Longtown Castle
Not too far from Wales, in fact pretty much on the border as we didn't realise we were in Wales until we were, is Longtown Castle.
Now this castle also goes by the name of Ewias Lacey Castle if you look back over its older history, but ultimately it is a Norman Motte & Bailey castle to replace the Roman fort that was close to the Roman road which ran along the border. The original fort was square and was protected by a ditch, further defences were added and the originals reinforced likely after the Welsh attack on Hereford in 1055.
The Normans then invaded in 1066 which inspired Walter de Lacy to build a fort on Pont Hendre in order to protect the river crossing. However, the Welsh then attacked and so he abadoned this and instead decided to repurpose the Roman Fort by using the remaining earthworks to build his defence. This early form is what was called Ewias Lacey, named after the wider lordship and Ewias meant sheep district. At this point the castle was built of timber and a smidge of stone, but as a motte and bailey castle. Unfortunately, the de Lacy's lost their land when they conspired against William II but Gilbert de Lacy managed to regain them in 1148. It was Gilbert who then ordered for the castle to be rebuilt in stone and he also brought about the nearby town in order to finance the rebuild.
The ownership of the castle was still within the de Lacy family, but reverted back to William when his son, Gilbert died. Walter then died in 1234 and so the castle went on to be controlled by John Fitzgeoffrey while the Welsh princes and the English Lords built a dangerous tension and promised conflict between England and Wales. When this was smoothed over a little, Longtown came back to the de Lacy family and was included in the inheritance of Margaret de Lacy who was Gilbert's daughter. She went on to marry John de Verdun of Alton and they struggled with the lack of law in the area along with the Welsh revolts that plagued the border until the end of the century.
Their son, Theobald de Verdun, 1st Baron Verdun, then lost the castle to the king, Edward I. When he died, his estates were then given to his son, also Theobald, but the 2nd Baron Verdun, and this included Longton Castle. He then died in 1316 with no surviving male heir, so the castle passed to his second daughter Elizabeth which in turn was controlled by her husband Bartholomew Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh. They continued to use it as a fortification and orders were even given in 1317 to garrison it with 30 men.
By 1369 Longtown had massively declined in importance and by then had passed down to the Despensers and after that the Beauchamps. Neither used the castle and so it had begun to fall apart. That was until Henry IV stepped in and refortified it in response to the Owain Glyndwr uprising of 1403. However it seemed that this was in vein as it continued to decline even as the Nevilles acquired the site in the 15th century. It got worse as after the plague the towns population had fallen so much that trading had ceased and as a result the north face of the castle was abandoned. It was then left to fully fall to ruin although some suspect that the castle actually played a part during the Civil War. Cannonballs from the period have been found at the site and local tradition states that the castle was slighted although it isn't mentioned what side of the war Longtown was on!
The lords of Abergavenny continued to control the site right up until the 1970s and the town grew until it was basically on top of the castle which is why it is happily tucked away at the base of peoples gardens. It is interesting to note that there was once a gallows on the site and grizzly executions took place at Longtown Castle although that was a long time ago. Due to this we reckon the site is most probably haunted as it seems a lot of gruesome deaths took place here. As for when we visited the site was undergoing some maintenance so we couldn't get too close but it was fun to look at!
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