Grosmont, Monmouthshire - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Grosmont is a village in Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the historic county of Monmouthshire which covered a much larger area. The largest town is Abergavenny. There are many castles in Monmouthshire .-Historic county:...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

near Abergavenny

Abergavenny

Abergavenny , meaning Mouth of the River Gavenny, is a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 15 miles west of Monmouth on the A40 and A465 roads, 6 miles from the English border. Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches...

History

Grosmont Castle

Grosmont Castle is a ruined castle in Grosmont, Monmouthshire very near the present English / Welsh border, approximately 8 miles northeast of Abergavenny, between Abergavenny, Hereford and Monmouth.-Grosmont Castle:...

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/213771 is a major feature of the village and was the birthplace of Henry, 1st Duke of Lancaster. St. Nicholas church in Grosmont http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/214216 probably has ancient origins but the tower and other parts were built by Prince Edmund (son of Henry III of England

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

and later Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster

Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster

Edmund of Crouchback, 1st Earl of Leicester and Lancaster , was the second surviving son of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence. In his childhood he had a claim on the Kingdom of Sicily. His nickname refers to his participation in the Ninth Crusade.-Childhood:Edmund was born in London...

) for his mother Eleanor of Provence

Eleanor of Provence

Eleanor of Provence was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Henry III of England from 1236 until his death in 1272....

(Queen Eleanor). There are circumstantial indications (Pickford, 2003) that Grosmont may have originated as an Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

camp.

Grosmont was once an important medieval township. It was granted a borough charter, possibly in 1219, and by 1250 there may have been as many as 160 burgage

Burgage

Burgage is a medieval land term used in England and Scotland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town rental property , owned by a king or lord. The property usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land, with the narrow end facing the street...

plots. It retained its corporation

Corporation (feudal Europe)

In feudal Europe, a corporation was an aggregation of business interests into a single legal body, entity or compact, usually with an explicit license from city, church, or national leaders...

status until 1857, at which time it still had a mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

and an official ale

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

taster. The town hall replaced a former timber structure and was built in 1832. A market used to be held twice a week. The 14th century church is dedicated to St Nicholas and was restored by J. P. Seddon in 1869. It has an unusual eight-sided tower.

Grosmont Castle

, along with the nearby White Castle (Wales)

White Castle (Wales)

White Castle is a medieval castle located in Monmouthshire, Wales. The name "White Castle" was first recorded in the thirteenth century, and was derived from the whitewash put on the stone walls. The castle was originally called Llantilio Castle , after Llantilio Crossenny, the mediæval manor of...

and Skenfrith Castle

Skenfrith Castle

Skenfrith Castle is a medieval castle located in Monmouthshire, Wales. The castle is in the centre of the village of Skenfrith, located on the banks of the River Monnow, just five miles to the north of the town of Monmouth...

, have given rise to the Three Castles Walk

Three Castles Walk

The Three Castles Walk is a waymarked long distance footpath and recreational walk in in north-east Monmouthshire, Wales.-Route:The route links Skenfrith Castle Grosmont Castle and White Castle It follows woods and hills and takes the walker over Graig Syfyrddin , from which there are views of...

which links the castles and along with the Monnow Valley Walk

Monnow Valley Walk

Monnow Valley Walk in north-east Monmouthshire, South Wales is a 40-mile route from Monmouth to Hay-on-Wye, which follows the River Monnow and the foot of the Black Mountains, Wales....

brings visitors to the village. Grosmont is dominated by the nearby Graig Syfyrddin

Graig Syfyrddin

Graig Syfyrddin, also known as Edmund's Tump, is a hill near Grosmont in north-eastern Monmouthshire, Wales.The Three Castles Walk , a waymarked recreational walk in Monmouthshire linking Grosmont Castle, White Castle and Skenfrith Castle passes over the hill.-External links:*...

(or Edmunds Tump, possibly after Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster

Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster

Owain Glyndwr

Grosmont is linked to the Welsh Prince Owain Glyndŵr

Owain Glyndwr

Owain Glyndŵr , or Owain Glyn Dŵr, anglicised by William Shakespeare as Owen Glendower , was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales...

and during the Glyndwr rebellion it was the site of a battle in 1405. Glyndwr's ally and trusted Captain Rhys Gethin

Rhys Gethin

Rhys Gethin was a key figure in the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr. He was his standard bearer and a leading general. His name means "swarthy Rhys"....

raised a force of maybe 8,000 men that marched on Grosmont burning the town to the ground. At this time Grosmont was a large and important settlement - only Abergavenny

Abergavenny

and Carmarthen

Carmarthen

Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....

were larger in the whole of South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

. Prince Henry, later to become King Henry V

Henry V of England

Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

, dispatched a force comprising men led by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and 1st Earl of Waterford KG , known as "Old Talbot" was an important English military commander during the Hundred Years' War, as well as the only Lancastrian Constable of France.-Origins:He was descended from Richard Talbot, a tenant in 1086 of Walter Giffard...

, Sir William Newport and Sir John Greynder from Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

to intercept the Welsh

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

force. They fell on them and defeated the Welsh, killing 800 to 1,000 men and capturing Owen ap Gruffydd ap Rhisiant, Glyndwr's Secretary and John Hanmer, Glyndwr's brother in law, who both survived the battle but were imprisoned in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

Setback

Grosmont never recovered from the attack however. Prince Henry informed his father, King Henry IV

Henry IV of England

Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

, in a letter that maybe 100 homes had been burned.

Recent Times

The Angel http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/213726 public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

in Grosmont is owned and run by a group of villagers. In the summer of 2006 the pub and village were the location for the film The Baker released in 2007.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Grosmont Castle

Owain Glyndwr

Setback

Recent Times

Further reading

External links