The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales
 

Diane Williams & John Kenyon
Publisher: Oxbow Books

240p, 120 b/w illus, 16p of  colour plates    

ISBN13: 9781842173800 Pb

Price: £35.00

 

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The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales publishes the proceedings of a conference held in 2007 a year that marked the seventh centenary of the death of King Edward I which set out to review recent scholarship on castles that he built in north Wales after two wars, in 1277 and 1282-83 and a Welsh uprising in 1294-95, and to rethink the effect that their building had upon Wales in the past, present and future.

Building upon the seminal work of Arnold Taylor, whose study of the buildings and documentary evidence has been pivotal to Edwardian castle studies for more than fifty years, the volume includes papers which call into question the role of Master James of St George as the architect of the kings new castles; the role of Richard the Engineer, the nature of royal accommodation in the thirteenth century and a detailed look at how households worked, especially in the kitchen and accounting departments. New approaches to castle studies are encouraging a more holistic understanding of the Edwardian castles and their context and to this end papers consider their impact on Welsh society and its princes in the thirteenth century, notably Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Fawr, the Great) and his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales.

 

Castles, Town Defences and Artillery Fortifications in the United Kingdom and Ireland: A Bibliography 1945-2006

 

John. R. Kenyon

Donington.

Shaun Tyas. 2008. pp. xii + 740. Price: £35.

See special Member Offer on the Members page

It is impossible to “review” a Bibliography in exactly the same way that one reviews a book or an article: one cannot compliment or take to task its author's attitudes, research or interpretations in the same way. Nevertheless, full attention must be drawn to a Bibliography such as this (and other types of “compilation scholarship”) not only because it will be so useful to so many but because it will still be so useful long after many of the more ephemeral published products of “research” have been superseded. In a field of study devoted to monuments, it is no exaggeration to say that this volume is a monument in its own right – both to its subject and to its author's industry. That it may have overlooked a few minor published notes (as the author anticipates, though I have no evidence that it has done so significantly) is neither here nor there – one definition of a list is something which hasn't got something on it – for its strength rests in its 700-plus page documentation of sixty years in a flourishing field of medieval studies to which hundreds of scholars have contributed. It includes the material earlier published for the author by the Council for British Archaeology  (in three installments, up to 1990) together with a great deal else mainly published after 1990. As well as a research-tool the book gives us the data for (one day) an analytical history of castle studies in the second half of the twentieth century. It is, very appropriately, dedicated to the memory of an outstanding scholar of medieval castles and CSG founder-member, the late Richard Avent.

   Here is a publication which will be of enormous to help to many people: professional and amateur, students of all types and at all levels, practitioners of all sorts. For its bulk, the price represents very good value. We are first given groups of books and articles with general coverage, occupying almost a hundred pages. The bulk of the volume is then devoted to individual sites, arranged alphabetically within the (historic) shires - also listed alphabetically - of England, Wales, Scotland, the Islands and Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in one county sequence). An Appendix deals with material published largely in 2007. Two indices – one to authors and the other to places – help the reader around the contents.  These can be used in varied ways to find what has been written: in a heirarchy from an individual rural or urban place, to a shire, to a region of shires and thence to a whole country. The critiques of literature, published in the CBA Bibliographies and more recently in the CSG Bibliographies, can be used to compliment the reader's searchings. It is the author's intention to publish addenda to the present volume in the on-going annual CSG Bibliographies. To John (and to your publisher) – from all devotees of castle studies – many congratulations and many thanks.                                                                                                                      Bob Higham, Exeter, June 2008

Usk Castle, Priory and Town.  

by Jeremy K. Knight and Andy Johnson (Editors)

Hardcover: 216 pages

Publisher: Logaston Press (Nov 2008)

ISBN-10:1906663017

ISBN-13:978-1906663018

Price: £17.50.

This long-awaited book on Usk was launched at a reception in the Sessions House on Tuesday, 11th November, at 7.30 pm.  Speakers included contributors Jeremy Knight and Rosie Humphreys.

 

  ‘The Norman borough (or town) of Usk was established around its castle and priory and these are at the heart of this book. Through a series of chapters, the contributors explore the life of the town through the history of its inhabitants, and what can be learned about them from the buildings which still make up the town, as well as the archaeology of former times. Whilst it was the Normans who founded the castle, priory and borough, the Romans preceded them, although the evidence of their presence is now largely below ground. Before them, prehistoric people and then the Celts lived in the surrounding area, and the first chapters of this book book at these phases of Usk’s history, the period under Roman rule in some detail.

