Raglan Castle: The Rise and Fall of a Magnificent Welsh Fortress

Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks. Welcome to the History Squad. Now today, we're on location at Raglan Castle here in South Wales. We're actually in the county of Monmouthshire, but the wonderful tower over to my right there, medieval tower, was the Tower of Gwent. That was built 1435 by William Upthomas. Do you know, during the Civil War, it withstood bullets, 18 to 20 pounds, 60 a day, smashing into it. And although they destroyed part of the battlements on the top, they did not destroy the tower. The tower was actually destroyed after the siege of 1646. But we'll look at that later now, because I want to have a look at this incredible castle. If you look at the top of the walls there, you can just see the remains of the machicolations, the battlements, where they could drop things down. Now, if you imagine every single wall, tower was all matched, even the center tower there. Across the top of it had a set of those machicolations. It must have looked absolutely splendid. And that's the thing with this castle. It's got its feet firmly in the medieval times, but then it takes a stride through to the Tudor times and then the Stuart times. It becomes really a luxurious palace. It's a house, but boy, could they offer you some hospitality? Should we go in and have a look? Follow me. So here we are, right in front of the gatehouse. What used to be here was a drawbridge, but in later years it became this lovely frontage so people could come up in their carriages. Rather wonderful. However, although this is a palatial place to live, it was built for defense as well. These circular holes that you see all around the front of the gatehouse, they're gun ports. Some of them, though, are so difficult to be able to use. They're either across a guardrobe, a toilet, or they're parts where the oven should go. So I think most of these were actually for show, but some, of course, would work. Now, you've got to look close up to see some of the detail. Now, if you look at this tower here, just pointing to the one, two windows, then there's gun port, there's another gun port, then an arrow slit, and then right in the moat that goes around the old Tower of Gwent, you can see an outlet. That is for the poop. So I'm not sure if it would have been that pleasant to hang around here. I think it might have been a bit smelly, unless, of course, they had somebody to move everything along. Hey, who knows? Now, you look at the gatehouse itself. What would have been here was enough to blow your mind. So you have the archway. You can still see the general shape of the archway, but just above it, you had a series, I think it was four very small windows, and then above those small windows, you can just see left and right, almost at the top of the tower, the remains of the machicolations that went across and the battlements. When you come to this one side, you can just about see where the line of the floor used to run as it went back, and this is the kind of evidence you've got to try and find for yourself. For instance, there's no evidence here that there was a drawbridge in the old days. There's a great stone bridge. We'll have a look at that later, but if you come over here, underneath these wooden slats, there is actually a pit, and this is where the original drawbridge used to close up. Now, this gatehouse is so well defended, so we've got a drawbridge, right? Paul Cullis runs all the way up. Then you have a door. These door jams here shows you how enormous the doors must have been. You step in a little bit further, you've got windows for the guardrooms, but there's also a couple of hidden ones just here. We don't know if it's a spy hole or a gun port, because when the Port Cullis is down, you won't be able to use it. However, what if somebody snuck in? What if there was a sudden charge? Hey, you've got a gun port there, and you've got a gun port the other side. There would have been, I'm sure, up above us, some kind of murder holes, but the ceiling is gone. And it's so sad, because the ceiling that would have been here would have been vaulted, all of stone. Beautiful. That's the way to look at it. And then, another Port Cullis. So you have drawbridge, you have Port Cullis, you have the doors, another Port Cullis, another set of doors, and you're not in the house yet. So you've got to fight your way all the way through this. And just as a little bit of a surprise, before you get here, there was a main gate house further down the drive, which is now completely missing. So yeah, it was quite a stronghold, but there's still some more surprises. Above us, there was a range. That was kind of a library room. All that windows open there to give you such views. But I want to show you where the guards used to operate from. So just before we actually go into this range in here, you've got to see where the vaulted stone ceiling used to go. You can see it on the other side better. It's quite incredible, the details all around us. But interestingly, this is mirrored on this