Oystermouth Castle: a brief history
by Gerald Gabb
Oystermouth Castle, c1850
Oystermouth Castle from Southend, 2006
Oystermouth Castle is not a great fortress like the castles of Caerphilly, Kidwelly or Harlech, but it has all sorts of fascinations. For its size, it is very complicated, with oddities, which have defeated the inquiries of generations of students and together with its defensive elements, it has the feel of a place that was lived in, things of decided aesthetic appeal, and a wonderful site.
The castle had many Victorian visitors
The visitors can be seen riding donkeys and are acompanied by several retainers
The reopening event in July 2011, after refurbishment
The Castle stands on a limestone hillock, overlooking the modern village of Mumbles. There is evidence for medieval fields in the close vicinity, but nothing else to tell us of a settlement. The slightly more distant villages of Norton and Newton may be the oldest centres of population. The original castle was probably just a square stone keep, perhaps with a rubble-stone outer wall. This keep still stands, the roughest-built part of the castle, and a centrepoint around which extensions were made over 250 years.
Construction is likely to have begun in about the year 1100, when Henry Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, was given the area called Gwyr by King Henry I of England. He made Swansea his ‘caput’ or capital, doling out the rest to his followers. The manor of Oystermouth went to William de Londres, and it was he who probably had the original castle built.
The Normans did not arrive in large numbers, and castles were essential to assert their dominance, and as places of refuge. For 200 years or more Wales was a frontier zone. The Normans were driven out of Gower for a while in 1135 and as late as 1403-5 Owain Glyndwr probably controlled the whole area. In between there are specific references to Oystermouth being ‘burnt’ or ‘taken’ in 1116, 1215 and 1287.
In 1284, Edward I visited the castle, and by his time it had probably grown to its current area, with a substantial gatehouse and a curtain wall enclosing a fair-sized courtyard or bailey. Within this enclosure the block of buildings around the keep had extended to the rear and the side, with other structures built against the outer wall.
Experts have identified residential areas for the lord, his family and his stewards, as well as for the more ordinary folk who acted as servants and soldiers,kitchens, storerooms and guardrooms. There must also have been a courtroom and prison - William de Langton of Kilvrough in Gower was certainly one who, in 1302, was held captive at the castle. There is a strong legend that rooms at the back of the keep have ‘whipping posts’ in them, though unfortunately they may well have far more to do with holding up that part of the structure.
The most recent part of the castle seems to be the chapel tower, with one of its fine traceried windows visible from outside. This may have been built in the mid-14th Century, but after that it was gradually used less and less. By the late 17th Century, it is likely that it was ruined to the extent it is today. Its collapse and the removal of stone for other purposes was slowed down in Victorian times, as the idea that such survivals should be preserved for historical and sentimental reasons took hold.
The castle stands over the village
Oystermouth had become a demesne castle sometime in the late 12th Century, that is it reverted to the direct ownership of the lords of Gower. From 1203 until the 1320s, this meant the de Breos family, then for over a hundred years the de Mowbrays and the Beauchamps. In 1461, the lordship and the castle went to the Herbert family, whose descendants, as Dukes of Beaufort, are still lords of the manor today. In 1927, the castle was transferred to Swansea Corporation. It is normally open to the public between 11.00 and 5.00 from Easter to the end of September, and is run by the Friends of Oystermouth Castle, please check.
The pier viewed from the castle