19128

 

II  

Designated  

10/12/1997  

10/12/1997  

Remains of old castle at Dale Castle and forecourt walls  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Dale  

Haverfordwest  

Dale  

180483  

205820  

 

Situated just SW of present house at Dale Castle, backing onto forecourt, and including forecourt walls to S, W and N.  

Defence  

 

Remains of a medieval castle or tower house, with C18 or earlier C19 forecourt walls to Dale Castle. The castle belonged to the de Vale family from c1131 to about 1300 and then to ancestors of the Tudor dynasty. It appears in a view of c1810 as a small rectangular battlemented tower, and in a view of 1857 with an added hipped-roofed range running W. A view in the 1880s shows this range as 3-storey and the castle still complete. About 1910 when the adjacent main house was remodelled for Rhodri Lloyd-Philipps the old castle seems to have been reduced in height and both this and the W range unroofed with the back walls removed, the remainder to become part of the forecourt walls of the mansion. The forecourt walls with gateway do not appear in the c1810 view but do in an 1857 view.  

Castle remains and forecourt walls. Rubble stone heavily clad in creeper. Former castle appears to consist of a complete basement storey and truncated ground floor with N wall removed to make floor-level continuous with forecourt. Battlements of c1910. Basement has W door with stone voussoirs and small window to right. E ground floor wall has tall Tudor-arched doorway with large blank window to each side, all with stone voussoirs, probably early C19. From castle a rubble stone battlemented wall runs W, partly the front wall of the hipped roofed buiding seen in C19 views, demolished c1910. Wall then returns N and then W again with lean-to outbuildings below to S. At SW corner, a battlemented square turret, then wall runs N to enclose Castle forecourt with large rubble gateway. Square piers with impost bands, broad stone-voussoir elliptical archway and battlements on projecting flat course, and taller corner square battlemented turrets. Wall continues N, then returns lower to E along S side of stable yard with shallow curved projection into forecourt with plain early C20 Tudor-arched entry.  

Basement of old castle has large plastered curved stone vault. 3 recesses in S wall with cambered heads. Stone corbelled vaulting within apparently for chimneys in centre and right openings. Small window in centre.  

Prominent grouping of structures close to Dale Castle.