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00:00Welcome to the Welsh Borders.
00:12The other side of that ridge is Wales and I'm in England, but only just.
00:16And this is a textbook from Mott and Bailey Castle.
00:26It was the Normans who famously built Mott and Bailey Castles and this one here at Longtown
00:31is one of just dozens spread through this part of the country.
00:35What were the Normans trying to achieve here?
00:38How were they using these castles to impose their control across great swathes of the
00:43British landscape?
00:44And why are there so many of them in this part of the Welsh Borders?
00:49Well I'm going on a walk today that's going to take me past several of them and I should
00:53get some answers.
00:56I'm going to take a look at all the other people that walk through.
01:24This really is a classic Mott and Bailey castle. I'm in the Bailey area down here now. That
01:33man-made earth mound is the Mott. There's a stone keep on top, which is about 150 years after the
01:39Norman conquest. But it seems very likely this would have been an important military position
01:43right the way through the Norman period. And it's one of just dozens in this area. Just take a look
01:50at this map. There's a Mott here, a Mott there, and also a Mott there. But in the case of this
01:56particular castle, the extraordinary thing is there's another one about a five-minute walk down
02:02the road. I've come to this packed corridor of medieval history to understand how the Normans
02:10consolidated their rule following their victory at Hastings. Throughout much of England, they inherited
02:16an efficient, well-organized state from the Saxons. Here, around the valley of the River Mono,
02:23the situation was very different. And from the outset, it's clear that the Normans made quite an impact.
02:29Oh yeah, there it is. The unmistakable lump. Another Norman Mott. I like the way this one's just in
02:37someone's back garden. This whole area in the shadow of the Black Mountains is crisscrossed with a
02:44complicated, anarchic network of castles and other defensive fortifications. And they were presided
02:50over by a group of men known as the Norman Barons. The story of these castles is the story of the Barons.
02:58My first two Mott and Baileys lie on the western extremity of English lands. The Black Mountains make a
03:05superb natural boundary. So it's no surprise they still form part of the modern Anglo-Welsh border.
03:11Moving south, the border begins to follow the route of the River Mono, and my walk explores the
03:18landscape and some of the many castle sites in and around the valley. But on my way to the start of
03:25the walk, there's one site which demands to be visited.
03:29This cluttered heap is actually the Mott of a castle called Eus Harald. Now it actually doesn't look like much,
03:40but it is a historical gem because this place has a claim to being the first Norman castle ever built in
03:46Britain. In fact, it's so old that it was actually built before the Norman invasion.
03:51Eus Harald, with its back to the Welsh mountains,
03:58stands at the confluence of the Mono and the Daw rivers. You only have to look at the landscape from
04:03above to appreciate the site's potential as a communications control centre.
04:08In 1050, the King of England, Edward the Confessor, sanctioned the building of this castle here.
04:16Now it's often forgotten that Edward had spent much of his childhood, his formative years, in Normandy. He
04:21was almost more Norman than English. And even after he returned here to take the throne of England,
04:27he retained lots of Norman advisers, and they were responsible for the building of this castle.
04:32So this is a pre-Norman Norman castle. I find it quite extraordinary that a milestone in British
04:40military history, like Eus Harald, today goes almost unnoticed. Another small blip on the
04:46Ordnance Survey map, a loosely demarcated area tended only by a band of friendly goats.
04:52Shortly after the Norman conquest, this castle was re-fortified by a man called William Fitz Osborne,
04:59who was a close advisor and a relative of William the Conqueror. He was the first Norman to have
05:04a big impact on this part of the country. You can see the Mono Valley there stretching directly
05:09from England towards Wales. So this is the route he and his followers must have taken. I always
05:15imagine it like tentacles of Norman influence spreading ever further inland.
05:22Fitz Osborne kicked off an intense period of castle building.
05:27It formed the backbone of efforts to bring the turbulent Welsh borders under Norman control,
05:32and my walk today explores the purpose of these castles, set amid the stunning landscape of the
05:38Mono Valley. From the Welsh side of the river, I'll be setting off from the imposing White Castle.
05:47There's already a popular route here called the Three Castles Walk, leading me east across farmland,
05:53to meet the Mono at Skenfrith Castle. I'll then head upstream, following the modern England-Wales border,
06:01across the most fertile land and through ancient woodland, to reach the third castle.
06:07It sits overlooking the river at Grosmont, surrounded by church and village.
