The Best Example of a Motte and Bailey in Wales? Wiston Castle

So there was this Flemish geezer called Wizo who, with a name like that sounds like he should be a wizard. Sadly he wasn't. Despite his lack of magical abilities, he was granted a piece of land by Henry the first who had taken control of it from the previous owner who was in revolt against Henry. Wizo built a motte and bailey castle, 'cos why wouldn’t you? It is considered one of the best examples of its type in Wales. It is situated in the Pembrokeshire village of Wiston in south west Wales which is named after Wizo - Wiston being an Old Flemish/Saxon for Wizo's enclosure/town.

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[chrisashton]

I was lucky enough to be born and bred in Wiston and spent a lot of time as a child playing on and around it. You were correct on the pronunciation of wizzo. The castle is part of the Pembrokeshire landskire line which is a line of castles, a north/south divide, built by the Norman’s to keep the Welsh out. You can see the outlines of houses and other structures inside the Bailey where all of the nettles grow. Great video 😁

[implespaynter]

Excellent! Thank you for explaining this!

[henryvagincourt]

A castle I had no idea about, had take a look at good old "Mike Salter" books, to find out more, so thanks for sharing this, another one on my list. A damn fine shell keep.

[richardstone]

The bailey is enclosed by the much earlier ramparts of an Iron age rath which are commonish in South West Wales. which was utilised by Wizo. The motte has been constructed over part of it. . It is a very large bailey and functioned as a small town under Wizo and later Norman/Flemish lords. Bronllys Castle does have a bailey which now incorporates a large private house. You can see some of the earthworks by studying google maps or an OS map. A small circular feature can be seen in the bailey which be an original medieval well.

[DanHaug]

I learned about Wiston in the historical mystery "The Worthy Soldier, " which includes the 1147 capture of Wiston by Hywel ap Owain. Thanks for the video!

[FindingTime]

You'd want to be Rocky Balboa to run up those steps!

[anneloader]

I enjoyed that! It was particularly interesting because my husband Jack and I are founder members of a heritage group in our adopted commune in France where one hamlet, which was strategically important in the Middle Ages, has three surviving mottes and the site of one which was demolished to make way for a road. There are now the remains of a large motte (only a sixth of it is left thanks to local people pinching the stone over the centuries) and more or less intact twin smaller mottes complete with bailey which are unique and pose a puzzle to historians and archaeologists alike.

Jack and I have looked after the landscape of the twin mottes since the group was set up in 2012, but this year for the first time we have been unable to go over to our second home because of the Covid-19 crisis. All events due to be held at the site have been cancelled this year (including a medieval market and a medieval feast) except for the Journees du Patrimoine heritage weekend, today and tomorrow. The group have organised socially-distancing self-guided walks for JdP visitors and we are sad not to be taking our usual part. Unfortunately it looks as if it is pouring with rain there today...

The sites of the large motte and one of the small ones were excavated by an early amateur archaeologist in 1865. He was far too posh to get his own hands dirty, using farm labourers to do the digging (so lots of "finesse" there and not a trowel in sight) and the local school teacher to record all the finds. These are now in the museum in Gueret, the main town in the department, though some of the best stuff seems to have been siphoned off into private collections at the time and over the subsequent years.

The archaeologist was determined that the large motte was a Druid burial chamber and fiddled his conclusions to this end. His resulting paper was rejected by the national powers-that-be from whom he hoped to get a reward and plaudits for discovering something created by the Ancient Gauls, who rightly said that the evidence really showed it was a medieval defensive structure. It is mentioned in a document written in 957AD and the village, "La Tour St Austrille" got its name from the motte. It may be that the small mottes were watch towers associated with the toll road at their feet.

Archaeologists from the University of Picardie have done some work recently with no world-shattering results, to our disappointment. The heritage group cannot understand why they don't do a dig in the bailey, instead of faffing around measuring earthworks levels and suchlike. Oh well...

[stephenmudiecastles.]

I love motte and baileys..Give me these earthworks over your built up Warwicks every time..