandmontine priory at Craswall, near the source of the Monnow high on the Black Mountains.  Charters granted to Craswell the ninth sheaf from Walter’s English and Welsh manors and 600 acres in the ‘New Forest’ – an area running from the Monnow west across the mountains as far as Talgarth.  Walter’s wife founded a nunnery at Aconbury.

Walter had been outlawed and his lands taken into the hands of the crown in 1194.  Reconciliation led to their return in 1198, but another split occurred in 1210.  In 1213 his lands were returned again, and the ten-year period which followed may coincide with much of his activity in the Marches.

In 1201 Llewellyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Gwynedd (Llewellyn I), swore an oath of allegiance to King John of England.   Llewyllyn was John's son-in-law, having married his illegitimate daughter, Joan, but dynastic marriages did not necessarily prevent conflict.  Provoked by royal and Marcher expansionism, Llewellyn rebelled in 1212 and attacked Marcher lordships, seizing Shrewsbury in 1215.  The Welsh land laws were specifically recognised in Magna Carta that year in which the three legal systems were identified - English law, the Welsh law - that of Pura Wallia, and the law of the Marches - Marchia Wallie.

Llewellyn's campaigns gained him further territory and a number of castles, including Carmarthen and Cardigan, and he threatened Brecon.  In 1218 the Treaty of Worcester confirmed him as being pre-eminent in Wales, but the troubles were not brought to an end.  The Anglo-French, particularly William the Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, and the Justiciar Hubert de Burgh, brought Llewellyn under increased military pressure.  At the Battle of Ceri in 1228, Llewellyn gained total victory over de Burgh, and in 1231 he burned the towns of Baldwin's Castle, Radnor, Hay, and Brecon, 'and he destroyed the castles to the ground.' 

The Brut records that at Ceri the wounded William de Broase the Younger was taken prisoner.  The Welsh, as Giraldus Cambrenis records, were a hospitable people, but when in 1230 William was found in Llewellyn's chamber with 'King John's daughter, the princes wife' he had transgressed the bounds of permissible behaviour.  He was hanged.  Llewellyn remained a danger to his enemies in Wales and the March until his death in April 1240. 

In 1255 another Llewellyn, Llewellyn ap Gruffydd (Llewellyn II), defeated and imprisoned his two brothers and became sole ruler of Gwynedd.  Within two years he had gained effective control of Meirionnydd, Builth and Gwrtheyrnion and by 1258 he had been accepted as overlord by Powys, Deheubarth and Glamorgan.  Simon de Montfort's rebellion indirectly aided Llewellyn and in that year, Simon, in the name of the crown, recognised him as Prince of Wales at Pipton near Glasbury.  Glasbury's position was significant, lying on the north-western border of Ewyas.  For the first time in nearly 200 years the Kingdom of England recognised as legitimate a Welsh political entity with its borders within sight of Ewyas.  Longtown was then very much a border site.

The end of the century saw Edward I's campaigns in Wales culminating in the death of Llewellyn in battle on 11^th December 1282.  In English eyes Wales had ceased to exist as a nation and would not have a recognised political organisation for over 700 years.

The castle at Longtown, together with those at Hay, Monmouth, St Briavels and Abergavenny were centres of royal operations against Llewellyn I in 1233, and it was visited by Henry III in September of that year.  Walter II de Lacy was by this time heavily in debt and in 1235 John fitz Geoffrey acquired Ewyas Lacy.  Walter died in 1238.

The de Lacys were responsible for the construction of castles at Weobley and Ludlow.  Both castles were associated with early boroughs.  Ludlow appears to be a new plantation but Weobley was already a settlement and the street plans of the two boroughs illustrate the difference.

Weobley became a fairly prosperous borough with its own Jewish community in the late 12^th century and with specialist trades by the 13^th and 14^th centuries.  Ludlow was even more successful becoming a very prosperous borough by the mid 13^th century when perhaps a third of its population were recent immigrants.  Its wealth largely derived from wool and its population is estimated to have varied between 750 and 2000 between 1200 and 1500AD.

