Full Report for Listed Buildings


The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building and (i) any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.

Summary Description


Reference Number
7947
Building Number
 
Grade
I  
Status
Designated  
Date of Designation
19/07/1950  
Date of Amendment
 
Name of Property
Montgomery Castle  
Address
 

Location


Unitary Authority
Powys  
Community
Montgomery  
Town
Montgomery  
Locality
 
Easting
322152  
Northing
296800  
Street Side
 
Location
Situated at the top of Castle Hill, reached by footpath from car park by Old Castle Farm.  

Description


Broad Class
Defence  
Period
 

History
The castle was begun in 1223 to the order of Henry III, firstly in timber, replaced very shortly in stone. The stone curtain of the inner ward with twin-towered gatehouse with red sandstone dressings dated from 1224-33, the gatehouse of the middle ward from 1251, and the curtain of the middle ward probably from 1251-3. Around 1280 there was further strengthening of the town and castle defences following the uprising of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd and in the 1280s buildings such as the kitchen and brewhouse were erected in the Inner Ward. The centre tower of the E curtain wall of the Middle Ward was repaired probably in later C14, when the Well Tower was almost completely rebuilt. Further lodgings were added in 1530s, in the SW angle of the Inner Ward and against the W wall of the Middle Ward, when Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, held the Presidency of the Council of the Marches (1534-43). A mansion of brick and timber was built from c. 1622 on three sides of the Middle Ward for Sir Edward Herbert (later Lord Herbert of Chirbury); described as 'beautiful without and richly furnished within', built by John and Samuel Scampion, carpenters, from Great Hormead, Hertfordshire. Both the castle and the new buildings were levelled by order of Parliament in 1649, and the ruins thereafter pillaged for stone. Considerably more masonry than survives today is shown in the 1742 view by S. and N. Buck. There was a large collapse in 1800. Now in the care of the Welsh Assembly Government.  

Exterior
The scant ruins of a very large medieval castle, sited on a ridge of igneous greenstone overlooking the town, which was founded at the same time as work was begun on the castle. The castle was comprehensively slighted in 1649.  

Interior
 

Reason for designation
Included as remains of a very large masonry castle. Scheduled Ancient Monument: MG022 .  

Sources
  • Archaeologica Cambrensis, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1923, 1932, 1955, 1965 and 1968;,
  • D J K Lloyd and J K Knight, Montgomery Castle; HMSO, 1973;,
  • L. Butler and J K Knight, Dolforwyn and Montgomery Castles, Cadw, 2004;,
  • R Haslam, The Buildings of Wales: Powys, 1979, pp 168-170;,
  • A. and J. Welton, The Story of Montgomery, 2003, pp 3-13.,

Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]



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