St Briavels Castle (most likely named after Saint Brioc) is a moated Norman castle at St Briavels in the English county of Gloucestershire. The castle is noted for its huge Edwardian gatehouse that guards the entrance.
St Briavels Castle was originally built between 1075 and 1129 as a royal administrative centre for the Forest of Dean. During the 13th century the castle became first a favourite hunting lodge of King John, and then the primary centre in England for the manufacture of arrows for use with the longbow, the predominant missile weapon of the English in the later medieval period, and quarrels, large numbers of which were required for crossbows in medieval warfare.
The castle was transferred many times between royal favourites in the 14th and 15th centuries and slowly declined in appearance and importance. St Briavels Castle became used primarily as a court and as a notorious debtors' prison, conditions being documented by the prison reformer John Howard in 1775. Following local riots and a parliamentary investigation in the 1830s, reforms in the 19th century brought an end to the castle's use as a prison.
Extensive renovation at the turn of the 20th century allowed St Briavels Castle to be taken over as a Youth Hostel in 1948. It remains in this role today, owned by English Heritage and open to the public. The castle is classed as a Grade I listed building and as a Scheduled Monument.
Architecture St Briavels Castle is located on a spur dominating a position above the River Wye, on the western edge of the Forest of Dean.Remfry, p. 1. The castle is predominantly built of local old red sandstone and limestone.Curnow and Johnson, p. 91. The castle site is surrounded by an in-filled moat; now a garden, the moat was originally wet and fed by a spring underneath the moat itself.Urban, p. 503.
The castle keep, which collapsed and was demolished in the 18th century, was originally a square Norman design, 15.6 m by 13.9 m (51 ft by 45 ft) in size, built on a motte of clay and stone.Verey, p. 333; Curnow and Johnson, p. 92. Intact, it would have been approximately 20 m (66 ft) tall, and would have resembled the keeps at Goodrich Castle and White Castle, both of a similar period and design in the region.Curnow and Johnson, p. 93.
The keep was protected by the stone curtain wall that still survives today, forming the castle bailey.Curnow and Johnson, p. 94. Its irregular polygonal plan suggests that it was built on the site of an earlier earthwork. It originally had a small round tower protecting the south-east corner and probably a gateway in the south wall alongside the keep. Other demolished buildings included a forge and assorted buildings along the north-east of the bailey. A set of medieval domestic buildings still stand along the north-west side of the bailey, however, including a hall, solar and chapel, originally providing accommodation for the castle constable and the King.Curnow and Johnson, p. 95. These buildings were restored in the 19th century to their current condition. Some features, including the hall range, fireplace and capitals appear to date from the 13th century. The hall and solar form a two-storey building 23 m by 10 m (75 ft by 33 ft) wide, alongside the 14th century chapel, which still incorporates later 17th century adjustments and windows.Curnow and Johnson, pp. 96, 98. At one end of the domestic range is the famous "Forester's Horn" chimney, crested with the forest warden's horn, a symbol of Forest Law and the castle's authority.Urban, p. 503; Curnow and Johnson, p. 97. The buildings include a sunken pit prison; graffiti dated 1671 show that it was still in use for that purpose at that time.Pettifer, p. 80; Verey, p. 333.
The gatehouse of St Briavels Castle is described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "magnificent... a very fine example of the royal masons' work of the period."Verey, p. 332. It is a massive structure of two large D-shaped towers flanking a wide gate passage 14.8 m (48 ft) long, and linked above by a large room.Curnow and Johnson, p. 99; Verey, p. 332. This sort of gatehouse is sometimes termed a keep-gatehouse or gatehouse-keep because of the massive size and defences on both the inner and outer sides of the building.King, p. 119; Curnow and Johnson, p. 99; Verey, p. 332. The first gatehouse of this sort was built at Caerphilly Castle; other examples exist in North Wales and at Tonbridge Castle.King, p. 119. Uniquely, St Briavels' gatehouse is protected with three sets of portcullisesalthough some gatehouses, such as Harlech and Beaumaris Castle were built for slots for three, they were only installed with two. A notable feature is the existence of smaller portcullises to defend the doorways from the passage to the porters' lodges. The gatehouse was originally taller than it is today and the entrance would also have included a drawbridge, removed during the 20th century.
The base of the gatehouse is defended from undermining by large "spurs". This design feature is characteristic of castles in the Welsh Marches, including Goodrich and Tonbridge Castle, but unlike these castles depends on a solid octagonal, rather than square, based interacting with the form of the circular towers.Curnow and Johnson, p.99; Pettifer, pp. 96–7; Thompson, p. 114. The gatehouse is well defended, except for the upper windows at the rear; the upper floors were designed for high status guests and these windows would have provided adequate light for the chambers. The south-east of the gatehouse is relatively modern, however, having been rebuilt after a past collapse.Curnow and Johnson, p. 100.
