Penhow Castle, Gwent, c.1200
Penhow castle as it may have appeared in c.1200 from the east. Illustration: Daniel Secker
Penhow Castle was the seat of the St Maur or Seymour family, distant ancestors of Henry VIII's wife Jane Seymour. The castle occupies a potentially strategic point overlooking the Roman road from Chepstow to Caerleon. There were frequent hostilities between the lords of Chepstow, or Striguil and the Welsh lords of Caerleon in the twelfth century (Wrathmell 1990, 17-18. The castle is still inhabited and was subject to a standing building survey and small-scale excavation between 1976 and 1979 (ibid).
The inner ward of the castle was a ringwork defined by a still surviving rock-cut ditch. The earliest masonry feature is the small keep. Survey showed that in its original form, the keep had a first floor entrance and a pitched roof (ibid, 25-8). There were presumably other timber buildings surrounded by a palisade, but the form of these is guesswork
Reference
Wrathmell, S. 1990, 'Penhow Castle, Gwent: survey and excavation 1976-9', The Monmouthshire Antiquary 6, 17-45
Penhow Castle was the seat of the St Maur or Seymour family, distant ancestors of Henry VIII's wife Jane Seymour. The castle occupies a potentially strategic point overlooking the Roman road from Chepstow to Caerleon. There were frequent hostilities between the lords of Chepstow, or Striguil and the Welsh lords of Caerleon in the twelfth century (Wrathmell 1990, 17-18. The castle is still inhabited and was subject to a standing building survey and small-scale excavation between 1976 and 1979 (ibid).
The inner ward of the castle was a ringwork defined by a still surviving rock-cut ditch. The earliest masonry feature is the small keep. Survey showed that in its original form, the keep had a first floor entrance and a pitched roof (ibid, 25-8). There were presumably other timber buildings surrounded by a palisade, but the form of these is guesswork
Reference
Wrathmell, S. 1990, 'Penhow Castle, Gwent: survey and excavation 1976-9', The Monmouthshire Antiquary 6, 17-45