The name Ewyas Lacy is first recorded in 1219 but the date of the founding of a borough at what was to become known as Longtown is unknown.  It may have been during the 12^th century, for the earliest reference to a Nova Villa is in 1232; but an early 13^th century or even a late 11^th century date cannot be excluded.  In 1287 a grant by Felicia, daughter of Kenewrik Vaughan of land in the fee of Mordicston, described this land as adjoining the high road to le Neuton at Ewyas Lacy.  Another 13^th century deed refers to property in the fee of Neutone in the lordship of the prior of Llanthony Prima in the fee of Ewyas Lacy.

Medieval boroughs in what is now Herefordshire

It is more than likely that the first burghers at the new borough were immigrants to the area.  An early foundation would tend to make it likely that these would be French, perhaps encouraged by the granting to the borough of the laws of Breteuil.  These laws, based, as the name suggests, on those of Earl William fitz Osbern’s borough of Breteuil in Normandy, were introduced to the town of Hereford by him.  They can be shown to have been enjoyed by the boroughs of Bideford, Lichfield, Ludlow, Preston and Shrewsbury.  In Herefordshire although only what is possibly the last borough founded, Pembridge, can be demonstrated to have possessed them, Frank Noble suggests that as the Lacy borough of Ludlow possessed them, then it is likely that Weobley did also.  By extension – if any Lacy boroughs possessed these laws it seems reasonable to suppose that they all did, and that therefore the third local Lacy borough, the new town at Ewyas, did also.

Ewyas Lacy was one of the few border boroughs which possessed fairs before Edward I's conquest of Wales in the late 13^th century.  Others were at Ewyas Harold, Dorstone, Clifford and Kington (O'Donnell, 1971).

There were apparently 100 burgages at Longtown in 1310 (Beresford and Finberg, 1973).  This represents a respectably sized borough, by 1300 Carmarthen, a major town, had 281 burgesses, while the new Edwardian foundations at Conwy and Caernarfon had 112 and 70 respectively (Davies, 1994).

On the 7^th June 1307 Edward I died at Burgh by Sands.  He was succeeded by Edward of Carnarfon, Edward II.

The years 1314 to 1318 saw a series of bad harvests.  In 1315 in particular heavy rains ruined the harvest throughout Europe.  The Anglo-French were having other troubles, mainly of their own making.

In 1314 at Bannockburn Edward II's army defeated by Robert Bruce included a large number of archers from Wales and the Marches.  After Bannockburn, the Scots raided south in 1314 and 1315.  In May 1316, Anglo-French troubles in Ireland were compounded when Robert’s brother Edward Bruce was crowned King of Ireland, and in April 1316, having wasted large parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, achieved a major strategic objective by the capture of Berwick.

In 1316, Llewellyn Bren rebelled in Glamorgan.  This rebellion only lasted a few weeks but was indicative of the mood of at least some of the Welsh.

In summer 1321 the Lords Ordainers forced Edward to banish the Despensers.  The Ordainers suffered a serious reverse when Edward defeated Lancaster, Hereford and Clifford at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16^th March 1322.  The Ordinances were repealed and the Despensers returned and were granted almost the whole of South Wales.  Lancaster was tried and executed at Pontefract.  Present at the trial was Edmund fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel.

In April 1322 Arundel was commissioned to raise 200 men in Ewyas Lacy and Ewyas Harold.  These were to be at Newcastle-upon-Tyne by the octaves of Holy Trinity (13^th June).  In July a mandate was issued to John Wrothe ‘keeper of the land of Ewyaslacy’ to levy a hundred footmen from that land and lead them to the king.  These troops were certainly needed – the truce with the Scots had expired and they raided as far south as Preston.

In 1324 the people of Ewyas petitioned that Richard Wroth, his daughter Alice, and John Wroth had committed murder and theft and received and maintained thieves and felons and supported Roger Mortimer, the king's enemy and rebel.  In 1326 a commission of Oyer and Terminer was issued in response to a petition by the people of Ewyas that Richard Wroth and John Wroth, king’s bailiffs, had committed malpractice ‘under colour of their office.’ 

On 24^th September 1326, Edward’s estranged wife Isabella landed in England with Roger Mortimer, by this time her lover.  The rebels quickly disposed of the loyalist forces and the Despensers were executed after summary trials – Hugh the Elder at Bristol on 27^th October and Hugh the Younger at Hereford on 24^th November.  Arundel was taken by John Chandos and executed without trial on 17^th November.