side, but we're missing the lower piece. So was the two doors here? One side, then the other? I don't know. We probably never will, but hey, let's go in, have a look. So we're in the, I suppose, the soldier's complex. This is your little guard room in here, which has all been decked out, but it's this thing that I like. It's a bread oven. So you have everybody in the house further on working away or being luxuriously looked after. But the guards, could they bake their own bread? Did they have their own kitchen here? So was it separate from the house? Which to me makes sense. You've got a cellar that goes deep down underneath here. Was it a prison? Was it a storeroom? I just like you to come down a little bit because I want to show you one tiny little piece that's down here, which is quite, quite sad. Come and have a look. They reckon this was used as a dungeon. If you look around the room, you can hardly see anything. There used to be a door there that closed it up. This was your only form of light. This was your only piece of light. So if you were down here as a prisoner, this is your lot. But in this room, there is a little bit of a secret. So this has been restored. It's a nice room. But if you look down here, there's a gun port. And behind here, but shh, don't tell anybody, there's another gun port. So if you look up on the outside, there's another one behind here, but it's all been actually filled in. So these three would have worked. They would have been the good gun ports. And then one of my favourite rooms in the castle, the guard room. It wouldn't have been just a stone seat like that. It would have had a wooden comfortable seat, a bit of nice soft hay or moss to wipe your backside. This, one of those most functional of rooms. So we've booked in at the guard room. We're cleared to enter the house. And as we go through here, an enormous courtyard. Clip stone or cobbled stones. This is, I understand this is from the Tudor era. So even if the clippity clop of the horse's hooves or somebody arrives or their carriage goes up to the main entrance to the halls over there, it then turns around, it comes back out, goes around to the left and then goes to the stables and the coach house, which had been outside the castle walls. Now to the right, it was all the domestic offices or the domestic range, the kitchens, where all the servants had their accommodation high up. This is the working side of the castle. So let's go and have a little look, see what we can find out. So we're starting at the front of the domestic range. First of all, there was an exit that goes out to the stables. Interestingly, this isn't the original castle or original parts of the castle. The castle wall was actually in, you can see a break in the wall just there. So that was the Tudor times that they extended it out so that there was more room for kitchens, more rooms for staff. But what I like is what's just a little bit further down. Before we go over and have a look at this tower, you got to remember there's an entire wall missing. You can see where it fitted into the castle, but also at the top of the tower, it's the same as the tower over there on the corner of the gate house, has the same machicolations. And then on top of that, you would have had your battlements. So we're in the kitchen complex, basically. As you come here, there's a fireplace, but I don't quite understand how this all works. It really is a jigsaw puzzle. Bit of a fireplace here. An oven's been built in here. Was there an entrance behind the fireplace into the room behind? It's so difficult sometimes to just piece the things together because they're not obvious. But next door, but one, it's really obvious what the room was. Let's go and have a look. You know, it's easy to forget when you're in these ruins just what the place looked like. If you go up to the top corner there of that tower, you can just see part of the battlements or the upper stories, in fact, has been left. On top of that were those machicolations which would have matched the ones at the front. So there's an awful lot of style in this building, even though the machicolations are for defense, they were elaborate. But here we are in a kitchen. We have an oven here. You've got to imagine the whole thing being built around. You can put the fuel in to fire it up. You can see the stones there that would absorb the heat. A fireplace, you can still see straight up the chimney, goes all the way up to what's left of the battlements there. Watch it, I don't think you can get anything too big to be roasting on here. Next door is an even bigger fireplace. But before we get there, you can see a better shape for this incredible oven. This has got to be, I suppose, part of the bakery, hasn't it? And you can see the dome shape, room for a shelf and the base here. This would have come round, the brickwork would have come round and there would have been a simple opening, which they closed then with a piece of slate or a piece of stone. Keep the heat in. But they really knew what they were doing. They were baking bread, it's what they