06:11To end my walk, I'll cross the river border to England, and in particular to Kent Church,
06:21seat of the Scudamore family. Here I'll drop in on a thousand years of family history,
06:27before ascending the giant Garway Hill, a famed border viewpoint, the ideal place to assess the
06:34landscape that the Normans worked to bring under control. And in 1067, all of this land, on both
06:43sides of the Mono, was in the hands of William Fitz Osborne, the conqueror's great Earl of Hereford.
06:51Welcome to Wales. I've come a few miles south of U.S. Harold, and yet now I'm in Wales. But really,
06:59these modern borders aren't much help in 11th century terms. Back then, this area was neither
07:03totally English nor totally Welsh. Which goes some way to explaining the impressive nature of
07:10the start of my walk here at White Castle. I haven't actually been here since I did a rather
07:18geeky road trip with my dad when I was about 11 through the Welsh castles, and I'd forgot just how
07:23complete this one is. It's stunning. If U.S. Harold represents phase one of Norman Castle building in
07:30this part of the country, this and others is phase two. White Castle enjoys a spectacular outlook,
07:39set high, overlooking the low ground around Abergavenny. It's regularly touted as a Norman castle,
07:47yet, like so many medieval castles, most of what we see here today was added a good deal after the
07:52Normans. So, to find out what was happening here shortly after the conquest, I've arranged to meet
07:59David Austin, Professor of Archaeology and an expert in medieval landscapes and settlements.
08:05And on a day like today, where better to discuss such matters than from the top of a castle?
08:12What you get when you get up here is this absolutely incredible view. Wow! Amazing, isn't it?
08:17You're looking slammed right across into Wales and these wonderful rolling
08:21hills in this direction and straight across to England over there.
08:25Does the high number of castles around here basically mean it was,
08:29this was sort of the badlands, no man's land?
08:31The way I like to think of it really is this is, this is liminal country, this is frontier country.
08:36And it's best to think of these, this region has really made up a whole, whole patchwork quilt
08:43of these small, local power brokers operating within river valley systems and so on,
08:51who acknowledge some power structure above them. And I don't think they're bad lands,
08:56but it needs controlling and the Normans have to invent a way of controlling it.
09:00And what do they invent?
09:01Well, what they use is a concept, I think, which really comes out of the great period of Charlemagne.
09:07Creates this thing called the march. Now the march comes from a German word, an old German word,
09:14which means the boundary, the edge, the mark. And this is what Charlemagne did. He created these
09:19great marches around the edges of his empire. He used those as the buffer zones while he established
09:26this incredible Charlemagne empire right at the core, which became, of course, the Holy Roman Empire.
09:30And what happens on this march? You just send some of your toughest guys out and say,
09:33look, I don't care what you do, but just keep that border safe for me.
09:38It's sort of like that. At the march, your contract is, if you can hold it, you can run it,
09:43and you can exploit it to your great extent if you want. And by the way, because you're on a boundary,
09:47if you want to go further, everything beyond you, you take, you hold, it's yours.
09:53They're given sub-regalian powers. In other words, they're allowed to act as if they're kings
09:58in their own territories. And so William Fitz Osborne is sort of entrusted with this
10:04like this buffer zone, but by William the King, is he? Yes, he is. Well, William Fitz Osborne was
10:10was one of the dozen or so men in 1066. And I like to think of them as a band of brothers.
10:17They grew up together. They fought together. They knew to trust each other in battle.
10:21But what do we know about Fitz Osborne in this part of the country?
10:25Well, we don't know a great deal about him, to be honest. We know he's given this
10:31great lordship, and we hear of him building castles. But as far as the legacy is concerned,
10:38of course, we're looking back through all this wonderful marcher history. And he's the progenitor.
10:44He's the origin myth of the whole of the march. So we feel we know more about Fitz Osborne
10:49than we actually do. And this castle that's standing in here right now, where does this fit in,
10:54do you think? Well, it's an absolutely classic example. It looks for all the world as this is a
10:59very, very early castle. You would expect it to be a Fitz Osborne castle. Most of the speculation in
11:05guidebooks and so on. But actually, there isn't a shred of evidence. The first evidence for a white
11:10castle is in the 1160s. And the architecture, the layout, the morphology of it, suggests that
11:18it might be earlier than that. But to be perfectly honest, you can't tell. Because most of what you
11:23see here, in fact, is 13th century.
