Caerphilly - History

History

The site where the town of Caerphilly is situated has long been of strategic significance. Around AD 75 a fort was built by the Romans during their conquest of Britain. An excavation of the site in 1963 concluded that the fort was occupied by Roman forces until the middle of the 2nd century.

Tradition states that a monastery was built in the area by St. Cenydd, but this claim lacks support. Nonetheless, the old name of the district of Senghenydd is named after him, and Cenydd's son, St Ffili, is said to have built a fort (Welsh: caer) in the area and thus gave the town its name. Another explanation is that it is named after the Anglo-Norman Marcher Lord, Philip de Braose.

Following the Norman invasion of Wales in the late 11th century, the area of Sengenhydd remained in Welsh hands. By the middle of the 12th century the area was under the control of the Welsh chieftain Ifor Bach (Ifor ap Meurig). His grandson Gruffyd ap Rhys was the final Welsh lord of Sengenhydd, falling to the English nobleman Gilbert de Clare, the Red Earl, in 1266. In 1267 Henry III was forced to recognise Llywelyn the Last as the Prince of Wales, and by September 1268 Llywelyn had secured northern Sengenhydd. Gilbert de Clare had already begun to take steps to consolidate his own territorial gains, beginning the construction of Caerphilly Castle on 11 April 1268. The castle would also act as a buffer against Llewelyn's own territorial ambitions and was attacked by the Prince of Wales' forces before construction was completed in 1270. Construction recommenced in 1271 and was continued under the Red Earl's son, who was also Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester. With only interior remodelling carried out to the castle by Hugh le Despenser in the 1320s, Caerphilly Castle remains a pure example of 13th-century military architecture and is the largest castle in Wales, and second largest in Britain (after Windsor).

The original town of Caerphilly grew up as a small De Clare raised settlement just south of the castle. In 1316 Llywelyn Bren, believed to be the son of Gruffyd ap Rhys and therefore great-grandson of Ifor Bach, led an insurrection, laying siege to the castle. The outer ward of the castle was breached but not the inner defences, with the town itself burned. The town rebuilt but remained very small throughout the Middle Ages. The first evidence of its emerging importance was the construction of a Court House in the 14th century, the only pre-19th century building still remaining in the town.

At the beginning of the 15th century the castle was again attacked, this time by Owain Glyndwr, who took control of the castle around 1403-05. Repairs to the castle continued to at least 1430, but just a century later the antiquary John Leland recorded that the castle was a ruin set in marshland, with a single tower being used as a prison. In the mid 16th century the 2nd Earl of Pembroke used the castle as a manorial court, but in 1583 the castle was leased to Thomas Lewis, who accelerated the castles dilapidation by removing stonework to build his nearby manor, The Van. The Lewis' who claimed descent from Ifor Bach, left the manor in the mid-18th century when they purchased St Fagans Castle, The Van falling into decay.

During the 1700s, Caerphilly began growing into a market town, and during the 19th century as the south Wales valleys underwent massive growth through industrialisation, so to the towns' population grew. Caerphilly railway station was opened in 1871 and in 1899 the Rhymney Railway built their Caerphilly railway works maintenance facilities; however, the expansion of the population in the nineteenth century was more to do with the increasing market for coal.