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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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Oldcastle Bridgend

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Nolton; Henecastelle, Penbont

In the community of Bridgend.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Bridgend.
Preserved county of Mid Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS905794
Latitude 51.50372° Longitude -3.57878°

Oldcastle Bridgend has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

In the C12 two castles were recorded at or near Bridgend. Oldcastle was presumably an earth & timber structure, and must have been built by 1100, as the later Newcastle was first heard of in 1106. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

Traditional site of Nolton Castle - the Oldcastle to Newcastle to the N (Nprn93036); site first noticed by Leyland, who observed ruins here in the e.16th C., these possibly to be identified with traces of structure(s) underlying the N end of the present tithe barn (Nprn401431): on the N of the tithe barn a possible curvilinear enclosure, c.33m across, has been suggested, defined by steep scarps on the N, above the Ogmore River, & W, these features being reflected/reflecting the garden layout associated with Fitzhamon Court, depicted on OS County series 2nd ed. (Glamorgan. XL.7 1899). (Coflein–ref. RCAHMW, 1991)

Comments

King writes stone remains are mentioned but this seems unlikely as part of the castle (although later stone building on castle site entirely probable).

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 401432.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00393m.

Books
- RCAHMW, 1991, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 3 Part 1a: The Early Castles (London: HMSO) VE4 p. 159-60
  Salter, Mike, 1991, The Castles of Gwent, Glamorgan and Gower (Malvern) p. 60
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 171
  Armitage, Ella, 1912, The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles (London: John Murray) p. 295 online copy
  Lewis, Samual, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales online copy
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J. and Thomas, H.J., 1978, 'Medieval Glamorgan' Morgannwg Vol. 22 p. 26 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1906, Leland's Itinerary in Wales (Bell and Sons; London) p. 29 online copy

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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.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

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This record last updated before 1 February 2016

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