did. And next door, you have the great big kitchen range. Look at this for a fireplace, totally functional. Two chimneys that split so upstairs, any fireplaces could connect into the chimneys. And if we come back and look up, you can see where there are adjoining fireplaces that joined into the various chimney breasts as they went up through the battlements. Yeah, you can imagine it, can't you? Roasting a wild boar or an ox. And you've either got the dog running in the little wheel to keep it turning, or you've got a spit boy whose job it is to stand and turn the spit. He will be dressed basically in his underpants because it's gonna be hot. But they will rotate him. There were so many people working, so many people bustling. And then the chef or the cook will come in with his big belly and he'll walk up and he'll pour the oil over the pig or whatever it is to baste it. He is the little god here. You do as you're told. But in the bakery, that's the baker's department. Can you imagine it bustling? The arguing, the shouting. But this isn't the only kitchen. This is just one. Because if you have a household, let's say he's got 20 knights, then he's got the servants. He's got his valet, the guy who helps him dress. You've got your butler, all of these different people that are developing in the houses. So just on a daily basis, you might have 50 people, 60 people in this house. They've gotta be fed, clothed, and accommodation. But then it's the big day. We're gonna have guests arriving. There is accommodation. This place is basically a massive hotel, but you just don't pay a bill at the end of it. If you are a noble lord yourself, you will bring your own staff here. So all of a sudden, the servants are doubling in numbers. So you've got to have extra kitchens, extra servant accommodation. And that's where we're gonna have a look now, at the extra kitchens. Because when I saw this first time, blew my mind. So this is a serving hatch. You're actually inside part of the house there. Your servants come in, the great hallies over there. This is the hatch where the food is served out when it comes to the big banquets. But this, the base of this tower, is nothing more than a great big kitchen. The noise in here, the bustling, the shouting, the growling, the people working and sweating to get your goose on the table. So come in, let's have a look inside. Massive fireplace. It's been looted. So much of it has gone, but this is enormous. Yes, you can get an entire bull on here. Oven for baking bread. All around the kitchen, there are drains so that as the floor with grease and filth can actually just be flushed out. And then to mirror it on the other side, you have the fireplace that is still here and you have the remains of the oven. So just blazing fire in here. Bread could be baked here. Cakes could be baked there. Meat on that side. Maybe something different on this side. This is the heart of the house. It's one of the main kitchens. But if you look up, you can see the remains of the stone vaulted ceiling. Above it, accommodation. Beautiful windows giving great aspects looking over the park. Surrounding this castle used to be some of the most splendid gardens. Flower gardens, the whole lot that would rival any stately home or castle in the whole of England and Wales. Don't forget where we are. We're in South Wales. And this really does stamp a bit of a mark for those people who lived here. Look at us. This is the pride. You come into South Wales, you've got to go past this castle, the Tower of Gwent. But we'll have a look at that a bit later as I've already mentioned. Meanwhile, the food has got to get across to the main house. So I'll show you where it went. So although I'm actually outside, I would have been inside. This is a passageway. This is an accommodation block here. Maybe for senior staff. It could be for mixed accommodation, but it doesn't look as luxurious as some of the other stuff. There's a doorway there that leads to the courtyard and to the main well. There is the well in the courtyard there. But now you imagine they're bustling through and they've got this great big goose. This is where they're going. Along this passageway into the Great Hall. You turn around, in you go. This is the entrance to the Great Hall. But they still won't be able to see you because in front of you here was a wooden screen. Above you was the Minstrel's Gallery. Now it was up there that the musicians would be playing their instruments. They'd be playing background music during the banquet and of course they would be well out of the way of the people attending the banquet and of course all of the servants bustling here and there. And the sound, the acoustics in here must have been absolutely amazing. Across the top of the Great Hall there will be the Earl of Worcester himself. He will be feasting at the table down here and here, great big long tables. There's a blazing fire, music, light streaming in from these incredible windows. The Worcester coat of arms in the wall on there. This really was a Great Hall. But look at it now, sad, ruined, but