Victoria Harman: Conwy Castle

Conwy (Conway) Castle

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BASIC INFO

13th-Century fortified town
Currently "most complete walled town and castle in Britain"
The town walls are over 1.25km or 0.8 miles long and complete to this day
Views of Snowdonia and the Conwy Estuary
Commissioned by Edward I between 1283 and 1287, conceived and created in these four years
Key fortress in his 'Iron Ring' of castles to hold Welsh in the mountains
Dark-stoned
21 towers, no concentric walls yet intimidating with soaring curtain walls and 8 huge towers, 3 double towered gateways (including the Mill Gate)
Roofless shell of the Castle's great hall stands at 10.15m or 33ft long
Natural defense by use of rocks
Before 1825 castle only reachable from East by ferry
Included town with grid street system and marketplace at centre in design

BEFORE THE CASTLE

The Church (Cistercian Abbey of Aberconwy)and Llwelyn's Hall at the Southern town edge are the only buildings that predate the town
Llywelyn's Hall was assimilated into the town wall and refurbished for the Prince of Wales in 1302
In 1316 it was dismantled for re-use at Caenarfon Castle, another project of Edward I

CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN

Castle built mainly by settlers from England but also some French and Irish workers at the beginning of construction
His Iron Ring of castles cost almost twice his average annual income, £15,000 (about £45m today)
He had to pay the workers regularly or no work would be done - in 6 months during 1296 he issued £6,500 (1.5m pennies) to Beaumaris
In 1546 all the walkways and roofs of the courtyard buildings were covered in lead
The Chapel, for example, originally had wood arched supports but they were later replaced with stone ones
After the 2nd conflict with the Welsh, there were 17 castles in North Wales and all but 3 had town boroughs attached
Queen Eleanor's Chapel is the best preserved room

SETTLEMENTS

Edward I encouraged the English to settle there by offering land grants and trading privileges
By 1312, the town had 124 individual plots and the population was around 300

EUROPEAN INSPIRATIONS

Inspiration: the "Abastide" (from the Occictan dialect bastida - a new group of buildings under construction), referring to a new town planted in the open country, and idea from SW France used by Counts of Toulouse in the early 13th century to resettle the populations hit hard by the crusades
Edward I's grandmother was Eleanor of Acquitaine, so he was Duke of Gascony in SW France and supported bastides; founded 20 himself in France
He also had a Savoy connection which can be seen in his building: triple pinnacles on battlements (Conwy SW Tower 1286 as compared to S. Giorgio of Valle diSusa in the Savoy region of Italy 1270)

BRIDGES

SITE STUDIES

In 1984, there was an archaeological exploration of the site conducted by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust Ltd., an organization based in Bangor and founded by the Welsh Office
This was focused on the Southern town section which enclosed the royal compound; late 13th century buildings of the King's wardrobe including the Chamberlain, Justiciar, Master of the King's Works, and temporary quarters of the King and Queen with a private garden
In 1985 the Visitor's Centre was built in this section but before construction began, the area was excavated; this spot was where stone quarrying took place and then it was used as a rubbish dump then housed a timber building

Source: England & Wales (John Julius Norwich, ed.), Museum Guidebook (CADW), Inspirational Heritage (CADW)