In 1309 an Inquisition on Theobald de Verdon, had recorded that the castle of Ewyas Lacy, like that of Weobley, was held of the king in chief for one knight's service.  However in 1316 another inquisition recorded that it was held in chief for ‘services unknown’ while Weobley was held for 2½ knight's services.

Roger Mortimer, presumably no longer openly referred to as a rebel by the people of Ewyas, was created Earl of March in 1328.  The bishops so disliked by Edward, Adam Orlton of Hereford and Henry Burghersh of Lincoln were high in favour with the new regime.  Burghersh’s brother, Bartholomew Burghersh the Elder, had married Elizabeth one of the three co-heiresses of Theobald, Lord Verdon.  He thus gained her part of Verdon's estate, which included Ewyas Lacy castle.  In October 1327, Burghersh was granted the castle of Ewyas Lacy in Wales and the manor of Hethe, county Oxford, during the minority of the heir of Theobald de Verdon, deceased, tenant in chief.  In 1331 licence was given to Bartholomew Burghersh to enfeoff his brother Henry Burghersh of the castle of Ewyas and a moiety of the priory of Llanthony Prima.

In 1359 Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, was pardoned for ‘contempt to the king done by him’ in sending John de Boa out of Ewyas to Roger's castle at Radnor.  De Boa was charged with assenting to the breaking of the Earl's prison at Ewyas Lacy in Wales - whereby many felons escaped.  Roger explained that he had no castle in Ewyas where he could keep prisoners safely and could only hold them at his castles in his lordships of Radnor and Builth.  He was therefore licensed to hold prisoners from the lordship of Ewyas at either of those places until they could be delivered up according to the law and custom of those parts.

In 1365 Bartholemew de Burghersh was granted a licence to enfeoff Walter Pavely, ‘chivaler’, John de Gildesburg, Thomas Hungerford and William de Wyndesore of the castle and one moiety of the lordship and land of Ewyas in Wales and three manors elsewhere.

The last major Welsh rebellion was that of Owain Glyn Dŵr who raised his standard at Glyndyfrdwy, on the Dee between Corwen and Llangollen, on 16^th September 1400.  The rebellion may have been given momentum by the perceived weakness of England following Henry IV's usurpation of the throne in late September 1399.  Welsh labourers left their employment in England and Welsh students in the universities returned to join him, as the revolt grew stronger.  In August 1402 Owain marched through Gwent and Glamorgan.

On the afternoon of the 3^rd September 1403, Richard Kingston, the sometime Dean of Windsor and archdeacon of Hereford, writing at Hereford 'in very great haste' reported that a Welsh force had entered the County.

The Welsh were far from united behind Glyn Dŵr.  In Brecon, Morgan ap Dafydd Fychan forfeited his three burgages for rebellion but other local men, including Thomas ap David and Dafydd Gam, who was to die in the royal service at Agincourt, supported the king  (Davies, 2000).

Nearby, Ewyas was presumably similarly divided.  On the 13^th September, at the supplication of the king's kinswoman Joan de Beauchamp, Lady of Abergavenny, a pardon was granted to Gruffydd ap Henry of Ewyas Lacy - 'who lately rose against the king in the company of Owyn Glyndourdy and other Welsh rebels'.  Joan's intercession was rewarded with a grant for life of all Gruffydd ap Henry's lands - forfeited for rebellion.

The sparing of the rebels' lives was the standard pattern.  On the 5^th October local loyalist leaders including Richard Kingston, William Beauchamp and John Bodenham were given full powers to take the surrender of any rebel from a swathe of territory including Ewyas, into the king's peace - saving to the king the forfeiture of their lands and goods.  There were Welshmen among these loyalist leaders - John ap William and John Scudamore.  Scudamore was a member of the rising Welsh gentry and was deputy steward of Ewyas and constable of Clifford (Davies, 1995).

During the Spring and Summer of 1404 there were Welsh attacks on Abergavenny, Archenfield and Herefordshire.  In August 1405 a French expeditionary force of some 2,600 men landed at Milford Haven and the Franco-Welsh army roamed across South Wales and Herefordshire (Davies, 1995).  Permission was granted to some of the fearful inhabitants of the area to make the best they could of the situation, English officials and Marcher lords did so.  The abbot of Dore Abbey was given licence to 'treat with the Welsh rebels for the greater safety of the abbey which is situated near them and is in great peril of destruction and burning' (Davies, 1995).

