The Harlech castle garden and privileged spaces of elite accommodation Neil Guy Harlech from the south-west. Image © Paul Davis THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:235 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle Garden Fig. 1. Harlech Castle. From the south-east. From ‘Ancient Castles of England and Wales’, Vol. II, by W. Woolnoth and E. W. Brayley, 1824. Abstract Harlech castle, built between 1284-1292, is Additionally the paper considers the access and one of the great Edwardian strongholds of circulation arrangements to and within the south- North Wales. Located on a mighty rock above east tower and restricted access from the south- Tremadog Bay, and overlooked by the peaks of east wall-walk to the gatehouse upper chambers, Snowdonia, Harlech is the most majestically often noted as being the suite of rooms most likely sited of the four new castles which Edward I to have been occupied by the king and other digni- built from the 1280s to surround Gwynedd. Its taries when visiting. In the discussion architectur- dramatic and enhanced photogenic setting is al and orientational criteria is considered that matched only by its equally dramatic history. indicates the provision of elite gendered space that could be used to test other possible similar castle However, this short paper considers a more sites for gardens and exclusive private areas. It is tranquil and domestic aspect of Harlech’s past: recognised that these spaces may not have been its gatehouse accommodation linked to the high- developed until the early fourteenth century when status south-east tower, sometimes called the military threats had declined considerably. Mortimer, Garden, and Queen Margaret’s Tow- er and why the ‘Garden tower’ was so described The paper also assesses the earlier detailed (in a survey of 1343). It is hoped it will be a Harlech castle descriptions by Harold Hughes contribution to further studies that are in prepa- (1913), Charles Peers (1923) and Arnold Taylor ration as part of a wider research agenda on (1980 onwards). The Hughes article is essential as Edwardian castles in general. Such a research this is the only published work to date that offers agenda was outlined by Robert Liddiard in Wil- an instructive floor plan at each level of each liams and Kenyon (eds), 2010, 193–197. In that tower. Peers is also important as this uniquely publication, the creation of small enclosed castle publishes the gatehouse plan at every level. Arnold gardens was alluded to at Conwy, Rhuddlan, Taylor’s own annotated copy of Peer’s paper and and Caernarfon, recorded by original documen- plans is reproduced here, complete with his own tary sources and often at the behest of Edward’s marked-up gatehouse room labels in preparation wife, Queen Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). for his first Harlech guidebook (1980). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:236 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle Garden Fig. 2. John Speed’s (1552 - 1629) map of the castle and town of Harlech, from 1610: John Speed’s Map of Wales. View from the south. The south-east tower and the suggested garden along the ditch /terrace of the Outer Ward is ringed. The pond of the stream flowing north past the castle’s east entrance (still in place in the 1930s) is likely to have been a mill pond for utilitarian use by the town, but may have had a deliberate planned aesthetic and symbolic dimension in its location. (See fig. 3.) The ‘turris ultra gardinum’ once flowed down this arm of the ditch’ (Peers The 1343 survey by William de Emeldon (8 Au- 1923, 73, 82 and see NOTE (1) at the end of the gust 17 Edward III) (TNA E163/4/42) describes paper). Whilst Peers confines the area to within the south-east tower as needing some repair work: the ditch, a section of the south ‘Middle Ward’ is not impossible. However the 1343 Survey is the Item in reparacione et emendacione cujusdam only record currently available. In Peers’ corre- turris ultra gardinum in carpentario viij marcas sponding ‘Carnarvon Castle’ guidebook (1930, et dimidium et in plumbo pro coopertura ejus- 35) this point is repeated: ‘The Queen’s Gate…is dem turris xx. (Also in the restoration and im- called in 1343 the gate towards the Prince’s provement of the tower above the garden, for Garden’.[The Black Prince?] NOTE (2). This ap- carpentry, eight and a half marks [£5. 