History 11th and 12th centuries
St Briavels Castle appears to date from Norman times, although the village itself predates the Norman period. The area was acquired by William FitzOsbern, the first Earl of Hereford in 1067, who built a number of castles across the region, including Chepstow, Monmouth, Clifford and Wigmore. It does not appear that FitzOsbern built a castle on the St Briavels site, however, and the revolt of FitzOsbern's son, Roger de Breteuil resulted in the village being taken into the possession of the royal bailiffs of the Forest of Dean.
St Briavels Castle was constructed sometime between 1075 and 1129 by royal mandate, although the precise date is uncertain.Remfry, p. 2. Walter de Gloucester, the Sheriff of Gloucester and his son Miles de Gloucester made St Briavels Castle the administrative centre of the Forest of Dean. The location of the castle placed it well behind the English border, in an area with little Welsh presence before the invasion, and it therefore appears to have been established for the purposes of royal governance, rather than to protect the Welsh Marches to its west. Equivalents elsewhere in the south-west include Restormel Castle and Lydford Castle in Devon and Cornwall, both regional royal administrative centres.Curnow and Johnson, p. 92. One alternative view, however, sees St Briavels as intended to protect the Severn estuary to the south, along with the royal castles of Bristol and Gloucester.Emery, p. 15. This early castle was of motte and bailey design, the keep probably of wood.
Miles and his partner Pain fitzJohn strengthened their hold on the Welsh border during the last years of Henry I, but after the king's death in 1135 England descended into the civil war of the Anarchy, as factions loyal to King Stephen and the Empress Matilda fought for control of the country. Fitz John was killed early in the fighting, but Miles declared in favour of Matilda and took control of the castle in his own right. In 1141 the Empress confirmed Miles as the Earl of Hereford and formally granted him St Briavels Castle. Under Miles, the castle escaped the worst of the fighting of the Anarchy. Miles' son, Roger Fitzmiles continued to hold the castle into the reign of Henry II, the empress' son, but a confrontation with the king resulted in it being removed from the earldom and taken back into royal ownership, once again as part of the Forest of Dean. Henry II rebuilt the castle keep in the 1160s, replacing the older wooden structure with stone.
Royal forests in the early medieval period were subject to special royal jurisdiction; forest law was "harsh and arbitrary, a matter purely for the King's will".Huscroft, p.97. Forests were expected to supply the king with hunting grounds, raw materials, goods and money. The Forest of Dean could be used for hunting, but was more important to the king as a major metalworking centre, thanks to the plentiful supply of trees for making charcoal and the iron deposits in the limestone stone of the region.Curnow and Johnson, p.92; Pounds, p. 200. The iron goods constructed locally were stored at the castle before being shipped to other royal locations. The quantities being produced were substantialin 1172, for example, Henry II received 100 axes, 1,000 picks, 2,000 shovels and 60,000 nails from St Briavel Castle. Richard I took 50,000 horseshoes on crusade with him from St Briavel. The constable of St Briavel Castle had wide-ranging responsibilities within the Forest, including managing the rights and privileges of the iron-workers, exercised through the Miners' and the Hundreds Court of the castle.Curnow and Johnson, p. 91; Rudge, p. 22.
13th century
King John enjoyed regular hunting in the Forest each November, and used St Briavels Castle as his base for such trips. The king entertained the Welsh lord Gruffyd ap Cadwallon at the castle in 1207.Remfry, p. 3; Curnow and Johnson, p.96. This royal interest resulted in further building works and substantial expenditure, with £291 being spent in the next four years. A stone curtain wall replaced an earlier wooden one between 1209–11, complete with a tower and gateway. Inside the bailey a number of buildings suitable for use by the king as a lodge were constructed. A wooden chapel was built within the castle in 1236–7.Curnow and Johnson, p. 98. The castle expansion may have been funded by the increased taxes from iron-working across the areas, and by the end of John's reign, the castle was almost in its mature form.Nicholls 1858, p. 11; Remfry, p. 3.
In 1217 the Charter of the Forest was passed, in part to mitigate the worst excesses of royal jurisdiction.Huscroft, p. 173. The forest laws, however, did allow for a very wide range of fines to be imposed on local peasants who broke the numerous edicts in place to protect both wildlife and the trees in the forest.Birrell, p. 149. The courts held at St Briavels Castle imposed a relatively large number of fines, or amercements, for both illegal wood-cutting and the poaching of venison during the period.Birrell, p. 154. The castle also began to be used a prison shortly afterwards, partially for forest trespassers and for those who could not pay the required fines.Pugh, p. 79.
After King John's death, however, St Briavels Castle became the primary centre for English quarrel manufacture. The crossbow was an important military advance on the older short bow and was the favoured weapon by the time of Richard Imany crossbows and even more quarrels were needed to supply royal forces.Pounds, p. 108. Crossbows were primarily built at the Tower of London, but St Briavels Castle, with the local forest to provide raw materials, became the national centre for quarrel manufacture.Pounds, p. 110.