Ruardean Castle was a 14th-century castle, built above the village of the same name in Gloucestershire. It may have been fortified since before Norman times, but the probable Norman castle on the site was extended and refortified in 1310. The rectangular, stone castle was probably in use until the early 17th century, when it was abandoned and fell into ruin. Only fragments of its stonework survive today.
History
Ruardean may have been fortified by the Welsh before the Norman conquest of England in 1066 – its name may come from the Welsh words “rhiw” and “dyn”, meaning a fortified hill. The village formed the highest point in the area, and the site of the castle overlooked a tributary to the Wye River, leading down to a strategic ford leading into Wales. The Normans may also have constructed a small castle there following the invasion – there was certainly a manor house there by the 13th century.
By the start of the 14th century, the manor of Ruardean was owned by the Averal family, who also owned lands at Bicknor. These manors all had access to valuable iron ore, making the Averals wealthy. In 1310, Alexander de Bicknor, a royal clerk, acquired a license to crenellate – royal permission to fortify his manor house at Ruardean.
The resulting castle overlooked the the village and the local church, and was reached by a sunken pathway, lined with red, compacted iron slag. The approach passed through a raised earthwork area, which may have been the remains of a former fortification, an outer enclosure or a garden.
The castle was entered through a gatehouse, leading into a square courtyard, surrounded by a curtain wall, approximately 27 m across. The curtain wall contained the main house, as well as an internal courtyard on the western side. The courtyard was abutted by a tower with an oriel window overlooking the surrounding estate, which may have included a deer park. The castle was built of rubble faced with ashlar stone, some quarried locally, some brought in from the Cotswolds, possibly to create a decorative effect.
The castle was probably used until the start of the 17th century – by 1608 it appears to have been abandoned. The buildings were slowly robbed of their stone, and the site used for dumping rubbish – by 1831 it had been destroyed, and only parts of the tower and an adjacent wall now survive. Treasure-hunters carried some digging at the castle in the 1930s, but the site is now protected under UK law as a Scheduled Monument. A brief archaeological investigation took place in 2018.
Bibliography
- Baggs, A. P. and A. R. J. Jurica (1996). “Ruardean”, in Currie, C. R. J. and N. M. Herbert, A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5, Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, the Forest of Dean. Victoria County History: London, UK, pp. 231-247.
- Small, F. and C. Stoertz. (eds) (2006) The Forest of Dean Mapping Project, Gloucestershire: A Report for the National Mapping Programme. English Heritage: Swindon, UK.
- Townley, Elizabeth Linda. (2004). The Medieval Landscape and Economy of the Forest of Dean. PhD thesis. University of Bristol: Bristol, UK.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page are drawn from the Geograph website, as of 31 March 2020, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Site of Manor House“, author Pauline E, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.