Hen Gwrt Moated Site facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hen Gwrt Moated Site |
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The moat and site
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| Type | Site |
| Location | Llantilio Crossenny, Monmouthshire |
| Governing body | CADW |
| Official name: Hen Gwrt Moated Site, Llantilio Crossenny | |
| Designated | 1941 |
| Reference no. | 94890 |
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Hen Gwrt (which means "Old Court" in English) is a special historical site in Llantilio Crossenny, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was once home to a large house built in the 1200s and later a hunting lodge from the 1500s. This site is surrounded by a moat, which is a deep, wide ditch, usually filled with water, that protected the buildings.
The first house here was built for the Bishops of Llandaff. Later, it was owned by the powerful Herbert family from Raglan Castle. The bishops built a big manor house (a large country house) in the 1200s. The moat was added around the 1300s. The Herberts then changed the building into a lodge for their hunting trips. This lodge was used until Raglan Castle was damaged during the English Civil War in the 1600s.
Some old stories from Monmouthshire say that Hen Gwrt was the home of Dafydd Gam. He was a famous knight who fought against Owain Glyndŵr and supported King Henry V. However, there is no real proof that he ever lived at Hen Gwrt.
When people looked at the site in the early 1800s, they found parts of the old buildings. But by the 1900s, all the stone from the site had been taken away. It was used to build roads! Today, you can't see any parts of the old manor or hunting lodge. The moated site is now looked after by Cadw, which is the Welsh government's historical environment service.
History of Hen Gwrt
In the Middle Ages, the land in Llantilio Crossenny was split. Some belonged to the King, and some belonged to the Bishops of Llandaff. The bishops managed their land from Hen Gwrt. This is why the nearby parish church is so big and grand. It was built to serve the bishops. The bishops' first manor house was probably made of wood.
By the time King Henry VI was ruling, the manor was rented to William ap Thomas. He had bought Raglan Castle in 1432 and started making it much bigger. William, or maybe his son William Herbert, created a huge deer park around Llantilio Crossenny. This park was about 250 hectares, which is very large! A map from 1610 by John Speed shows this deer park around Hen Gwrt. When the Herbert family owned Hen Gwrt in the 1500s, they rebuilt the old wooden manor house. They turned it into a stone hunting lodge.
William Herbert was the grandson of Dafydd Gam. This family link might be why people believed for so long that Hen Gwrt was Dafydd Gam's home. Historians like William Coxe and Sir Joseph Bradney repeated this story. Sir Joseph Bradney wrote that Dafydd Gam's "seat was the castle called Hengwrt (Old Court), of which only the moat remains." The church in Llantilio Crossenny even has stained glass windows with the symbols of Gam and Herbert. But still, there are no old documents that truly connect Dafydd Gam to the Hen Gwrt site.
In 1646, near the end of the First English Civil War, Raglan Castle was taken over by Parliament's army. This happened after a three-month siege. The castle was then "slighted," meaning it was partly destroyed so it couldn't be used for war again. When Raglan Castle was destroyed, Hen Gwrt also stopped being used as a hunting lodge. It was completely ruined after that.
In 1941, Sir Henry Mather Jackson, whose family had bought the site in 1873, gave Hen Gwrt to the government. It was officially named a scheduled monument that year. This means it's a very important historical site that needs to be protected. Today, Cadw takes care of it.
What Hen Gwrt Looks Like
The site of Hen Gwrt is like an island. It's shaped like a rectangle and measures about 39 meters by 45 meters. This island is completely surrounded by a moat. The whole site, including the moat, is about 72.5 meters by 76 meters. There's a modern bridge that lets you cross the moat to the island. A piece of wood from the original bridge is still there!
The land around Hen Gwrt doesn't offer any natural protection. Also, the island inside the moat isn't raised very high. This suggests that the moat wasn't built for serious defense. It was probably more for showing off or for decoration.
Mike Dunn wrote about Hen Gwrt in his 2016 walking guide. He said, "the moat is clogged with bulrushes but still very picturesque and the site is open and grassy."
Archaeology and Discoveries
Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory through digging up old sites and artifacts. In 2000, Anthony Emery wrote that Hen Gwrt is one of the few moated sites that has been "thoroughly examined." This means it has been studied very carefully.
In the 1820s, a map was made showing the "foundations of the Old Court." This map was drawn when the stone from the site was being removed. This stone was used to build roads. Some people think the stone might have also been used to build a nearby house called Llantilio Court. The map shows the stone foundations of a rectangular building. This building had a large room, a smaller room, and two rooms that were likely latrines (toilets).
By the time more excavations happened in the 1950s, all the stone foundations were gone. However, archaeologists did find signs of the earlier, wooden manor house. This was the one built by the Bishops of Llandaff. These detailed digs were led by O.E. Craster and J.M. Lewis. They published what they found in a journal in 1963. Cadw believes that the site still has "considerable archaeological potential." This means there might be many more interesting things to discover there!
