Markets in the Middle Ages in South Wales: Medieval retail therapy

  Markets have been held in the Welsh Marches since Medieval times: this one, in Abergavenny has been on Tuesdays for nearly 800 years. We have a reference to it between 1256 and 1267 when Lord Edward was in possession of the lordships of Abergavenny, Monmouth and the Three Castles.          Recently some official (officious?) pronouncement advised the elderly that, when walking on icy pavements, they should imitate the gait of the penguin and toddle slowly, beak down and body bent forward. That is exactly how I proceed in a market so that I am sure of spotting any bargains whilst honing my bartering skills.
   Before the advent of markets, trade was more in the form of barter and we know that a good horse was worth 12 cows as was a quality hawk or a sword: the earliest mention of money in this area was towards the end of the 11th century when payment was in gold or silver or even in coins from Saxon England. An interesting cashless sale by 2 brothers in 740 was 500 acres of land between the Rivers Monnow and Wye in exchange for 24 cows, a good horse, a precious sword and a Saxon woman but we do not know who received what.

The growth and organisation of markets
   Towns grew up around the great castles imposed by the Norman conquerors in the Welsh Marches and provided defence as well as supplying goods. A chain of markets in these settlements evolved according to 2 different systems: the "trader" model and the "consumer" type. It is likely that the Marches combined both. In the trader model, local markets were held on consecutive weekdays within a day's journey of one another so that a merchant could visit them all in turn and stock up on Saturday at ports such as Gloucester.
   There were 2 circuits in Monmouthshire although they were probably not discrete: Grosmont held a market on Mondays; Abergavenny on Tuesdays; Monmouth on Wednesdays; Ross on Thursdays and Newent on Fridays. There was another market at Grosmont on Fridays, a Monday and Thursday one at Crickhowell and one established later on Wednesdays at Tretower. On a different route, Usk's day was Monday, Tryleg's Wednesday, Caerleon's Thursday and Newport's on Saturday, leaving Tuesday again free for Abergavenny. Where there was sufficient trade, markets could be held in nearby places on the same day (consumer model) and there were others I have not mentioned.

   Records for a comparable town (Newark in 1328) show that goods traded included: corn, salted meat and bacon, furs, sheep, goats, pigs, fresh meat, fleeces, tanned hides, cloth, iron, steel, tin, woad, wine, wool, fruit, nuts, timber, horses, hay, rushes glass, garlic, salt, firewood, coal, nails and horseshoes. To maximise trade, markets were placed so that travellers had to pass through them to go on their way and shops may have grown around them. The trade they engendered in the 13th and 14th centuries did not reach such intensity again until the agrarian and industrial revolutions. Records reveal exports, too, into England from Chepstow, Caerleon and Usk of salmon, oxen, pigs, lampreys, partridges, malt and vinegar.

Their place in the political structure
    Permission for markets and fairs in South East Wales was in the hands of the Marcher Lords (not in the control of the king as in England) and these happenings became part of a calculated political strategy for their emerging aspirations. Such commercial dealings led to great social change as surplus consumers and traders were brought together in a recognised place from which a ruling elite could draw revenue. This facilitated the funding of armies so that territorial ambitions could be fulfilled. It was therefore in the best interest of the lords to encourage an efficient system in their area and the process of establishing a market went along with the growth of a new town and borough. A lord would then have to co-operate or at least take into account the patterns of trade in a neighbouring lordship of which there were several in this area in that period. No point in disrupting a working economy!

   We still love a market and the bustle and excitement that a good one creates. Added to this we can enjoy a sense of partaking in a way of life that is hundreds of years old - and, as always in this blog, savour a large slice of CAKE after our retail therapy.

In the Tithe Barn cafe, Abergavenny

As these towns mostly grew up around castles, you might like to fit in a visit whilst you are there. I have written about Abergavenny Castle, Usk Castle and Monmouth Castle and there are also the Roman remains at Caerleon and fascinating things to see at Trellech (Tryleg.) Of the Three Castles, Skenfrith, Grosmont and White Castles, I have, so far, covered the last.

The Welsh Marches: history, castles and CAKE

   The term Welsh Marches (French "marche = border - in Welsh "Y Mers") was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales. This region, "Marchia Walliae", formed a porous barrier between England and "Pura Wallia" (true Wales), and was a frontier society created by William I when he established 3 Marcher Lordships to subdue and govern the unruly Welsh. Castles sprang up immediately and were symbols of power as well as practical means of defence and attack. These were mostly wooden motte-and-bailey structures but later were enlarged and fortified in stone: the Marches still have the highest concentration of such castles in Gt. Britain - and possibly the best CAKE.

