The Town's Wall.
(see figure 1 in the introduction)
Cardiff’s town wall has had a very long, colourful and chequered history. The learned Welsh monk and chronicler, Caradoc of Llancarfan first mentioned it in his work Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes) 1047-1172 (3). These records may be tainted by the reputation of Iolo Morganwg as a forger, but be that as it may, John Matthews translated the Welsh and Latin texts at the turn of the century: "1111 – Robert [FitzHamon] built a wall round the fortified town of Caerdyf, and drew a river about the town and about the Castle" (4). Seventy-three years later, in 1184, one Maurice de Berkeley, Custodian of Glamorgan at the time, described a ‘Portarune et Palicii Villee de Cardiff’ - palicium meaning palisade (5). ‘The Wall’ drawn about the town was actually a timber fence with four gates, i.e. the South, North, East and West Gates. The latter and the South Gate were the only access points to the river at that time.
A gate to a quay had not yet been built, probably because any riverbank was not yet close enough to justify an extra opening in the palisade fence. FitzHamon must have had good reason for this precautionary measure: the Annals of Margam record that in 1185 both the town and the Castle were put to flame during a Welsh attack (
6). Norman expansionist politics in the 13th century, which (amongst other issues) denied the Welsh access to a major port which had been their's for well over 800 years, provoked a Welsh attack on Caerphilly Castle in c.1270. This was also regarded as a threat to Cardiff Castle. In consequence, Gilbert de Clare had the defenses of the Castle strengthened and the wooden palisades replaced by stone walls (7). For the same reasons, the town palisade appears to have been replaced by similar stone walls.About forty five years later, when the Norman Lord’s executor, Payne de Turberville, had once more treated his Welsh opponents shabbily, the latter again took revenge by attacking Cardiff and other targets. It was said that the town was badly damaged and twenty- three burgages were destroyed (8). There is mention that in 1315 four men were employed by the town for three days to mend the town wall in various places (9). As Llywelyn Bren’s revolt took place in 1316 it is unlikely that this work had become necessary as a result of an attack. Four men could not have done a great deal of work in three days anyway and the damage must have been very localised. Although with hindsight, the work might have been undertaken in order to prepare for things to come, as tempers amongst the Welsh were rising after Llywelyn Bren's dismissal by Turberville. However, for the first time the word ‘vallum’ (embankment) appears in the records; one can only hazard a guess, but it might refer to an earthen embankment on which the palisade fence had been erected originally. It seems that this embankment was used later as backing for the stone wall when this was built. The latter was first mentioned in the Inquisition taken in 1349 (10). In 1962 some remains of the stone wall itself still existed at the rear of several business premises alongside the Glamorganshire Canal (11).
Eighty-eight years after these events, in 1404, there was renewed strife between the Lord of Glamorgan and one of the Welsh princes, this time Owain Glyndwr. On this occasion the Welsh vented their frustration and anger especially on Cardiff’s town defenses (12). Their forces destroyed much of the wall by the West Gate. Destruction by re-occurring river erosion and partial collapse of the wall on this side of town, were to happen in much later decades. This could be interpreted as indicating that the river’s position in the 15th century was still considerably removed from Cardiff’s western periphery, offering little or no protection against attack. Nor did the massive Norman wall of the Castle itself behind the gate stop Glyndwr from succeeding (13). It was said that on this occasion the town was completely burnt down except for the Grey Friary outside the East Gate. The effects of this disaster were said to have lasted for one hundred years after the event. The value of houses continued to be affected by the fire damage caused. It seems that every one of the town’s gates was destroyed in that raid except, perhaps, the East Gate near the Grey Friary.
