20 May 2026 Chepstow, St Briavels, and Goodrich Castles plus Tintern Abbey

 I had another long day today, but did get a lot accomplished. The first stop was Chepstow Castle, built by William FitzOsbern. Known as William the Conqueror's best man for building castles along the Welsh border, Chepstow was a beautiful and defensive marvel. Situated on the bluffs overlooking the Wye River, not far from where it dumps itself into the River Severn, tidal flows actually reverse the rivers course during high tide, making it appear to flow upstream. 

This is also good when you have waste that you dump into the river from the garderobes, because it makes it easier to carry it out to the ocean. On this trip, I will have visited 5 of the 6 castles he built, the last one being Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, which I do not plan on going to. 

The castle eventually passed into the hands of William Marshall, his sons, and then the Bigod family. A lot of construction expanding the castle went on from 1189-1300.

The people from my family tree that are associated with Chepstow Castle don't sound very important, but there are a lot more people from my family tree that had a hand in making it what it was. I highly recommend the visit, if you are ever in the area.

The next stop was Tintern Abbey. Destroyed like so many other Abbeys by Henry the VIII, this was a De Clare location. Many of them are listed as being buried here, but like so many other nobles buried in houses of worship that came down with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, their remains may never be found. Their flagstone grave markers likely were pilfered by locals needing the stone to build their houses, the tombs may have been raided for the wealth that they contained, and yet other may have been moved elsewhere, or forgotten in time. 

Boasting a state of the art water drainage system, the monks used covered ditches to drain water and sewage waste underneath the abbey into the Wye River. One of William Marshall's sons, Anselm, who helped with construction at Chepstow Castle, was also buried here. 

It is currently in the process of a massive construction project to the main church. Once completed, it should be even more impressive. There is also archaeology work being to prevent father time from wreaking havoc on this beautiful Abbey. 

Next on my travel itinerary was St. Briavels Castle. This castle was built for the management of the Forest of Dean. In the 1200's King John would often come to use this as a hunting lodge. The castle also became a manufacturing site of longbow arrows and crossbow quarrels, pumping them out by the boat load. 

Today, when I arrived, there was a sign in front of the gatehouse stating that they had a school there, it was in session, and no visitors were allowed. Nice of the English Heritage folks to update their website for the castle, it would have saved me a trip. I did get to walk around it and take some pictures, but going inside would have been better. It looked like it was in pretty good shape, even though the outer walls were be fortified to prevent them from collapse. This is what it would have looked like at it's peak.

John Botetourt, 1st Baron Botetourt, was born there in 1266, became Governor of the Castle, and died there in 1324. He fought in many of Edward I's battle against the Scots, and was also named Admiral of the North several times in his lifetime, and there is a possibility from documents recorded at Hailes Abbey that he could have been an illegitimate son of Edward the First, although that is unsubstantiated.

The last castle today was Goodrich Castle. There are many explanations for when the castle was first constructed, but it was probably there before the Norman Conquest. During the anarchy, the powerful De Clare family from Tonbridge Castle got into the Marcher Lord business, and came into possession to Goodrich. 

Several generations of De Clares later, William Marshall married Isabel De Clare, daughter of Richard "Strongbow" De Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (which title Marshall eventually acquired). Their Grandaughter, Joan de Muchensy, married the Uncle of Edward I, Guillaume de Lusignan, who later changed his name to William de Valence (his mother was Isabel d'Angouleme, who married William's father after King John, her first husband, had died). Many nobles did not like it when the Plantagenet Kings invited their French relatives over England, and gave them lands and titles, so it made perfect sense.

Joan and William really got into expanding the castle. Even though the castle had a moat it wasn't filled with water. The walls of the moat were actually created by mining the red sandstone rock from around the castle. The castle was expanded using this sandstone, and the moat was formed as the rock was quarried away for the castle. 

Goodrich Castle was a nice end to the day. I definitely got my steps in today climbing castles, and smelled pretty ripe when I got back to the hotel. I also had my rental car assaulted by a Flock of Seagulls (not the band) while visiting Chepstow Castle, and I needed to get some windshield washer fluid and a car wash to make driving safer.