The Marcher Lords

Chepstow and Usk castles

  William I honoured 3 of his most loyal supporters as earls with portions of this area: Hugh d'Avranches in Chester; Roger de Montgomerie in Shrewsbury and William fitzOsbern in Hereford. Each lordship was distinct, independent and different from the rest. Yet all the Marcher Lords had powers unlike those of comparable magnates in England. Their remit if keeping the region in order at all costs without interference allowed them particular rights: to make war on their neighbours for personal gain; to own lands exempt from taxation; to be able to create forests (uninhabited spaces for hunting), markets and boroughs.  They could keep any territory they conquered but the area was never completely subjugated.
   After the pattern of the Welsh princes, they owed allegiance to the crown in times of war but otherwise had a remarkable degree of autonomy and could construct castles free from the restrictions imposed in England. Wherever castles were built, small town tended to grow up around them; examples are Monmouth, Chepstow and Ludlow. At first these towns were little more than groups of merchants living under the protection of the seignorial castle but, in the second half of the 13th century, they acquired corporate existence, Monmouth being one of the first.
   The lordships were geographically discrete, separate from England and ruled by their own laws "sicut regale" - "like unto a king" as Gilbert de Clare stated. The Welsh provided wartime man power for English kings throughout this period (their bowmen were highly skilled) and smaller lordships proliferated as the Normans encourage immigration from Norman and Angevin regions. The king's writ never ran during this period in the whole area.
 

Organisation

Ludlow Castle

   The area tended to become divided into the Englishry and the Welshry: the incomers took possession of the lower, fertile parts for rural settlement and arable farming, using the meadows and riverside regions for feeding livesstock. Sometimes manors were established. The Welsh were not usually displaced but, by and large, were left with the uplands and other less profitable land for sheep and cattle with winter quarters ("hendre") and summer pastures ("hafod"). It is notable that "da" meant "cattle" or "wealth/goods" and taxes could be paid by "cymorth", the rendering of a valuable beast to the lord. Other income came from the sale of demesne crops, tenant rents, court fines and resources such as mills and fisheries. 

   The unit of governance was not called the hundred as in England but the "commote" and the Domesday Book has entries for those which were under Norman control but still subject to Welsh law and custom. They were assessed for military purposes and taxation and Welsh law was administered in Welsh courts by Welsh officials although English officials might deal with English tenants - disputes arose over this jurisdiction (similar to those caused by the choice of a rugby referee of an England/Wales match but less bloody.)

   Ludlow Castle later became the organising centre of the Council of Wales (and the Marches) until its abolition in 1536 by Henry VIII. Between the high point in the Middle Ages and that demise, there was a gradual decline in powers after Edward I, on conquering the area, established shire counties on the English model instead. Yet the notion remained until the Industrial Revolution.

  The Welsh Marches retain a distinctive flavour and offer the visitor fascinating historical sites to savour with rewards of excellent CAKE after an educational and enjoyable trip or microadventure. Here is the River Wye near Symonds Yat on a lovely winter walk. Buses roam all over, from Chepstow Castle onwards to Usk Castle as well as the later Raglan Castle. A little further away is Ludlow Castle, intriguing with its round chapel - and magnificent Goodrich Castle still houses Roaring Meg, the formidable mortar.  Further information about William fitzOsbern, one of the powers behind the original invasion can be found in my post about him. For an account of trade and markets in the area click here.

Monmouth Castle: a fascinating ruin

What there was and what is left
    Monmouth Castle is a ruin as distinct from being ruinous. By this I mean that, unlike many partly decayed castles where the main outline is still visible, the visitor has to use a good deal of imagination to realise its original extent.
   What have completely vanished are: the curtain wall, the gatehouse and great round keep (which, until the Civil War, was where the Great Castle House now stands) whereas what remains are the ruins of the Great Tower and Hall. The whole extent once took in a roughly circular area reaching as far as Agincourt Square.
   In some ways it adds to the interest to try to visualise the imposing structure as it was - and had to be - in order to control a strategically important part of the Welsh Marches.

