Sycharth
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Sycharth is a small hamlet in the community of Llangedwyn in Powys in eastern Wales near Llansilin, 7 miles west of Oswestry.
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[edit] Location
Sycharth sits in the valley of the River Cynllaith, a tributary of the Afan Tanat or River Tanat. Sycharth Castle, just to the north, was the birth place of Owain Glyndŵr[1].
[edit] Glyndwr's Home
It was here that Glyndwr lived with his wife Margaret Hanmer and their children.
Today the site is a flat topped mound or motte some eight metres high, with remaining defensive earthworks.
[edit] Iolo Goch's Description
Iolo Goch the Bard and himself a Welsh Lord, has left us a fascinating description of the Glyndwr estate and lifestyle prior to the turmoil and destruction of the rebellion.
He describes it as a "Barons palace, this mansion of generosity, the magnificent habitation of the chief Lord of Powys, entered by a costly gate, Gothic arches adorned with mouldings, every arch alike, a tower of St Patrick in the elegant antique order, like a cloister at Westminster, every angle united together with girders, a compact noble golden chancel, concatenated in linked orders like an arched vault, all conjoined in harmony. A Neapolitan building of eighteen apartments, a fair timber structure on the surmount of the green hill reared towards heaven on four admirable pilasters, on the top of each of these firm wooden supports is fixed a timber floor of curious architecture, and there four pleasant and elegant floors connected together, and divided into eight chamber lofts, every part, and stately front covered with shingles, and chimneys to convey away the smoke. Nine halls of similar construction and a wardrobe over every one, neat clean and commodious well furnished warehouses, like shops in London. A quadrangular church, well built and whitewashed chapels, well-glazed, plenty on every side, every part of the house a palace - an orchard and a vineyard well fenced, yonder below are seen herds of stags feeding in the park, the rabbit warren of the chief Lord of the Nation. Implements, mettlesome steeds in fair meadows of grass and hay, well ordered cornfields, a good corn mill on a clear stream and a stone turret for a pigeon-house, a deep and spacious fish pond with pikes and mearlings and other fish in plenty. Three tables furnished with the best breed of peacocks and cranes. All necessary tools of every sort and instruments for every work. The best Salopian ale, choice wassail and braggets, wines, all kinds of liquors and manchets. And the cook with his noble fire in the kitchens.
I am blessed with her politeness, with wines and with meads, a charming female of noble extraction, liberal and of an honourable family. His children come in pairs, a beautiful nest of Chieftains. A lock or latchet is seldom seen within his mansion, or a doorkeeper or porter. Refreshments are never wanting, hunger, thirst, want or reproach are never known in Sycharth.
The proprietor of this domain is hardy and valiant, the best of Britons, a tall, handsome, accomplished gentleman owns this most delightful palace".
[edit] Archaeological Evidence
Excavations in the early 1960s revealed the presence of two timber halls on the flat topped mound, one being 43 metres in length and provided evidence of the site being burned, as it was by Harry of Monmouth, later to become King Henry V when he was present to oversee the total destruction of the site in May 1403.
[edit] Destruction
He wrote to his father King Henry IV on May 15th 1403 that "we took our people and went to a place of the said Oweyn, well built, which was his principal mansion called Saghern, where we supposed that we should have found him if he had been willing to have fought in the manner as he said, but upon our arrival we found no one; hence we caused the whole place and many of his other houses of his tenants in the neighbourhood to be burnt and then went directly to his other place of Glyndourdy (Glyndyfrdwy) to seek for him there. We caused a fine lodge in his park to be burned and all the country therabout and we lodged at rest there all that night..."
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Map sources for Sycharth
- Aerial photo of the site