It is more than likely, however, that the destruction of the gates was limited to the burning of their wooden wings and not the actual masonry. It took twenty-five years before rebuilding work on the town wall was commenced. Such an unusually long period must have been caused by something important, for example difficulties in finding the necessary funds. It is also possible that Cardiff’s inhabitants felt safer by leaving all access to their town open for the time being, so as not to provoke renewed destruction. It could even have been a condition of their surrender in 1404. After another twenty-two years, in 1451 and almost two generations later, a charter granted by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, mentions that Cardiff had been re-fortified. It had new walls, towers, gates and ditches and the burgesses were praised for their efforts (
14). It is likely that the opportunity was taken to upgrade the defenses, which may well have contributed to the unusually long delay.A century later, and after three hundred turbulent years, during which Cardiff’s town wall had seen much action, tempers appear to have calmed down. In his Itinerary of 1536-39 Leland describes that: "The towne self of Cairtaphe…is well waulled, and is estimated a mile in cumpace. In the waulle be five gates…" (15), a sign that the town had lived in peace for several decades. This is also the first time a fifth gate is mentioned. As suggested above, the likelihood is great that the reconstruction of the town wall over a period of twenty-two years included its upgrading. One of the additions seems to have been the afore mentioned fifth gate, i.e. that which led to the medieval quay on a river bend close to the town wall. This raises an interesting question: where was Cardiff’s quay situated until then?
It is known that one existed between 1111 and 1451 but not in the position we know as ‘Blount’s Gate’. The Council records of 1316 record an income of "2s.5d. received of the toll of timber sold in the port of Kaerdif". This income was needed to maintain "the navigation and the quay", an expense which the Lord had to bear. The earliest, specific mention of the medieval Town Quay comes from a Minister’s account of 1550, which states that a tenant had a burgage "in le key de Cardiff" (
16). Therefore, it is reasonable to conjecture that the pre-16th century quay was either situated close to the West Gate or nearer to the South Gate, although the latter was at some distance from the river at that time. It is likely that, due to the laws of river- bed formation, the Taff changed its course between the 10th and the 16th centuries. This would have involved down-stream river-bend migration (17) which, over the centuries, could have provided several new landing places near the town.Approximately six years after Leland’s praises, some doubts were expressed about Cardiff’s condition when, in 1544, the Court of Augmentation stated that the town looked decayed (18). Yet, Rice Merrick, writing in c.1576 some thirty-two years later and forty years after Leland, confirms the latter’s description of the condition of the town wall, namely that it was ‘well waulled’. According to Merrick: "This Towne, for the most part, is environed with a faire high wall, garreted and placed thereon to walk….", except: "saving where the river Taff and the Tyde, undermining it, overturned part thereof" (19). In other words, not until approximately 1550 had the down river movement of the Taff’s bends reached Cardiff’s town wall. This also is an important comment in another respect: it suggests that erosion in the Taff estuary was not only caused by the river itself, but also by the incoming tide.
In 1607 Cardiff was struck by "an overflow of water and such a violent swelling of the seas…the like never in the memory of men hath bin seen or heard of" (
20). Apparently, it was followed by a similar disaster in 1703, the causes of which were thought to have been the high tides, the South Westerly and the heavy rain. As already mentioned, old prints reveal that the riverbed was very wide through which the Taff meandered in its lower reaches. In fact, during the 18th century two bridges were required to get across the river to the West Gate and vice versa (21). Tidal flooding would have had an impact of considerable magnitude. As has been shown above, therefore, on the whole the 16th century’s travelling writers’ descriptions give a fairly clear impression of Cardiff’s town wall when intact and when it began to deteriorate, namely around 1550 to 1560.Between the mid-16th and mid-19th centuries, the river bend nearest the town continued its southward migration. As a result, the medieval Town Quay became defunct and a subsidiary one, the Lesser Quay, had to be built at the Golate (22). Both W. Rees and D. Morgan (23) mention that six gates gave access to the town, the sixth apparently being the ‘Golate or Gulley Gate’. There is little evidence to suggest that this was a proper gate. It is more likely to have been a postern or no more than a breach in a section of the wall already much ruined. By the end of the 18th century, all the other gates in Cardiff’s town wall were dismantled and it is unlikely that a new gate was built at the same time. In 1610, ‘Frogg Lane’, as the Golate was then known, did not end by the river. According to Speed’s plan, the end of the alley was walled in on both sides and led at right angles to something unidentifiable in a field (24). Therefore, it seems reasonable to argue that Cardiff only ever had five proper town gates, suitable for the passage of carts and goods.