JAMES RUSSELL day: Meeting details tba.
Chepstow was among the most important ports in medieval south Wales, it’strade far outstripping the later well-known ports of Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. We shall visit three sites, the most important surviving relics of Chepstow’s medieval importance. The impressive and substantial remains ofthe13th century town wall, built probably at the instigation of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. St Mary’s Priory, founded by the first Norman lord of Chepstow, William FitzOsbern (a close confidant of the Conqueror); the priory has an early Romanesque nave with a fine west door and windows, it is notable too as being among the earliest Romanesque buildings in Britain designed to be to be stone vaulted (the vault now destroyed). The priory contains several interesting monuments, including that of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester and the grave of the regicide, Henry Marten. Finally, we shall visit Chepstow Castle, now in the care of Cadw – Welsh Historic Monuments. The castle is a large and complex multi-period site with highlights including the very early Norman great tower – of disputed date and function. Uniquely in Britain the tower includes fragments of its original internal decorative scheme. The castle also incorporates late 12th early 13th century curtain walls and mural towers including an early twin towered gatehouse and the oldest surviving castle gates in Britain, together with an exceptionally fine and largely intact set of late 13th century domestic accommodation, and Marten’s Tower an enormous late 13th century mural tower with further elaborate self-contained domestic accommodation.
Between these major sites, we will walk through the medieval marketplace of Chepstow and view the remains of its medieval buildings, including a fine rib-vaulted undercroft with decorated roof bosses.