The Gatehouse website logo
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

Newport Castle, Gwent

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Casnewydd; Novus Burgus

In the community of Victoria.
In the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Modern authority of Newport.
Preserved county of Gwent.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST312884
Latitude 51.59076° Longitude -2.99495°

Newport Castle, Gwent has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.
Description

Only the grand river front survives of Newport Castle. The present castle was probably established in the mid to late fourteenth century, replacing an earlier castle about 1.0km to the south-west on the hill near St Woolos' church, now the Cathedral. The castle was the administrative centre of the eponymous lordship. Significant work was carried out in 1405, at the height of the Glyndwr revolt, and the castle was extensively remodelled in the period 1430-1445. The castle was maintained into the seventeenth century, but was ruinous by the eighteenth. The surviving buildings were used as a brewery in the nineteenth century, whilst the remainder was gradually demolished. In the twentieth century the castle was conserved and consolidated, although a road was built across the western part in 1970. The earlier castle, first mentioned in 1172, probably lay at ST3046587428 where the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 1:500 map of 1885 shows a cairn (see Archaeologia Cambrensis 5th series II (1885), 261-2). The present castle lies on the riverfront at the northern edge of the medieval borough. It consisted of a walled and moated sub-rectangular court roughly 57m north-south by 62m. The main gate opened onto the town, near the head of the Usk Bridge, and a second led north into the 'Castle Garden'. The magnificent riverfront has towers at the centre and at either end. The end towers are polygonal, rising from spurred bases, and the centre tower is rectangular with projecting turrets flanking the arch of a water gate or dock. It houses a sumptuous series of apartments with a great hall to the north, a magnificent vaulted audience chamber above the water gate and three tiers of chambers in the end towers. There were kitchens in the southern area. (Coflein)

A late castle probably built by the Earls of Stafford in C14 when Newport became a separate Lordship. The surviving part of the castle comprises the waterfront and consists of three towers connected by a curtain wall containing ornate staterooms. The rest of the castle appears to have been a simple rectangular courtyard with no towers. This has led to the conclusion that it was not completed until C15 when documentary records show considerable expenditure at the castle in response to the Glyndwr uprising. This work appears to have failed as the castle was captured in AD 1402. The references to Newport in Renn and Hogg and King (Early Castles) may refer to a possible earlier castle on this site (of which there is no evidence) or to the buried motte at Stow Hill (ST304874)
Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
Coflein   County HER        
Maps >
OS getamap   Streetmap   Old-Maps   Where's the path  
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Vision of Britain   EarthTools    
Air Photos >
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   Flashearth  
Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio  

Sources of information, references and further reading

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get.
*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of the described site.

This record last updated on Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Home | Books | Links | The Fortifications and Castles | Help | Downloads | Author Information | Contact

¤¤¤¤¤