Its position and importance
     Castell Trefynwy has a commanding situation on a steep bluff at the confluence of the rivers Wye and Monnow in a part of the country that gave trouble to the new conquerors. Early in 1067 William fitzOsbern, a staunch ally of William 1 and one who was a strongly positive voice in discussions of the proposed invasion, was created Earl of Hereford and constructed a line of forts along the Dore-Monnow-Wye line from Clifford in the north to Chepstow in the south. By 1100 the castle was effectively the caput or chief centre of an independent Marcher lordship; at the time of the Domesday survey William fitzBaderon held the custody of the castle.
   On a few occasions during the Middle Ages, the castle and town were involved in events of more than local importance. During the reign of Henry III, Wales was torn in the conflict between the Crown and baronage and the castle was taken in 1233 by Richard Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who defeated John of Monmouth, the king's lieutenant, in a pitched battle near the town. In 1264, when it was in the hands of Prince Edward, it was captured by Simon de Montfort who was in Monmouth with King Henry on 28th June. During Owain Glyn Dwr's rebellion, the Welsh slaughtered the opposition force in 1404, killing "the more part of the English" and pursuing the remnant to the town gates. The Civil War saw its profile raised again (see below.)

The construction

   What you see now are two ruined rectangular buildings, interlocking obliquely with each other and built entirely of Old Red Sandstone. The larger lower building, the Great Hall, retains, at its north-east entrance doorway, a late 13th century moulded shaft-base which confirms that it was built soon after 1267 for Edmund Crouchback, who held the lordship from then onwards. (We have noted elsewhere that it did not do in the Middle Ages to have a physical deficiency such as a red face or short legs if you did not want those little flaws noted for posterity in an unkind nick-name). It was single-storey, open to the roof, with one large room used for holding the courts.
   This building links with the Great Tower, a 2-storeyed rectangular 12th century keep, part of the original masonry castle and a smaller version of that at Chepstow with flat pilaster buttresses and round-headed windows. When remodelled in the mid-14th century it had a splendid first floor room and one can still see the long 2-light east window with remains of a traceried head and embrasure seats. It was almost certainly here that Prince Henry of Monmouth was born on 16th September 1387.
   It is helpful to envisage this area and its relationship with the upper town as resembling a motte and its bailey.

The Civil War
    Between the Middle Ages and the 17th century, Monmouth was an administrative centre and venue for the assizes. As early as 1443, the accounts record the cleaning of the rooms and towers of the castle in preparation for the coming to Monmouth of the Justices Itinerant of the duchy.
    In the Civil War, Monmouthshire, through the influence of Raglan Castle, was a major contributor of men and money to the Crown. When it was captured by the Roundheads (I like nick-names too!) in September 1644, it was a significant event. It changed hands 3 times but the Royalist garrison finally yielded in October 1645 to an army 3000 strong: it had been mined and was found to contain 7 guns, 4 sling pieces, 300 muskets, 600 pikes and ample ammunition and provisions. With the surrender of Raglan Castle, all of South Wales and the Marches fell under Parliamentary control.

  In 1647, the ruin of the castle, which had been reported as decaying 100 years earlier, was deliberately accelerated. A local diarist recorded that Colonel Kyrle arrived and gave orders for its slighting and "the townsmen and soldiers began to pull down the Round Tower of the Castle and to demolish the 'Works.' He tells us also that on December 22, 1647, "about 12 o'clock, the Tower in the Castle of Monmouth fell down, upon one side, whilst we were at sermon." I wonder if anyone listened to the end of the homily! The subsidence was probably due to the undermining tunnels having collapsed.


Most famous for ...
   ... being the birthplace of Henry of Monmouth, the future victorious King Henry V, of whom more - much more - in a later blog article and whose slightly disproportionate statue can be seen in a high niche in the Shire Hall. The shape of the front of this building is determined by the outer reaches of the bailey and I am told that remnants of the surrounding ditch can be found in the back gardens behind, though I was apprehended as I tried to climb a few walls to check this out for you.  Monmouth has plenty of CAKE opportunities as you walk down to its unique fortified river bridge - again, more on this later as on Great Castle House. From the garden in the Priory, quite near the castle, you can see the attractive window where Geoffrey of Monmouth possibly wrote his imaginative history, popularising King Arthur for all times. You will probably want to combine your visit to the castle with a look around at these other sites, the Shire Hall and the church, or a walk up the River Wye.

Buses leave from the lower end of Monnow Street to Raglan Castle, Usk Castle, Caerleon Roman remains, Newport, Ross-on-Wye, Chepstow Castle, Tintern Abbey, Trellech hidden city and standing stones etc.
I have taken a brief look at Henry V already as well having written short biographies of William fitzOsbern and Owain Glyn Dwr.