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The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.

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Madocs Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castell Madog; Garth

In the community of Pant.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Merthyr Tydfil.
Preserved county of Mid Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO06400952
Latitude 51.77655° Longitude -3.35805°

Madocs Castle has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

Description

Farm built on the site of a small castle or fortified manor house, called Madoc's Castle, known to have been abandoned by the 14th century. The Post Medieval (early 18th century) farmhouse of Garth belongs to the hearth passage group of sub-Medieval houses, and is of the three-unit chimney backing on entry type, with hall between heated outer and narrow inner rooms. A characteristic feature of the building is the lateral stone stairs within an outshut. The Merthyr Tithe map of 1850 details the layout of the area's farmsteads and holdings prior to the arrival of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway. The holding of Garth, Owned by one Mary Williams, was characterised by an irregular arrangement of linear fields, possibly amalgamated Medieval strip fields. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

Comments

Spurgeon writes Garth Farm is a recent building; that it's former name was Castell Madog; that there is a brief reference to a castle here (Wilkins); that there are no traces of earthworks that might indicate a former castle. Isolated from medieval settlement. In Hague's provisional list of castle site but the suggestion that the current building contains ancient work is dismissed by Spurgeon. However there remains a slight possibility that this was a castle site.

Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >	Coflein	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	Historic Wales	V. O. B.	Geology	LIDAR
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 18708.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00471m.

Books
- Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 256 (listed as manorial ruin -mislocated in Monmouthshire and wrong map ref.)
  Salter, Mike, 1991, The Castles of Gwent, Glamorgan and Gower (Malvern) p. 75 (slight)
  Hague, D.B., 1971, in Pugh, T.B. (ed), Glamorgan County History Vol. 3 The Middle Ages (Cardiff) p. 443
  Wilkins, 1867, History of Merthyr Tydfil p. 26
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J. with Roberts, D.J. and Thomas, H.J., 1999, 'Supposed Castles in Glamorgan; A review' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 39 27-40

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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This record last updated before 1 February 2016

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