11:25So we know Fitz Osborne was here, effectively acting as king in his new marcher earldom. But
11:34frustratingly, as I set off on the first leg of my route, the extent of his actions here are unclear.
11:41Lost in a land where royal record keeping did not apply.
11:49And by the middle of 1071, less than five years after the invasion,
11:54William Fitz Osborne was dead.
11:57His son and heir, Roger, would prove to be a liability, breaking the bond of the band of brothers,
12:03rebelling against William the Conqueror and losing the great Fitz Osborne earldom in the process.
12:11Never again would the Norman kings grant one individual so much land and power in one area.
12:17For my walk today, though, the demise of the Fitz Osborne's was a turning point.
12:24The area of the three castles would now become one small barony.
12:31I've started the walk at the White Castle, which, of the three castles, is the furthest west. It's
12:36the one that juts provocatively into Welsh territory. The other two are, alongside the river Mono,
12:42heading back towards the English heartland.
12:45Now this, according to my trusty guidebook,
12:56is the old coaching road from London to Abergavenny and points west all the way out to Milford Haven.
13:01Like so much of the infrastructure of early modern Britain, this road seems to have been built
13:09on an earlier Roman road. And speaking of the Romans, there's an interesting
13:14contrast between them and the Normans. The Romans built forts along their roads at regular intervals,
13:19so there'd be a certain number of miles between each one. And people have often argued that the
13:24Normans would build castles about half a day's horse ride away, so a knight could ride to a castle
13:29and be back by nightfall at his own castle. But actually, as we've seen here in the borders,
13:33that's nonsense. Castles were built haphazardly to meet different threats,
13:37at different times, by all sorts of different barons.
13:43The Normans lacked a master plan, but by exploring the landscape, you get to assess how they went about
13:49colonising this area. It's surely no coincidence that they built two castles close to this major
13:55access route to south Wales. Those Romans really knew what they were doing, didn't they?
14:01This is a fantastic road here, running right along the top of this ridge. There's a beautiful view
14:05from here of the Mono River Valley. It comes up through there in a great curve and into the Black
14:10Mountains. And of course, it flows that way, where Chepstow, the great seat of Norman power,
14:17the base of William Fitz Osborne himself was.
14:19But from this high point, it's downhill for me, to the second of my three castles.
14:26Tucked quietly away in a natural surround of hills is the delightful village of Skenfrith.
14:33After the Eagle's Nest vantage point of White Castle, you couldn't imagine a more different setting.
14:38And like White Castle, the great stone walls here are from the early 13th century.
14:49But Skenfrith has no large mot, no ditch or moat, and it's surrounded by higher ground.
14:55In fact, this castle would have been a liability in terms of defence.
15:13Aha! One of the key reasons for the siting of this particular castle, the Mono River.
15:20The truth of Skenfrith is that it didn't play any part in the early Norman settlement of the march.
15:28There's no evidence of a castle being here until around 1140, 70 years after Fitz Osborne's death.
15:35King Stephen, the last of the true Norman kings, would have been on the throne.
15:39By which time, the invaders had become the establishment,
15:42and Norman dominance had spread west, deep into Welsh territory.
15:46So although these ruins are post-Norman, the River Mono was always an absolutely central strategic
15:54corridor for the Normans, particularly because it led downstream to Chepstow and Monmouth,
16:00the two great centres where the Norman lunge into South Wales was really being planned from.
16:06And all the way up the river, you see on this map, a series of Mott and Bailey castles. There's one here,
16:11one up here at Grossmont, where I'll be going later, and right the way around to places like
16:17U.S. Harold and Longtown, which are all part of the Mono River system.
16:22And the map also shows us one other fascinating thing about this particular area, a place called
16:27Newcastle, appropriately enough. It was an early Norman, Mott and Bailey castle. And it does seem
16:32that that castle, high up there in the hills, could have been the focus of the early Norman efforts.
16:37But this place, Skenfrith, was developed later, as the Normans moved from the phase of conquest
16:42to consolidation.
16:47Today, the Mono seems like an irregular, shallow stream. But the castle here once had a wharf,
16:53proving that boats could pass from the Bristol Channel and up towards the Welsh hills.
17:00It also proves that by the end of the Norman period,
17:03transport and communications along the Mono Valley were certainly important.
17:14What an absolutely beautiful bend in the river.
17:19England there on one side, Wales here on the other.