hey, at least we have what's left. And they're taking pretty good care of it, I must admit. So this is not medieval, we're in this Great Hall. This is actually Tudor, from what I can tell. This is the third Earl of Worcester's coat of arms. So you'd have had gentlemen dressed in the most incredible costumes and the women in their flowing gowns. But there's an interesting little thing. There's an enormous fireplace there. It will be roaring away, heating up this hall. But there's a window above it. So where does the smoke go? If you look up, you can see that the chimney is divided. It goes left and right, so the smoke goes up either side of the window, escaping through the chimney's eye upon the roof. But let's move on to next door. So we've come out of the Great Hall. We're into the chapel, which is gone. Basically, you've got to search for some little bits of evidence. There are some sockets here in the wall. You can see there's three rows of them, and it's believed that they may have been the timber support for an elaborate pew. A pew, it's a seat, and it would have been very posh. And there's a saying in English, take a pew, take a seat. But there's an interesting little bit of evidence. There's a stairway here, and it curves nicely to a doorway that would have been up there and would have led to an upper gallery that provided seating for the Lord and his family to hear the church service in private. There might have also been a doorway which led to the first floor accommodation of the luxurious part, the palatial part of this castle. Let's go and have a look. Right at the very top, it's all been destroyed. You can see the most beautiful bay window there, that aureole window. On top of it, you've then got the roof, then the battlements, which would show how tall this building was. This whole long gallery went all the way along so ladies could promenade, exercise when it was too cold outside or too wet. But then beneath it, you've got the accommodation. But just to show you that long gallery, we're going to have to squint a little bit. I want to show you the fireplace. Let's go in the stairways here. So this is a stairwell, but if you look in this direction, you can see the remains, the right-hand side of the fireplace. You can see the statues, the carved statues that are standing there. And you mirror that to the left-hand side, put the great mantle on the top of it. It must have been a wonderful fireplace. And then you have accommodation underneath it and their fireplaces, which run into the chimneys, which you can see high up over there. This whole place just, there are so many fireplaces, so many beautiful windows. It really was a luxurious place. But now let's go out into Fountains Court, into the center of the courtyard here. Because I've got an amazing little story for you. So we've just come out of the passageway to the chapel and the great hall. And then we're coming down these stairs into the Fountain Courtyard. But look at these base stones here. There must have been wonderful columns on both sides, a beautiful arch. But if you follow the footings where the walls used to be, this whole range here, upstairs and downstairs, there may be an extra floor upstairs because there's so much of this missing and the beautiful windows. And then as you come round, you have that porch way with the grand staircase. So this is the porch way, the grand entrance into all of the accommodation. And it goes all the way up to the top. I'm gonna have a look up there in a little minute, but see how the wall comes around. Imagine the view the rooms would have had on the other side when you look over those rolling hills of Gwent. But in the center of this courtyard was a fountain. And this fountain was quite remarkable. Well, that's my little story I wanna tell you about it. So this used to be a fountain, but now it's just, there's nothing here. It's all been blocked off. And the machinery that went behind it is lost. See, the story is that this was actually made 1630 to 1640 just on the eve of that terrible civil war. They call it the English Civil War. If it was the English Civil War, why was it in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales? It was the Great Rebellion. But anyway, Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, was a bit of an engineer. It's said that he invented the first steam engine, but he was only playing at it. He had a water commanding machine. They reckoned that the workings for it were at the base of the Great Tower and that it would rumble away and it could shoot a stream of water high up in the air as high as the medieval tower over yonder, just over there. And just on the eve of the civil war, the legend is that there were some parliamentarian soldiers. Common base fellows were searching the castle for weapons. So there must've been weapons stored in the cellars over yonder there. So they turned on the water commanding machine and the roar and the rumble of the water. What's this? Said the soldiers. Oh, it's just the lions in the cellars. Lions? So they abandoned their search. There