The next 100-150 years was to see great changes brought about in the design of castles. Those who had the income to do so began to reinforce their castles by replacing the timber towers with stone and rebuilding many of the defensive features such as the palisade in stone. This change in material for the construction of castles meant that the earth and timber castles were gradually abandoned and the stone court with angle towers such as Goodrich and Brampton Bryan became the norm.

Goodrich Castle

Transformations also occurred in the way that these new stone castles were defended. The entrance to the castle evolved by stages from a simple gap in the curtain wall to a gap with flanking towers and finally to a gatehouse with elaborate passage systems flanked by towers and defended by a portcullis and heavy wooden double doors.

This new style of castle was a serious investment that could only be undertaken by a financially secure Lord or the King, and was no longer within the reaches of any Lord with a piece of land to his name, as the timber castles had been.

Medieval buildings were at greater risk of structural damage and decay and all castles needed a certain amount of income set aside each year for repairs and modifications. As timber was prone to decay they required more damage control than the later stone castles.

A Medieval castle was often erected with inadequate, or in some cases no, foundations. In later years this could lead to the subsidence or collapse of some structures.

There was no concrete in the medieval period, only lime-mortar. The tools that the builders had access to were simple in form, stonemasons found it easier to cut softer stone accurately into the shape and size required. However this meant that often the stone used for castles was easily weathered and eroded.

Medieval castles also lacked a damp course, which all modern houses have to have. This meant that castles were very exposed to the elements and subject to damp, which would eat away at the lower levels of the castle walls, often causing them to partially collapse.

The only way to heat a castle was by means of open fires. In timber structures the consequences of an out of control fire are obvious. In stone castles much of the interior was still built out of timber and so they too were vulnerable from damage caused by fire. There was no way of recouping losses in the event of an accident, which often meant that rebuilding was impossible.

All these factors meant that stone and timber castles required a great deal of upkeep and expenditure. The income of a castle depended heavily on farming, taxes and rents. When a castle was in use this capital could be quite high with money to spare for repairs. During times of war or poor harvest the income of a castle would be quite low and repairs would likely have been put off for a better day, which may never have come.

In the Medieval period a lord would sometimes own many castles, he could not live in all of these castles, nor is it likely that he could have afforded to pay staff to keep each castle. A large building, such as a castle, would need constant upkeep to remain in a habitable state. Drains would need un-blocking and rotting timber and roof tiles would have needed replacing, to name but a few of the endless maintenance duties. This meant that the tendency towards decay in uninhabited castles was high.

As a consequence of the above factors new castles and castles rebuilt in stone were becoming less frequent, and the number of active castles in the county went into decline.

Gunpowder and Cannons.

The style of warfare employed in the country also had an effect on the importance of castles. Up until the Barons War in the 1260’s warfare had been a matter of the siege and defence of castles, with battles taking place up against the walls as the attacking side fought for control of the castle. It was rare for pitched battle to take place in open countryside between two opposing foes. The Barons Wars caused battle to be moved away from the confines of the castle and battles were often fought on the move from one area to another. This resulted in the castle no longer being the centre of disputes and so it became less important in the battle for supremacy.

The military face of the castle had changed. Now the emphasis was on the castle as a domestic home rather than a defensive fortress. Semi-fortified manor houses with crenellations and gatehouses were the nobility’s new answer to castles and the symbol of aristocracy that they had once been. The ‘castles’ of the later medieval era were designed to say more about the wealth and social status of the owner than the need for defence.

Castles also suffered as they were not developed to withstand the new forms of artillery. The introduction of gunpowder and the development of more sophisticated artillery called for more advanced castle design and many more of the smaller timber framed castles became useless.

Cannons were developed in the 14th century and by the 15th century were widespread in Europe. These cannons could do serious damage to smaller castles. In the 15th century ammunition for cannons took the form of round, stone balls, however, this changed and soon cast iron shot became the ammunition of choice.

Cast iron has a density almost 3 times that of stone and is very hard. When fired against masonry it did not shatter on impact as stone often did and it could cause much greater damage. Gunpowder had first been mixed by the alchemists of the 13th century and by the 14th and 15th century the grade of gunpowder and the experience of those using it had greatly improved making it a much more effective form of attack.

