22 March 2026 Brecon, Clun, and Croft

 Today was supposed to be a quick, laid back day, but things didn't go as planned, so I filled the rental car up with gas, and made a full day of it. 

First stop was Brecon. I had a Castle (Hotel) and a Cathedral to visit. When I got to the Cathedral parking lot, the pay and display parking meter wasn't working, so the backup was to download a parking app, and pay through that. The app loaded fine, but when it came to registering my account, the app didn't accept my USA phone number, and I couldn't get a stupid verification code to set it all up. I wrote a note on an old pay as you go receipt, saying what my situation was, and made a quick dash to the Cathedral. 

I was looking for the burial place of my ancestor, Reginald de Braose (1182-1228), Lord of Abergavenny, Brecon, and Builth. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him, and had to leave before I got a ticket, so out the door I went. 

Next, I tried to find the Castle Hotel and Brecon Castle, another residency of the de Braose family. I ended up giving up. If you've ever driven over here, then you understand that the streets are very narrow, and when someone (like, all of them) parks halfway into the street, there's barely enough room for one car to get through. Then there's the parking situation. Hard to find a spot to fit in to. I finally had to give up. Now what was I going to do? It was only 1030, and I'd only seen the Cathedral. I remembered that Clun Castle, about an hour and fifteen minute drive North, had been taken off of my itinerary because of the distance, but I had the time, so I went for it. 

Again, same situation with parking in the small town. I finally found a spot 1/2 a mile a way. That's when I snapped the first picture of the ruined castle.

Clun Castle wasn't much to see, but must've been hard to get to. The Lord built this castle on a ridgeline overlooking the town. It was quite the hike to get up there. 

Here's what it looks like now.

This Castle was started by the De Saye family, and later when they married off the oldest daughter to a FitzAlan, new ownership had taken control of this castle. The FitzAlan's eventually went on to become the Dukes of Norfolk, and were subsequently given lands in Sussex, closer to London, and not so far out in the Boondocks. They much preferred their Castle at Arundel then this one, so it began to fall into disrepair. Old castles do require quite a bit of upkeep, and even Nobles don't have unlimited amounts for keeping up with the Joneses. 

As I sat on a bench on top of this hill, I realized that I had pretty good cell phone coverage, so I started looking for somewhere else to visit before I headed back to my hotel. Croft Castle was going to be on Monday, but since I was there, and Weobley Castle was closed, off I went. 

It is really nice to finally visit a restored castle instead of all the ruined ones. All of them have historical value to my ancestors, but there's only so many ruined castles until you get a little bored with them. My daughter Alex wasn't a fan of them three years ago when we visited, and I'm sure Terry my wife won't be a big fan either, but we all have Oliver Cromwell to thank for the havoc on English Castles during the English Civil War.

Here's a shocker. Guess what the name of the family was that owned Croft Castle? That's right, Croft. The de la Bere's also had it for a time, but that was due to a Croft daughter marrying one. The castle was originally made of wood, but then was rebuilt with stone. It had been torn down or destroyed several times, but the current version has been around for about 275 years. 

The cool find in this castle was a family tree going back to Jasper Croft, born in 1078, and died in the Crusades in Israel in 1137. He was married to Maud de la Bere, who was 10 years his junior when the wedding vows were said. After Jasper was killed, his younger brother Gilbert inherited the castle and lands around 1144. 

After reviewing the family tree, it really isn't complete, but I already had the family members in my family tree software, so it's good to get a confirmation that mine is correct.

Tommorow will be a little busy. I get to finally meet Keith Hill who owns the ruins of Clifford Castle, home to, you guessed it, the Clifford family. I've been emailing with Keith for a couple of years, so it will be nice to finally get a chance to see him and the castle. The day should end with a little tour of Hay on Wye. This town is known for all the book shops it has, and it happens to be the Hay Festival right now, where they invite artists and actors in to talk about books and projects they have been involved with. I'll probably have parking issues to, but it is what it is.