Hay Tump was a medieval castle, built around 1100 by the Normans during their invasion of Wales. Only earthworks now survive.
The Normans began to make incursions into South Wales from the late-1060s onwards, pushing westwards from their bases in recently occupied England. Their advance was marked by the construction of castles and the creation of regional lordships. The Norman adventurer Bernard de Neufmarché conquered Brecknock in 1091 and assigned the manor of Hay to one of his followers, Philip Walwyn. The first castle in Hay was built around 1100, alongside St Mary’s church outside the main settlement. It took the form of a ringwork motte, protected by a surrounding ditch.
The English lordship of Hay, known as Hay Anglicana, became a wealthy walled town and the lands passed by marriage to Miles of Gloucester and then into the de Braose family. In the late 11th or early 12th century, a new fortification was built inside Hay-on-Wye itself, on high ground around 200 metres (660 ft) from the old motte, taking the form of an earth ringwork with a stone gate-tower. This appears to have replaced Hay Tump, which was then abandoned. During the Second World War, an observation tower was built on the west side of the motte, of which only the concrete foundations now survive.
The earthworks today are 21 m (69 ft) across and 4.5 m (15 ft) high; the ditch survives on the western side. No traces of a bailey survive. The remains are protected under UK law as a Scheduled Monument.
Bibliography
- Carpenter, David (2004). The Struggle for Mastery: The Penguin History of Britain 1066–1284. London, UK: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-014824-4.
- Higham, Robert; Barker, Philip (2004). Timber Castles. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-753-2.
- King, D.J. Cathcart (1961). “The Castles of Breconshire”. Brycheiniog. 7: 71–94.
- Prior, Stuart (2006). A Few Well-Positioned Castles: The Norman Art of War. Stroud, UK: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-3651-7.
Attribution
The text of this page was adapted from “Hay Castle” on the English language website Wikipedia, as the version dated 28 October 2018, and accordingly the text of this page is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Principal editors have included Hchc2009 and Sturmvogel 66, and the contributions of all editors can be found on the history tab of the Wikipedia article.
Photographs on this page are drawn from the Wikimedia website, as of 28 October 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Mound of Motte and Bailey Castle, Hay-on-Wye “, author Pauline Eccles, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.