The English began to attrite the Welsh position.  In March 1406 they won a battle at Grosmont and in May, one near Usk (Davies, 1995).  In December 1406 John Bodenham, Sheriff of Hereford, was granted 20 marks per annum from the issues of a moiety of the lordship of Ewyas Lacy during the minority of Edmund, son of Roger, late earl of March.  This was in recognition of his expenses during the war and particularly those incurred by the relief of the castle and town of Brecon.

When Henry V succeeded to the English throne in March 1415 he wanted an end to the Welsh problem.  Henry offered Owain a pardon but no answer was ever received.  Glyn Dŵr's death is not recorded nor is his burying place, but it is considered a strong possibility that he died at the house of his daughter, Alys Scudamore, at Monnington in the Golden Valley, not far from the boundaries of Ewyas.

Longtown thereafter enjoyed less dramatic times.  In 1664 there were 179 houses in the parish of which 97 were exempt from paying hearth tax (Faraday, 1972).  Its earlier local importance may be reflected in the fact that it was still holding a fair in 1830 (O'Donnell, 1971). 

The tithe records that fields 1422 and 1424 were meadow.  These, together with 1414 and 1429 (pasture), 1416 and 1419 (arable) and 1418 (homestead, later the Greyhound) were charity land in the occupation of John Rogers.

In the 20^th century field 1422 and field 1424 were both referred to as Greyhound Meadow (Wedell, 1999).  No field names are recorded on the tithe apportionment in 1840.  Only 7% of fields are named on the tithe, an extremely low percentage, and it has been suggested that this resulted from English speakers being unable to write Welsh names (ibid.).  However the adjacent parish of Walterstone has 76% of its fields named in the tithe and in Walterstone some church services were still being conducted in Welsh in 1830 (ibid.).  Generally it seems likely that English was the dominant language by this time - the ap Roberts had become Proberts and the ap Rhyses, Preeces.

In 1852 the last Welsh administrative vestige was removed when the Parishes of Clodock with Longtown, Michaelchurch Escley, Craswell, St Margarets, Ewyas Harold, Rowlstone, Llancillo, Walterstone, Dulas and Llanveynoe were transferred from the diocese of St Davids to that of Hereford.  To the west of Hatterall Ridge, the other old parishes of Ewyas – Llanthony, Cwmyoy and Oldcastle - were transferred from St David's to the diocese of Llandaff.  Another anomaly was removed at this time, the parish of Fwddag in Cwmyoy was not only transferred from St Davids to Llandaff but also from Herefordshire to Monmouthshire, and thereby from England to Wales.  In 1921 the Welsh parishes became part of the new Bishopric of Monmouth. 

Archaeological Background

The Ewyas area has considerable evidence of prehistoric activity.  Three kilometres west of Longtown, on top of the Black Mountains, there is a cairn and a stone circle.  There is also a round barrow at Craswell and two cist burials in the Olchon Valley (Children and Nash)

Somewhat surprisingly, considering that for many years Longtown was considered likely to be the Blestium of the Antonine Itinerary, there is an absence of Roman material from the village.  In fact the survey carried out in 1996 by the then Hereford and Worcester County Council Archaeology Department reported that no pre-Norman evidence had been found within the modern parish of Longtown itself.  Blestium has since been demonstrated to be Monmouth.

The origins of the earthworks which form Longtown castle have been variously interpreted.  Roman remains are alleged to have been found in the north-eastern bailey in the 19^th century and have been used to suggest a Roman military origin for the castle site. (This was recorded in Kelly’s Directories for many years.)

Recent work has failed to find evidence suggesting Roman occupation and such an origin seems now to have little to recommend it.  Suggestions that these earthworks have a pre-historic origin have also been made.  The form of the earthworks has long been recognised as unusual, but to date no convincing evidence has emerged to date them.  The interpretation that Longtown castle originated as the fort constructed by Earl Harold Godwinson in his campaign against the Welsh in 1055-56, although lacking much in the way of archaeological evidence, at least provides an earthwork to match a known historical construction. 

The interim position should be that there is a record of a burh of Harold’s west of the Dore.  This, unless it is at Longtown, has never been found.  But if it is Longtown then what is the relationship between Longtown and Pont Hendre castles?

