Welsh Journals

three, or possibly four, tiers of benches. These were built into the rubble of fallen walls and then levelled with clay and small edging stones. Finds from the ditch include clay-pipe remains of late 17th and 18th-century date, along with a number of small slate discs that may have been used for betting. Owing to the continuous use of the castle site as gardens, few good stratified finds have been produced. Some of the finds from the 14th-century floor levels include a green glazed pottery tripod vessel, a gilt pin, a bronze belt-chape and a quantity of imported pottery sherds. A further imported find, from a higher level, is a small broken figurine modelled in pipe-clay and identified as being of Dutch manufacture (c. 1690). It is hoped that further excavations will enable the plan of this compact stone castle to be completed and also that the work begun on the consolidation of the existing uncovered walls will be completed by the Neath Borough Council, thus enabling the castle to be viewed by the public. H. Brooksby Cwmcidy-a lost Farmstead PLOUGHING AND GRASSING of a field at Cwmcidy by the Barry Borough Council, have recently brought to light the remains of a lost farmstead at ST 09376733. The site is situated in an isolated position on low-lying ground within the angle of two small streams, surrounded by woodland. The remains consist of a roughly rect- angular patch of rubble, lime mortar, and plaster, about 45 ft. by 25 ft., associated with medieval and post-medieval potsherds. Walling was observed exposed in the plough furrows, and to the immediate west was a spread of black garden soil. To the east were slight remains of a levelled enclosure bank. Before the site was ploughed up nothing was visible on the surface. The potsherds included 13th and 14th-century cooking-pots and green glazed jugs, 17th-century North Devon 'sgraffito' and 'gravel tempered' ware, and also 18th-century brown glazed ware. The site is fairly well documented from the last decade of the 16th century, and can be identified with Cwmcidy Farm. In 1595 it was