 Subsequent chapters then look at the development of the Norman town and its hospitals and almshouses; the building and life of the priory, with its community of nuns and its shrine to St Radegund; the long history of the construction of the castle and its gradual expansion and strengthening; relations between the Norman incomers and the Welsh over the centuries, and the effect on the region of Owain Glyndŵr’s uprising, seen through the eyes of one of Usk’s most famous sons, Adam Usk, first from a distance and then at firsthand, as he became embroiled in the events that surrounded him.

  Later chapters reflect on life in Usk during the period of religious upheaval in the 16th and 17th centuries, telling the story of the town’s own martyr, St David Lewis; and chart the development of the medieval town through the Georgian period, as well as the more recent transformation of the castle wards into a remarkable garden. Coming to more recent times, a chapter is devoted to Usk’s secret Auxiliary Unit and its operational base, established in preparation for a German invasion in the early 1940s; whilst a final chapter considers current problems and highlights issues on which decisions need to be made to help ensure that Usk has a thriving future.

The contributors include John and Jan Barrow, Madeleine Gray, Rosemary and Henry Humphreys, Jeremy K. Knight, Professor W. Manning, Geoffrey Mein, Frank Olding, Sian Rees, Peter Rennie, Keith Underwood and Professor Chris Given Wilson. The book forms a mini series with other Logaston Press publications: Ludlow Castle: its HIstory and Buildings;
Tewkesbury Abbey: History, Art and Architecture; and Chepstow Castle: its History and Buildings. 216 pages, with over 120 black and white and 20 colour illustrations’.

 

 

A History of the Early Medieval Siege, c. 450-1200  

Author: Peter Purton

32 b/w, 14 line illustrations.
Pages: 496. Size: 23.4 x 15.6
ISBN13: 9781843834489;HB
To be  published: 18/Mar/2010
Price: 115.00 USD / 60.00 GBP
Imprint: Boydell Press.

 

Medieval warfare was dominated by the attack and defence of fortified places, and siege methods and technology developed alongside improvements in defences. This book uses both original historical sources and evidence from archaeology to analyse this relationship as part of a comprehensive view of the whole subject, tracing links across three continents. It considers the most important questions raised by siege warfare: who designed, built and operated siege equipment? How did medieval commanders gain their knowledge? What were the roles of theoretical texts and the developing science of siege warfare? How did nomadic peoples learn to conduct sieges? How far did castles and town walls serve a military purpose, and how far did they act as symbols of lordship?

 

The volume begins with the replacement of the western Roman empire by barbarian successor states, but also examines the development of the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim Caliphate and its successors, and the links with China, through to the early thirteenth century.

 

A History of the Late Medieval Siege, 1200-1500

Author: Peter Purton

32 b/w, 15 line illustrations
Pages: 528, Size: 23.4 x 15.6
ISBN13: 9781843834496, HB
To be published: 18/Mar/2010
Price: 115.00 USD / 60.00 GBP

Imprint: Boydell Press
 

The siege dominated warfare during the medieval period. Contemporary evidence - from both accounts of sieges, and records of government - survives in relatively large quantites for the later medieval period; together with archaeological evidence, it is used here to offer a full and comprehensive picture of siege warfare. The book shows how similar methods were practised everywhere, with knowledge of new technologies spreading quickly, and experts selling their skills to any willing employer: it also looks at how the erection of defences capable of withstanding increasingly sophisticated attack became an expensive proposition. The question of whether some of the immense surviving monuments of this age really had a military function at all is also addressed.

The book begins with the Mongol conquests in Asia and Europe and the thirteenth-century apogee of pre-gunpowder siege warfare, before examining the slow impact of guns and the cumulatively massive changes in attack and defence of the fifteenth century. The companion volume, A History of the Early Medieval Siege, covers the period from around 450 until 1200. The two-volume set will be available at £100.

 

 

The Medieval Castles of Wales

Author: John R Kenyon

Pp. 192, 234 x 156mm,

ISBN: 978- 0-7083-2180-5

14 Figures, 16 colour plates

Publisher: University of Wales Press (Pocket Guide series)

Publication date: October 2010.

Price: £12.99

 

Contact: www.uwp.co.uk/

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