Excavations at Dryslwyn between 1980 and 1995 uncovered a masonry
castle, founded in the late 1220s by Rhys Gryg for his son Maredudd
ap Rhys, the first Lord of Dryslwyn. The first castle was a simple
round tower and polygonal walled enclosure, within which were
constructed a kitchen, prison and wood-framed, clay-floored great
chamber beside a great hall. In the mid 13th century a second ward
was added and the great chamber rebuilt in stone. This castle was
greatly expanded in the period 1283-87 by Rhys ap Maredudd, the
second and final Lord of Dryslwyn, who built an Outer Ward and
gatehouse. He also rebuilt much of the Inner Ward, adding an extra
storey to the great hall and great chamber, apartments and a
chapel. At the end of the 13th century a large three-ward castle
stretched along the eastern and southern edge of the hill while the
rest of the hilltop was occupied by a settlement defended by a wall
and substantial ditch with access through a gatehouse. This castle
and its associated settlement were besieged and captured in 1287 by
an English royal army of over 11,000 men following damage inflicted
by a trebuchet and mining of the walls. Throughout the 14th century
the English Crown garrisoned and repaired the castle, supervised by
an appointed constable, before it was surrendered to Owain Glyn Dwr
in 1403. During the early to mid 15th century the castle was
deliberately walled up to deny its use to a potential enemy and it
was subsequently looted and demolished. By the late 13th century,
the castle had a white rendered and lime-washed appearance,
creating a very dramatic and highly visible symbol of lordship.
Internally, the lord's and guest apartments had decorative wall
paintings and glazed windows. Evidence from charred beams still in
situ, the sizes, shapes and distribution of nails, sheet lead,
slates and postholes recovered during excavation has enabled some
of the wooden as well as masonry buildings to be reconstructed.
Waterlogged deposits had preserAt just 132 hectares (325 acres) the
parish of Caldecote is one of the smallest parishes in
Hertfordshire. Today the settlement comprises the manor house,
until recently surrounded by a range of traditional farm buildings,
together with six labourer's cottages and the church. To the north
lies the site of the old rectory and the earthworks of a medieval
settlement. In 1973 the Department of Environment and the Deserted
Medieval Village Research Group arranged a rescue excavation to
examine the earthworks of the medieval village before they were
levelled and ploughed. Five crofts, the old rectory site and much
of the moated enclosure were investigated in one of the largest
excavations ever conducted on a later medieval rural site in
Britain. Though the excavations did recover a Bronze Age beaker
burial and small quantities of Roman and Iron Age pottery, the
medieval settlement at Caldecote was probably founded in the 10th
century, and by the time of the Domesday Survey there was a church,
a priest and nine villeins. A moated site was added in the 13th
century. A century later, Caldecote was granted to the abbots of
the Benedictine monastery in St Albans, at a time when there were
seventeen householders. Early in the second half of the 14th
century, the estate and demesne were subdivided into six farms,
each complete with a hall-house and two or more barns. Following
the dissolution of the monastery in 1539, the manor was again held
by an absentee lord and the farms continued to prosper. However,
the late 16th and early 17th centuries, for which there are several
surviving wills and inventories, saw their gradual
abandonment.After the desertion of Caldecote Marish in 1698,
Caldecote was farmed as a single unit until 1970, when the estate
was attached to that adjoining the manor of Newnham. Of particular
importance from Caldecote is the archaeological evidence for
medieval peasant structures, the development of the later medieval
domestic plan and the structural tra
General
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