17:23Back then, this would have been a highway into the interior, carrying all sorts of traffic,
17:28soldiers coming in, but being followed by colonists, settlers, tradesmen, craftsmen,
17:35and administrators, all using this river to get right up into the hinterland.
17:41Nowadays, of course, the road sticks to high ground, so this feels like a
17:45little forgotten corner of this part of Wales.
17:47In rugged areas like this, river valleys were always prime agricultural strips. But in the 11th
18:00century, farming here lacked the market towns and the economy of the Saxon heartlands.
18:05The barons cemented their own power by overseeing a process of civilisation,
18:11encouraging new settlers from both England and Normandy.
18:17And as my walk climbed towards Grosmont, the landscape still shows signs of how the barons
18:25managed the activities of the population. Vast tracts of land became subject to forest law,
18:31a concept the Normans brought with them from the continent.
18:35Here, the barons were lawfully allowed to control access and administer their own swift justice.
18:40We think of forests as wooded areas, but forest law applied to up to half of the land in the area.
18:47It was an authoritarian regime, enabling the minority to dominate the majority.
18:53There's the fertile valley of the Mono River there. There's a big hairpin bend just over there.
19:08You can see a castle, that's where the Normans chose to build one. And today, the castle and
19:13the village that sprung up around it is called Grosmont, but it's spelt, much how the Normans would have
19:18pronounced it, Grosmont, meaning big hill. The third cornerstone of the three-castle walk
19:29is a fine example of the Normans' success here. There's the castle itself with its d-shaped earthwork
19:37ditch. The church that would have been established by the local lord, and the village that was encouraged
19:45to develop. A fine example of a three-part Norman settlement. I've come here specifically to meet
19:53a man who has written a volume on each of the three castles. And here, finally, he believes it's possible
19:59to find serious Norman stonework that survive to this day.
20:03So, Paul, how much of the fabric of this castle do you think is Norman?
20:07I think, basically, we've got this hall block here behind us. This is early. It fits the earthwork
20:14perfectly. It's built in the spine of the D, and we know that the stone it's built from came from the
20:19ditch. It's been geologically tested. Therefore, it's got to be built at the same time. So, the thing
20:25itself, we can see, has got down it this battered plinth coming down here at an angle. And this is seen on
20:32lots of early Norman structures. We've also got pilastra buttresses all the way round. So, it looks
20:39very early. So, what's the proof? How do we know William Fitz Osborne was here? Well, he made a lot
20:43of grants to his own abbey, Lear, in Normandy. And one of them was the Forest of Gromont and the
20:48nearby church. Oh, perfect. And there we've got the original Latin about him granting the Forest of
20:54Gromont. Fantastic. So, we know that this was his baron. This was his domain. His domain, yeah.
20:59Yes. So, do you think William Fitz Osborne actually built and would have occupied this building?
21:04I think quite likely. He never even got here. I mean, he may have dashed up and down the border
21:08once or twice, but he was such a busy man. He was too busy running the country as regent for William I.
21:14He was fighting in York. He was fighting in Stafford, fighting at Chester. He was all over the place.
21:19And he was even ill in Normandy at one point. So, I don't think he'd have actually got here until 1070,
21:25which would only have left him a few months here before he was killed. So, I think it was all
21:29lieutenants doing the work. And when do you think this hall then might have been completed?
21:33My suspicion is it was built by 1135. It's purely for living in. It's show off its power. And it would
21:40have been beautiful with 11 windows on the ground floor, massive windows up above. It would have looked
21:45absolutely gorgeous, whitewashed. It would have dominated the entire district and you'd have
21:50known somebody of substance was here. So, by 1135, the Norman barons were building great halls rather
21:58than great fortresses. Just two generations after the conquest, the Mono Valley was not a warlike borderline.
22:07It was a settled Norman land. Back at White Castle, with its prominent position facing into Wales,
22:14the original intention may well have been to create an impregnable fortress at the edge of the Norman
22:19Empire. But within decades, the boundary line had moved west through Wales and even into Ireland,
22:27leaving the three castles to become the elaborate status symbols of a succession of medieval lords.
22:37To end my walk, I'm off to see a remarkable example of the Norman settlement of these borders.
22:42Once, this would have meant crossing from one barony to another.
22:48Today, it means arriving on English soil.
22:53Well, I'm leaving the public highway behind now because the owners of the Kent Church estate
22:57have granted me an audience. Sat between the Mono River and the sizeable end of my walk,
23:03Garway Hill, lies 5,000 acres that seems hidden from the modern world.
