Penhow Castle c. 1350
Penhow castle as is may have appeared in c.1350 from the east. Illustration: Daniel Secker
By the fourteenth century, the castle had undergone a transformation. Any palisade which might have existed was replaced by a stone curtain wall, probably in the early thirteenth century. Interestingly, between 1235 and 1241, Gilbert Earl Marshal, the lord of Chepstow and and Wiiliam Seymour of Penhow joined forces to deprive Morgan ap Hywel, ex-lord of Caerleon of his manor of Undy, adjacent to Penhow (Wrathmell 1990, 19). Was the curtain wall at Penhow financed by the appropriation of Undy and was its purpose to protect William against retribution? The early years of the fourteenth century saw the construction of a masonry gatehouse and drawbridge abutment. It was also at this time that the keep took on its present form, the corbelled parapet dating from this time. The excavations also suggested that the present seventeenth century house in the north-western corner of the inner ward incorporated vestiges of a medieval building and that there was a walled outer ward with a building set against its western wall (Wrathmell 1990)
References
Wrathmell, S. 1990, 'Penhow Castle, Gwent: Survey and excavation 1976-9', The Monmouthsire Antiquary 6, 17-45
By the fourteenth century, the castle had undergone a transformation. Any palisade which might have existed was replaced by a stone curtain wall, probably in the early thirteenth century. Interestingly, between 1235 and 1241, Gilbert Earl Marshal, the lord of Chepstow and and Wiiliam Seymour of Penhow joined forces to deprive Morgan ap Hywel, ex-lord of Caerleon of his manor of Undy, adjacent to Penhow (Wrathmell 1990, 19). Was the curtain wall at Penhow financed by the appropriation of Undy and was its purpose to protect William against retribution? The early years of the fourteenth century saw the construction of a masonry gatehouse and drawbridge abutment. It was also at this time that the keep took on its present form, the corbelled parapet dating from this time. The excavations also suggested that the present seventeenth century house in the north-western corner of the inner ward incorporated vestiges of a medieval building and that there was a walled outer ward with a building set against its western wall (Wrathmell 1990)
References
Wrathmell, S. 1990, 'Penhow Castle, Gwent: Survey and excavation 1976-9', The Monmouthsire Antiquary 6, 17-45