must've been weapons down there. But can you imagine though? The range of all of these beautiful, luxurious apartments and then this stream of water, this spout going as high as all of the roofs around. It must've just been something to literally blow your mind. So when it was time for dinner and you're gonna go across to the hall, the guests would assemble in these great staircases here and arm in arm, the couples would come down and promenade out through the doorway, across the courtyard to the great hall. All pomp and circumstance showing off. Wonderful. A high banister apparently was down there so that the ladies could hold themselves. But here is the entrance to the private apartments. So there's everything in here. There was a toilet. There is a fireplace. There is beautiful windows. Further on along the range, it would have been a magnificent view, but there's just this one thing I want to show you. So here is the beautiful fireplace and a gun port. So how is that gonna work? You know, just to show that some of these gun ports, these circular gun ports were impractical to use. There's something else I've just spotted here. I've been looking at them throughout the castle, but forgot to mention them. So here, there's a Mason's Mark. Now, if we come out just at the entrance to the archway here, let me show you some more. That Mason's Mark here in the porch is the same as the one at the fireplace. But here is another Mason's Mark, a trowel. You start to look around and you think into yourself, who are these people? We don't know their names, but hey, they have left their mark. So we're gonna leave this opulence behind now because we're gonna go across the courtyard and have a look at the beginnings of this castle. We're gonna look at the Tower of Gwent, the Great Tower. So here we are. This is the beginning of Raglan Castle, the Tower, the Great Tower, the Tower of Gwent, as they called it. 1435, Sir William App Thomas purchases the Manor of Raglan for 1,000 marks. That's 666 pounds, 13 shillings and fourpence, which is amazing when you think they've even dotted the fourpence. But as you pan around, you can see the beautiful stone arch there going over the moat, which goes all the way around this keep, this tower. Do you know, it was turned into a garden until this very day, I must be honest with you. It's lovely just to sit and relax when most of the visitors have gone, it's nice and quiet. But there's more to that moat than just an ornamental pond. It's actually functional. You've gotta get across it to get to that tower and take it. You can get across the stone bridge, but there's a surprise waiting for you at the end. Yes, it's a drawbridge, but it's more than just the drawbridge. Let's go and have a look. So, as I said, there was a drawbridge and this drawbridge was what's called a bascule apparently, which means, I think, seesaw in French. So the great weight, the counterweight would bring it up and it would fold up, up there in those grooves. But there was another one, a smaller one here, but this is filled in and used as a fireplace, so I understand. So you could have the main drawbridge closed and then there was a pedestrian drawbridge just here. So you've got just people walking backwards and forwards onto the bridge from this small drawbridge. So there was actually two, but eventually that one was walled up, as I said, used as something else. And then come the Tudor times, this was all one great stone walkway. But this was a grand entrance, a beautiful window in between the two channels there for the drawbridge. There were coat of arms, there were all kinds of things. As you walk in, there was real splendor. Although this is a castle keep, a tower, it was really quite luxurious. And we're gonna start at the bottom and work our way up. So we're in the basement of the castle. This is the kitchen. Your great fireplace here, right? Don't forget, this used to be a complete part of the castle brought down in the civil war. You then have the well for the kitchen. So the well is inside the kitchen, so you can't cut off the water supplies at this place. And then a gun port. Now, although it's on top of the well, it does give you a little bit of covering fire, but just against the bank over there. So, hey, it's a bit impractical, but it could have been used. Then as you come along here, there's a little surprise at the end of the wall. It's the Garderobe. It's the toilet. Every floor was connected to the toilet chute that emptied out into the moat. So this is the kitchen, but within the kitchen, there is another room. This is the strong room. This is the treasury, the department where they keep all of the gold and the monuments, the important bits of paper that belong to the castle inside the secure room. Look how thick the walls are. There would have been a very small door to get in here, and it could be secured for sure. And so here we have the treasury. So the best way to describe this place is by standing here and just going around the room. So as I said, we're in the kitchen. Then you go up to the first floor