23:08At the heart is Kent Church Court, which has always been the home of the Scudamore family.
23:14Hello, Jan.
23:24Dan, good morning to you. Welcome to Kent Church.
23:26How are you?
23:26Thank you very much.
23:27Very well.
23:27What a beautiful view.
23:28Jan Lucas Scudamore is the current Chatelaine of Kent Church Court.
23:33Her home dates back to the 14th century. Her deer park is almost certainly older than that.
23:39But having done some homework before this walk, I know that neither are as old as the family itself.
23:45So, on the internet, we have found – you couldn't make this up – we've found an American called
23:49Warren Skidmore. And he claims to be part of your family, I suppose. And he's written a massive
23:54history from the Norman Conquest onwards. He's amazing. He came to stay here a few
23:59years ago. And I think he must be about 90. And I think keeping up with the Scudamores,
24:04their lineage, keeps him going, because he is the definitive chronicler of the Scudamores.
24:10And thank goodness we've got him. But what's the Skidmore all about?
24:13Surely that's some sort of American adaption. No, Skidmore was the original pronunciation.
24:18And over the years, I suppose like all people, the way they formed their letters changed. And so
24:25Skidmore became Scudamore. But originally, when they came over from Normandy, they were called a
24:30Scudamore, which I think loosely translated as the Shield of Love.
24:34So you guys must have a whole chapter in this book.
24:37We've got quite a few pages you can see here.
24:40Burke's Landed Gentry.
24:43Ralph, living in 1086. This does seem to agree with Warren Skidmore.
24:47And it's quite interesting that originally they started off as Walter, in fact Ralph,
24:52who came here and worked at the castle at U.S. Harold for Edward the Confessor.
24:59So hang on, so your first Scudamore we've got actually arrived before the Norman invasion?
25:04Yes.
25:06Pages and pages of people, if you've been here ever since.
25:11How on earth did your family manage to survive in this place through civil war,
25:15upheaval of all kinds? How are they still here?
25:18I think through judicious marriages. They married for land, they married for position.
25:24I think you could almost say they're a Teflon family, because they always seem to be on the
25:27wrong side. If the parliamentarians were in, they were royalists. If they were Catholics,
25:32they were Protestants.
25:35The Scudamore family and their land have survived a good deal better than most of the Norman evidence
25:40in this area. They are, quite remarkably, the living legacy of successful 11th century settlement by
25:46the Normans. And they owe their longevity to another Norman institution, that of primogeniture,
25:54a simple practice of passing titles and land to the eldest male heir.
25:58Perhaps that's one reason why so much of our history appears to start in 1066.
26:07Brilliant. You can see where I've come now. The Mono Valley, Skenfrith just down there,
26:11and beyond it, the Bristol Channel.
26:16Getting dangerously close to the top here. It's got to be it.
26:19Oh, curses. Full summit. Would you believe it?
26:27Garway Hill is a hangover from medieval times. On one side, the private hunting forest of the Kent
26:33Church estate, still full of deer and pheasant. Whilst on top, it remains common land, uncultivated,
26:41yet free for grazing. My final hill could be unchanged in a millennium.
26:49Well, finally, no more full summits. I know I'm at the top now because there
26:55is the good old triangulation point.
27:07Extraordinary view from up here. See right across England and Wales. Apparently on a clear day,
27:11you can see seven counties. The Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds that way, right down towards Bristol
27:17over there. And then this way, of course, incredible barrier there of the Black Mountains
27:21and beyond it, the Brecon beacons.
27:27This was the challenging topography that Fitz Osborne and his successors had to deal with.
27:32The marcher lords came here swift on the heels of their victory at Hastings.
27:37With no collective plan, and through turbulent generations of barons,
27:42they made a lasting impression on what had been a wild frontier land.
27:48I came here today to where England meets Wales, not just to look at how the Normans came to dominate
27:53these valleys here, but to show that the conquest is so much more than just an English story.
27:59What happened right here was a microcosm. After the Battle of Hastings, the Normans spread out in a chaotic,
28:06violent, unplanned way right through England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It was one of the greatest
28:13imperial expansions in the history of the British Isles.
28:18Join me next week when I'll be in Yorkshire, an area that suffered terribly at the hands of the Normans,
28:24but was ultimately left with one of their greatest legacies, the great abbeys of the north.
28:36I'll see you next week.
29:06So