Longtown Castle, Herefordshire - Anglophile Friday

 Longtown Castle

'Marches': The border area between England and Wales.

From castlewales.com

"The English border counties are full of some of the finest motte and bailey castles still in existence in Britain. The castles were the property of Norman lords who built the strongholds in an effort to maintain control over the unruly Welsh*. One of these is Longtown Castle, a fascinating Marcher castle. Even though this motte and bailey fortification sits about 6 miles to the north-west of the very Welsh border castle at Grosmont, it is actually located in England. This juxtaposition of Welsh and English castles shows just how mixed up the Welsh Marches have been since the Norman Conquest. Town names and dialects also reflect the transitional nature of the Marches."

*No relation to Eileen or Samantha, my good blogging friends, I am sure.

Above: The route we took from Hereford, where we met our guide who accompanied (and directed us) along the route from Hereford Cathedral to Hay-on-Wye. You'll notice that half way between the A438 (green) and the narrow country road between Ewyas Harold and Hay-on-Wye (red) lies the Golden Valley.  Longtown is circled in red. 


From Ewyas Harold to Hay-on-Wye, we were not an an A or B road, and at times were on more of a path that I would never have let Kevin wander off onto if we had been alone. It was wonderful that we had someone, a knowledgeable native of the area, who was willing to show us where to go and how to get there!




Again, from castlewales.com:

"Nestled close to the foreboding Black Mountains, along the backroads of Herefordshire, Longtown Castle has survived the centuries with dignity. However, your initial view of the castle may be confusing, as well as intriguing. The minor road into the tiny medieval town actually cuts through the outer baileys of the site, a surprising effect when you realize you have just driven through the castle grounds! Slightly camouflaged behind a line of trees, the motte suddenly springs into view, looming high above your head. It is an exhilarating but equally threatening vision, one that certainly must have intimidated anyone contemplating an assault in the Middle Ages.

"Longtown Castle was built in the 1180's by the Norman lord, Walter de Lacy, inside a rectangular earthen enclosure that may date to the Roman occupation of Britain. Fortified during the 12th century, the rectangular enclosure was bisected by another earthen wall, forming the two outer baileys of the castle which sat side-by-side to the south of the motte. In addition, a twin-towered gatehouse, protected with a portcullis, was added to the new outer curtain which enclosed the rectangular area. The gatehouse still exists, though extensively ruined." 



If you check that map again, you'll see that between Longtown and Hay-on-Way is Craswall, where we ate Sunday dinner - at the Bull's Head. Fantastic!

Let's meet there for Sunday dinner!

The Golden Valley
(with sheep)

 As cute as they can be!
Their bleat has a definite Welsh inflection.

***


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Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

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Hay-on-Wye, Sedbergh, Book Towns

It was a cold, bleak, and windy day in Hay-on-Wye

View Larger Map 
I don't know if you can see the border between England and Wales on the map, but Hay-in-Wye lies just inside the Welsh border in the county of Powys (rhymes with Lois), Wales. Hay-on-Wye is world famous for its many bookstores. A person could spend days there and not exhaust its great supply of books. It seems that everyplace is a bookstore, including even the castle??

It was mid-March, so the bookstore was not stocked.

Photo Credit: Ian Haskins
The photo above must have been taken in high season. Look at the books! 
A castle AND a bookstore? What could be better! 

Photo Credit: VisitBritain.com
Trust between the Welsh and English has evidently improved since the 14th c.

In Sedbergh, Cumbria - another Book Town

From www.sedbergh.org.uk:

What is a Book Town?

Well, it's a town, usually small and usually rural, which has brought together a number of bookshops and other businesses based on writing, reading, publishing and so on. In practice many of the shops will concentrate on selling second-hand books. There are thousands of book enthusiasts whose great joy is to find an out-of-print volume to add to their collections; for them a Book Town is a treasure chest just waiting to be opened. Book Towns have spread around the world from the first one, which was founded by Hay-on-Wye bookdealer Richard Booth in 1961. There are now over twenty towns throughout the World describing themselves as Book Towns or Book Villages. 

The Sedbergh booktown project was started after the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in order to encourage an increase in the number of visitors, whose enjoyment of the beautiful countryside around Sedbergh supports the functioning of vital town centre amenities. The company, Sedbergh Book Town, was set up in 2003 to develop a community of businesses involved in selling, writing, publishing and designing books and other publications. Sedbergh started with an excellent base to build upon as a Booktown, with a printer's finisher (book maker), writers and several book selling businesses already based in the town. Since then more bookshops have opened and, in May 2006, Sedbergh was officially recognised as England's Booktown when it was elected into the International Organisation of Book Towns. There are now three official Booktowns in the United Kingdom, Hay-on-Wye (where it all started) in Wales, Wigtown in Scotland and Sedbergh in England. 

And to think that when we were in Hawes, North Yorkshire, we were only 15 measly miles from Sedbergh and didn't even know about it. Oh well, there's always next time?

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