Welsh Journals

LWM BWA Willoughby Gardner, d.sc, F.S.A., C. A. Ralegh Radford, M.A., F.S.A., and myself some years ago spotted the remains of a motte-and- bailey which O.S. had failed to plot. It was left to me to measure and plot it. This was done in 1931, filed, and regrettably forgotten. Now, before the measured tread of time obliterates it, I record it. Lwm Bwa, so spelt and pronounced by the then tenant farmer, is located alongside a track, now modernised, leading from the Llan- dysul-Llanfihangel road to Craig Gwrtheyrn and can be pin-pointed on 6 ins. O.S. sheet Cards. XLVI NE. at 52-1-58N. and 4-17-30 W. The Catalogue of Ancient Monuments Carm., No. 397, describes it under the name of Llwyn Bedw, but O.S. i in. 1831 map calls the Blaenwaun site Castell' and makes Llwyn Bedw N.W. of Craig Gwrtheyrn. That map also shows a superstructure and an oblong enclosure on the site of this motte-and-bailey. The motte is still well preserved but is below its original height. It slopes south-westwards and into the base on that side is the remains of a 24 ft. by 6 ft. trench. Surrounded on all sides by marshland, the bailey is so broken that it is difficult to get true measurements. The general lie of the land, together with the disposition of field hedges, and preservation of slopes, however, leads to the supposition that the present plan is a fair representation of the original earthwork. An instructive feature is the extension of the bailey along an upward slope of 2°, making it difficult to establish its termination. It is suggested that this motte-and-bailey, though of the same general scheme of Norman occupation, is a very early and simple example and probably was used later as an outpost of that most excellent example at Pencader and, later still, as a manorial centre for the collection of taxes and the settlement of disputes. IEUAN T. HUGHES Llandysul