there. That's the Earl's Chambers. These are the important rooms of the house. You can see the grand fireplace there. Now just above it, you can see the stone corbels, which would have taken the weight of the great oak beams going across for the floor above. Now these have been chomped around. You can see evidence that some things have been bricked up and some things have been added, but the floor above has beautiful windows, nice accommodation. Each of them has their access to the latrines going down. Then even further up, you have the fourth floor. Once again, smaller maybe, but with some lovely windows. But then from accounts at the time, there was another story. So this was five stories high. And then on top of that, you have the battlements and the overhanging matriculations, which matched all of the matriculations in the castle. Now you can actually get up there. It's a narrow, winding staircase and passage, but let's go and take a look. It's exhausting. It's a long way up. Phew, made it. I'll tell you what, we're an awful way up. We're above the castle now. The great tower, or the tower, was taller than the castle. But when you look down, you can then see details. For instance, above a grand window there, you can see all of those carved coats of arms. And if you follow that roof line along and then come up to the gatehouse tower there, you can see the matriculations, where there were gaps where they could drop, you know, scalding water, boiling sand. You can also see just the other side of the tower, the remains of the actual battlements themselves with the arrow loops. So that's the highest point of these towers. But those matriculation patterns were all around the castle towers, all around here. But where we're standing now, there is another floor above us. So we're not at the highest point of the castle. It's actually gone. Now, on the very corner of the towers, you can just about see gargoyles, their heads at the end of the drain. So what happens, it's raining, all the guttering and the lead work, water swims around and gushes out of the mouths of the gargoyles. And interestingly, I've just learned that a lot of the lead that sealed the roofs in was actually looted from Tinton Abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries. That's just down the road. But you look, you can see the roof line as it goes around the lower battlements there, looking back into the courtyard. And just one last little thing I want to show you. There's a strike mark. That small window on the second story, just to the left of it, a strike mark from a cannonball. And then over to the right, a little bit lower, another strike mark. And then some more further down. The signs of the Civil War are actually here. It's amazing when you think about it that no matter what was fired at this tower during the English Civil War, when was it, 1642 to 1651? During the siege, 1646, lots of dates there. They hardly made a dent on the tower. What they did do was they collapsed part of Raglan Castle round to the back. The Parliamentarian Army, who were the guys on the outside, they poured in, the castle surrendered. Now, after the Civil War, enemy castles, and to Parliament, this was an enemy castle, had to be slighted. Now, it wasn't just Parliament who did this. Charles I, the Royalist King, he had Abergavenny Castle demolished, apparently. So the work began. They decided to dismantle this piece by piece, but it proved formidable too much. So they fetched one of the walls down by undermining. The castle then goes into decline. I know there were some repairs done to it, but bit by bit, it falls into ruin. But I wanna go downstairs and show you some of the surrounding, the great tower around the base. So, as I mentioned, after the siege of 1646 in that Civil War, that they brought this side of the tower down by undermining. So what they've done is they've dug away stone or blown away stone until eventually there is such a gap. They would have put wooden uprights to support it, and then they would have burnt it down. That's undermining. And that whole side of this lovely tower simply came crashing down into the moat. It's so sad. That Civil War, 10 years pretty much of sheer hell. And look at the destruction it caused and the divisions because the countries are still divided. I've often seen arguments between men who support Parliament and others who support the King. I think it's just a tragedy, but hey, this, it's a wonderful ruin. You just imagine what it was like in its heyday. Well, I hope you enjoyed our little visit and tour of Raglan Castle down here in South Wales. If you did, like, share and subscribe. But let me be honest with you, if ever you're in this part of the world, then you get the chance. This is one of the castles you want to put on your list. If you'd like to support the channel further, why not consider joining our Patreon community? The link is in the description. I'm going to give a shout out to some of my Patreon members. We have Britt and Eli Heather, Mary Rees, and Dave Hagley. Hey guys, thanks a million. Bye for now.