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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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Old Hall Camp

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Huberts Folly; Castell Machaethlon; Old Hall Ffrydd; Old Hall Frydd; Stultita Huberti

In the community of Kerry.
In the historic county of Montgomeryshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Powys.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO20668971
Latitude 52.49951° Longitude -3.17005°

Old Hall Camp has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a Masonry Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

A fine camp circling an out -jutting spur of Kerry Hill, behind the farm of Old Hall. A comparatively modern hedge cuts it into two almost equal halves. Its interior measures 165 feet from north to south, by 135 feet from east to west. The summit of the hill was probably levelled, and its sides scarped ; making the averiige drop of 20 feet from the inner margin to the bottom of the ditch very sharp. The counterscarp is from 5 to 8 feet, and is also very abrupt. The western approach from the higher ground at the back is defended by a second bank and ditch, now almost entirelv obliterated. (RCAHMW)

An oval enclosure, 35m by 45m, an adapted natural knoll, defined by partial banks supplementing scarps, and a ragged ditch, the whole being 90m by 80m overall. Thought to be 'Hubert's folly', a castle commenced, but left incomplete in 1228. (Coflein)
I
In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, the justiciar and resolute defender of Chinon and Dover, had humbled LLywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd at Montgomery, where with the young King Henry III he had assembled an army and founded a new masonry castle, and before an intended punitive campaign was launched Llywelyn had submitted meekly. In 1228, however, when Hubert and the king advanced from Montgomery with a greatly augmented army, their confrontation with Llywelyn in the adjancent Vale of Kerry was a fiasco, and the justiciar's distinguished military career was tarnished.
Hubert's humiliation was magnified by his vain attempt to found another new castle, particularly as he had jocularly named it Hubert's Folly (Stultita Huberti). Before its completion he was compelled to slight it and retreat from Kerry. (Spurgeon, 2003)
Comments

Hubert almost certainly intended to build a significant masonry castle but did not progress beyond the ground works of the encirculing ditch, probably with a timber pallisade to protect the site and collected building materials. Spurgeon suggests a form like Grosmont Castle, refortified by Hubert in 1227, was the probably intended final form.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER   Scheduling        
Maps >
Streetmap   NLS maps   Where's the path   Old-Maps      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Historic Wales   V. O. B.   Geology   LIDAR  
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Sources of information, references and further reading
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This record last updated 04/07/2016 07:27:53
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