Recent work by English Heritage has tended to support the mid 11th century date for the construction of the original earthwork at Longtown Castle.

The structural development of the castle was one of the aspects of Longtown reported on by the then City of Hereford Archaeology Unit in 1991.  The castle consists of an almost square earthwork aligned north-east to south-west.  The north-eastern half of this area forms one bailey, while the south-western half is bisected into two baileys – an outer to the south-east, and an inner.  A motte stands at the western corner of the castle and is approached through the inner bailey.

The motte is surmounted by a circular stone keep.  Although there is 12^th century masonry in this structure, it appears to have been re-used.  The date of the keep may be early 13^th century, but an earlier date – perhaps late 12^th, cannot be discounted, and indeed is the date preferred by  Peter Ellis.

Running north-west from the north-eastern castle bank is another fragmentary earthwork which has been interpreted either as a fourth bailey of the castle (Morriss and Williams, 1991) or as town defences (Buteaux, 1996).

To the south-east of the castle another defended area has been almost obliterated leaving just a few traces of earthworks.  Within this area are Longtown’s medieval market place and its church.

The church of St Peter at Longtown appears to be originally of a 13^th century date, but like the castle, incorporates re-used 12^th century masonry.  There is no burial ground and it functioned as a chapel-at-ease to the parish church at Clodock.  Considering its proximity, another function may have been as a chapel to the castle.

Clodock is clearly a much older settlement, its church being associated with ancient grants and having a 9th century tombstone on the site.

The chapel at Urishay Castle is late 11^th or early 12^th century – all other surviving Herefordshire castle chapels are of a 13^th century or later date, usually incorporated within the main range of buildings.  The church at Kilpeck is situated just outside the castle (Shoesmith, 1987).  The church at Longtown was converted for secular use in 1983.  Investigations at that time indicated that the archaeological deposits had been destroyed in the 19^th century (Shoesmith 1983).

Archaeological Features and Projects in Longtown

1. The keep
2. The County Primary School
3. Central Kitchens - Stone 
4. Green Cottage
5. St Peters Church
6. Watching brief
7. Feature found by geophysical survey
8. Anomalies found by geophysical survey -  and visible parch marks
9. Earthworks recorded by Herefordshire Archaeology
10.  Ridge and furrow

The Greyhound site is in an area assumed to have been medieval settlement extending along both sides of the road south-east from the core of Longtown with its castle.  Immediately to the north-west, the core of a house which was the old Greyhound Inn is a 16^th century timber-framed cottage to which a larger stone 17^th century house has been added (RCHM).  The Greyhound is the oldest domestic building in Longtown (Morriss, 1996).

It has been suggested that the linear settlement, consisting of a series of house platforms, lying outside any defences must date from a time when defences were no longer considered necessary - i.e. the 14^th century or later (Remfry, 1997).  However, in balance, the 100 burgages recorded at Longtown in 1310  would with difficulty have fitted within the restricted area within the defences.

In 1984 a geophysical survey of large areas of Longtown produced mixed results, possibly due to the thin soil overlying natural sandstone.  An east-west feature was found north of the castle and anomalies found in land east of the castle.  Features had been observed in this latter area in the dry weather of 1979.

Archaeological excavations in Longtown have included excavation within the castle proper in 1978 (Ellis, 1997) and several projects within the presumed borough area.

Observation of works for a new school recorded buried medieval remains within the area of what has been identified as the northern enclosure at Longtown.  In 1997 an evaluation took place within this area, that is north of the castle and east of the road, and found a thick layer of stone debris lying 0.25 m below the surface.  Below this a sondage cut through undated occupation layers indicating significant archaeology.  Also in 1997, archaeological monitoring at the south-eastern end of the bank of the northern enclosure bank, while identifying the bank itself, found no dating evidence for it.

There is evidence of ridge and furrow lying towards the Monnow at the south-eastern end of the village.

Longtown Castle 'showing that part fallen' in March 1804

The archaeological sites of Longtown and Clodock can be viewed on Historic Herefordshire On Line.

Longtown was examined by the Central Marches Historic Towns Survey (1992-6)The report is available to download from the Archaeological Data Service website.

Longtown is on the edge of the Black Mountains and has its own mountain rescue team.

Visit the Longtown history website.