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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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Castle Villa, Brawdy

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castle Gwilym; Cas Wilia; Castle-y-Cymry; Castell Willia; Castell Wilym; Castle William

In the community of Brawdy.
In the historic county of Pembrokeshire.
Modern authority of Pembrokeshire.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SM88162766
Latitude 51.90700° Longitude -5.08129°

Castle Villa, Brawdy has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Cas Wilia is a sub-rectangular, or semi-circular enclosure, c.43m by 35m, bounded by triple banks with intermediate ditches on all sides save the east, having a well preserved entrance to the west. (Coflein)

The monument comprises the remains of an earthwork/stone-built enclosure. The date or precise nature of the enclosure is unknown, but it is likely to be later prehistoric or medieval. The enclosure is defended on the west by triple banks and ditches. The east side is occupied by farm buildings which have obliterated the banks and the interior is occupied by a farmyard. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

The multi-vallate form would seem to suggest a pre-historic origin but King records this as a medieval castle site. A farm stands within the enclosure and several finds of stones with Latin and Ogham inscriptions here suggest Roman and Dark Age occupation of fairly high status. (RCAHMW, p. 29-9). Certainly use of this site as a defensible enclosure by the medieval stone building that occupied the site (RCAHMW p. 30) of the modern farm can not be dismissed.

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
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is PE222.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 305306.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 12149.

Books
- Davis, Paul, 2000, A Company of Forts. A Guide to the Medieval Castles of West Wales (Gomer Press) p. 29
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 399
  RCAHMW, 1925, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Pembrokeshire (HMSO) p. 25 no. 62; 28-9 no. 66; p. 30 no. 76 online copy
  Lewis, Samual, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales online copy (British Encampment)
Periodical Articles
- Jones, F., 1981, 'Castle Villa - Cas Wilia' The Pembrokeshire historian: journal of the Pembrokeshire Local History Society Vol. 7 p. 63-74 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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 07/07/2016 09:07:12

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