Cannonball

The solution to cannon attack was to rebuild the masonry walls of the castle thicker. Again this required time and expense, which many castles owners did not have. Also castles that had been modified and adapted were no substitute for castles and buildings that had been designed and built specifically to carry and withstand artillery.

The final nail in the coffin for castles of the Marches and Herefordshire came about because of their independence as separate Marcher lordships. To the successive monarchs of England the fact that on the Borderland lords were ruling their own estates as quasi kings, with no deference to the Sovereign, was one that grated. The dissolution of these castles and estates came about in the 15^th and 16^th centuries when the Crown acquired many Marcher estates as a result of the Wars of the Roses. In effect this made the King the most powerful and far-reaching Marcher lord. This meant that many of the castles of the Marches now became uninhabited and began to fall into disrepair, and were neither fit for war or residence.

As the King began to absorb more and more land it became less and less necessary to have so many administrative centres, and so many of the castles of Herefordshire and the borderlands became redundant.

Castles had been expensive to build and maintain, as the necessity for military defence subsided after the 13^th and 14^th centuries men of rank began to look for a less burdensome and costly structures. These requirements were met in the form of the manor house. These large houses still displayed the trappings of high rank and status but were somewhat more comfortable and more affordable.

Manor Houses

In the 15^th and 16^th centuries the military significance of the castle was downgraded, most battles were now fought in the open countryside rather than up against the castle walls. The possession of a castle now became a status symbol rather than a necessity of defence. It was thought wise to control and regulate the construction of castles, perhaps in an attempt to stop large landowners from becoming too powerful.

Castle owners were now required to obtain a ‘licence to crenellate’, which meant that structures with towers and battlements were controlled. These licences were granted by the King and were not issued to all and sundry. Castles could no longer be built by anyone that could afford to do so.

Within these licenses to crenellate the design elements of the castle lived on in later monastic and religious houses as well as colleges (Oxford and Cambridge) and private manor houses. It was the role of the castle as a centre of administration, justice and power that began to decline rapidly.

The local lords and barons who would have previously built castles now looked for less burdensome structures that would at the same time indicate their power and status. These requirements were met by the manor house, which was more comfortable and cheaper to build and maintain.

Many of these new manor houses, such as Lower Brockhampton, had features that had long been associated with castles such as moats and gatehouses. This gave the impression that the inhabitants were important and wealthy but allowed them to live more simply. Left: Lower Brockhampton Manor House (14th-15th century) with it's timber framed gatehouse, more a symbol of power than a necessary structure.

The Civil War in 1642 had a major effect on the life span of castles. Many castles in Herefordshire were damaged because of the fighting. Brampton Bryan which had been defended by the Parliamentarian Lady Brilliana Harley had been hit so hard by cannon fire that little of the roof remained and hardly a dry room was left. It was not just damage caused by fighting that was the downfall of the castles. Many castles were deliberately slighted by the Royalists or the Parliamentarians to prevent the other side from gaining control or the upper hand. Most of these castles weren’t repaired afterwards, as there were neither the funds nor the inclination by their owners to do so.

By the 17^th century the castle, which for so long had symbolised the upturn in society and architecture of England during the medieval period, had almost ceased to be. Although many still existed in Herefordshire very few were in an inhabitable state. They continued to be passed down through the generations but now the family homes existed elsewhere.

There was one last brief return to the majestic architecture of the castle during a revival period in the late 18th and 19th centuries when castles such as Eastnor and Downton were built. However these ‘castles’ were not a return to the necessity of fortification and defence. The purpose of these structures was grandiose decoration and artistic landscapes. They were grand statements of social standing and representations of the romance associated with medieval lords and ladies, knights and barons.

Eastnor Castle near Ledbury, built 1810-24.

Never again would there be defensive architecture with the same plurality and profusion throughout Herefordshire or England. The differences between the social classes which had once been so vast were now beginning to level out and it was beyond the reach of most landowners to undertake such massive constructions. The manor house was now the ‘castle’ of choice. It was, status wise, almost as good as the castle but much more comfortable, affordable and desirable.

MG