13s. 4d] and pears to indicate a location somewhere near the in the lead for roofing the tower [£1.] xx). Queen’s Gate and Black Tower on the south-east In 1923, Peers mentions that: ‘The castle ditch side of the Upper Ward. Other documented Ed- cut in the rock on the east and south of the Castle, wardian royal castle gardens include: Rhuddlan was made in 1285…Somewhere at its south-east (1284-5) for Queen Eleanor (Colvin, 1986, and corner there was, as early as 1343 a garden in the HKW Vol. 1, 324); at Conwy, Queen Eleanor most sheltered and sunny place which could be had a herber - a pleasure garden - laid out, prob- found, and it is interesting to note that the ably, in the east barbican. (Ashbee 2007, 15). ‘Prince’s Garden at Caernarfon was in a precise- See also Landsberg 1996, 128-9; Harvey 1990, ly similar place. There are signs that a stream 84; Whittle 1992, 8-10; Creighton 2002, 73-88. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:237 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle Garden ABOVE: Fig. 3. Harlech castle from the east. A Francis Frith photograph c. 1889. The mill pond is impounded virtually opposite the entrance to the castle, basking in its own reflection. From the Francis Frith Collection, ref: 85641. The mill pond possibly existed until the mid 1970s. See NOTE (1). The site of the watermill lying ‘below the castle’ is now occupied by a children’s playground. BELOW: Fig. 4. The magnificent east frontage at Harlech. Recent investment by Cadw and the Welsh Government has seen £6 million spent on improving visitor facilities and access, as the floating walk-way illustrates. The south-east angle (Garden) tower (left) of the gatehouse, with windows overlooking the Outer Ward terrace to the south, the suggested site of the garden (see figs. 3-7, 32, 33). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:238 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle Garden ABOVE: Fig. 5. Ministry of Works plan of Harlech, 1914. The SE tower is labelled Queen Marga- ret’s Tower, after Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, who resided here for some time after 1460. In fact Queen Margaret fled to the castle when it was held by her Lancastrian supporters, under the command of Dafydd ap Ieuan, against the Yorkist Edward IV. The fact that the tower is labelled as such may suggest some truth in the history of her stay and choice of accommodation, and is indicative of the suitability of this tower to house a queen and her household companions. BELOW: Fig. 6. Another view of the east front and the mill pond, possibly taken in the late 1920s. (See also Charles Oman, ‘Castles’, opp. p. 217). Inset - Stokesay castle from the west. (NOTE 1). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:239 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle plan - 1923 Fig. 7. Harlech Castle ground plan (from Peers 1923). For Outer Ward, today read ‘Castle Rock’; ‘Middle Ward’ now read ‘Outer Ward’; for Styngwerne Hall read Ystumgwern Hall; and for Moat, read ‘Ditch’. (Changes made by Taylor, 1980). Solid sections are original or first build. Hatched areas represent additions from 1287. The suggested garden area is marked by a dot-dash rectangle. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE CASTLE NO 29:240 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 The Harlech Castle Garden - criteria Fig. 8. The south-facing Outer Ward (formerly Fig. 9. The SE tower with its good-sized win- Middle). Looking towards the SE garden tower. dows, partly overlooking the berm, on the first The internal latrine chute was once carefully & second floors, facing SW. Note holes remain- and discreetly boxed in at the base. ing that held the iron grille in place. Criteria for a castle garden location: � Access to a private chapel and /or a private Ideally, a castle garden, the classic ‘hortus con- oratory (effectively an east-facing window). clusus’ or herber, (herbarium) would be sited Provision of well-lit, south-facing window near to an elite residential tower having a suite of seat(s) for reading, conversation, needlework rooms, with secure, protected and convenient etc, and private garderobes. views and access, reserved for high-status wom- en, though arguably a fashionable private garden � Heating and a reasonably convenient water was an equally desirable asset, status symbol and supply sufficient to allow bathing. This need not amenity for kings and magnates. (3) The general have been a well, as gutter and butt rainwater criteria for a ‘Lady Tower’ allied to a nearby systems may have been a common feature. garden might include some of the following: � Provision for ladies-in-waiting. Given the practice of servants sleeping in the same room � A private, enclosed space with limited and controlled access. This could be an open-air as lords and ladies that provision is likely to be space within the courtyard, either to a garden in invisible in the architecture.