Clifford Castle

Clifford Castle
Clifford, Herefordshire
Ruins of Clifford Castle
Clifford Castle
Coordinates	52°06′16″N 3°06′24″W / 52.10443°N 3.10666°W / 52.10443; -3.10666Coordinates: 52°06′16″N 3°06′24″W / 52.10443°N 3.10666°W / 52.10443; -3.10666
Type	Castle
Site information
Owner	Private
Open to the public	No
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Demolished	15th Century (mostly)

Clifford Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Clifford which lies four miles to the north of Hay-on-Wye in the Wye Valley in Herefordshire, England (grid reference SO243457). It was the caput of the feudal barony of Clifford, a Marcher Lordship (owing allegiance directly to the King, but separate from the rest of the kingdom).

The early motte and bailey castle was built on a cliff overlooking a ford on the River Wye in 1070 by William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, on a wasteland formerly occupied by Browning. The castle was intended to provide protection for a planned Norman settlement above the River Wye of quite a substantial size, with c. 200 plots being intended, running uphill for half a mile towards Llanfair, where the church was sited on the hilltop. St Mary's church remains today, much altered in the Victorian era. The position of the castle as adjacent to the River Wye enabled the seasonal flooding of the river to fill the flood plain around the castle, forming a shallow lake or marsh with the assistance of a dam on the western or upstream side of the site, acting as a further form of defence.

After FitzOsbern was slain in battle at Flanders, the castle passed to his son, Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford. Roger forfeited his lands for rebellion against the King in 1075, and the castle was granted to Ralph Tosny who held it directly from the Crown, and it was the Tosnys who rebuilt the castle in stone (in a manner much resembling the Tosny's Conches Castle in Normandy). As the bulk of Ralph's time was spent in Normandy, the castle was rented to Gilbert, Sheriff of Hereford for 60 shillings.