Cusop History Group

From Woolhope Club Transactions 24th July 1899

CUSOP— ITS CHURCH AND CASTLES. By Charles J. Lilwall  (Presented during a visit of the Society)

We leam that the name of Cusop has been variously written, such as *• Ceushope," " Caushope," and " Keushope," but the etymology in the British language from *' Ceu " or " Caw " a hollow, and * hope " a hill, seems fully to describe the situation of Cusop, being placed in a hollow, formed by Cusop hill on the east, and the Hainalt hills on the west, which unite towards the south in a low lying hill which runs right across the valley and forms the watershed in this district. Cusop Church, which we have seen to-day, presents a very different appearance to what it did previous to the restoration in 1857.  Outside, the church was then covered many coats deep with Reformation whitewash, while inside, a lath and plaster ceiling covered the whole church. At the restoration the outside whitewash was scraped away, disclosing the walled-up priests' doorway in the north wall of the nave.

Inside, the ceiling was taken down, opening up the fine 14th century roof. But if these restorers of 1857 made these undoubted improvements to the church, they swept away at the same time a very great deal of antiquarian interest and have in a great measure altered the whole character of the building.

The three lighted 14th century east window in the chancel was taken out, and the present one inserted. The two side windows of the same date however remain. All the windows in the nave, which were Norman, were also removed, with the exception of one behind the south door; this, and the interesting arch communicating between the chancel and the nave,  stamp the character of the church. Round the course of the arch was originally an ornamentation; this has been all chipped away, with the exception of a small fragment still to be seen inside the chancel. Over the arch was a handsome rood loft, the entrance to which, as was always the case, was by a flight of steps from the chancel. The walled-up doorway is still to be seen.

The ancient porch was also removed with its stoup and bells overhead. One bell was inscribed Lewis Watkins, the other Phillip David, and both had the date 1670. At the restoration the present porch was erected, also the belfry,  and new bells were hung. The floor of the church was made deeper by seven inches : in doing this the old pavement was taken up and a large quantity of bones removed, these were all re-interred in the churchyard.

Cusop church is dedicated to St. Mary, and was built by the Monks of Llanthony, or rather re-built by them on probably an older foundation, towards the end of the 12th, or the beginning of the 13th century. The Prior and Convent of Llanthony were the patrons of the living, down to the dissolution of the monasteries, when the patronage was sold by the Crown to Nicholas Arnold with the Llanthony estates, from whose family it was purchased by Edward Harley, and until recent years was the property of the Earls of Oxford and Mortimer. Behind the colouring, the walls of the chancel are covered with frescoes. That on the north wall represents a female figure, probably the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated This was discovered some three years ago.

I have been unable to find any dedication crosses on the outside walls of the church. Inside there is a decided dearth of memorial tables, one only remaining on the south wall. * The following was inscribed on an escutcheon affixed to the same wall : —

** The coat of arms of Sir Thomas Duppa, Knight. He was the eldest son of Thomas Duppa, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and father of Robert Duppa, of Castle Town. Robert Duppa's son was Baldwin Duppa, of Hollinboume Court, m the county of Kent. Robert Duppa was grandfather to Richard Lewis, of Broad Meadow, in the county of Hereford, Gentleman. Richard Lewis departed this life January 25th, 1772, aged 78 years."

I regret that this tablet was removed some years ago by a former Rector, who sent it to a member of the Duppa Family.

On the same wall was another tablet: — " James Butler, Gent., he gave six shillings per annum, charged on a tenement in the occupation of William Harry, to the poor of the parish."

This has also been removed, but at what time I do not know.

The yew trees in the churchyard are undoubtedly among the finest in the county, that opposite the south door was measured by Duncumb in 1804, and he gives the measurement at four feet from the ground as twenty feet in circumference. The trees were measured by the Club when they visited Cusop in 1889.*  Opposite the Lych Gate, and on the green formed by the cross roads, stood in olden days the parish whipping post and stocks. The old building down the lane on the right, now covered with a slate roof and convened into two cottages, was, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, the Rectory, and is still called the Old Rectory House. In the garden of the cottage occupied by Mr. Lewis stood twenty-five years ago the Tythe Barn.

Close to the Church and separated only by a road is the site of the Norman Castle of Cusop. I say the site, for not a vestige of any masonry above the ground remains. When I was a boy, an old man by name Thomas Williams, used to tell me that he well remembered a portion of the gateway of the Castle standing, but the demands of parish roads and farm houses have assisted nature in the task of demolition. From "Castles of Herefordshire and their Lords," we learn that the earliest occupants of Cusop Castle were the Clanowes, whose names occur among the representatives of the county in the reigns of Edward II. and III. and Richard II. One of this family, Phillip de Clanowe, was an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster in the Baron's wars, and took part in the rather summary act of justice by which Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II , lost his life on the scaffold. The King pardoned him, but could not detach him from the Baronial party, and we find him following the Earl of Hereford, who had joined Lancaster, in his opposition to the Despensers, and again committing felonies for which he needed and obtained the royal pardon. Phillip's son, Sir John Clanowe, Knight of the Chamber, was associated in the reign of Richard 11. with another Herefordshire Knight, Sir Nicholas Sarnsfield, K. G., in a somewhat curious mission. They were to notify to Sir William le Scrope (afterwards Earl of Wiltshire) that the jewel which Scrope was to offer at the throne of St Cuthbert at Durham, as a penance for certain transactions and misprisions committed against Walter, the Bishop of that See, should not be of less value than £5oo. An heiress of the Clanowe family married Sir John Pointz, of Iron Acton, and the next possessor of Cusop Castle about whom we have been unable to obtain any information, is Henry ap Griffith, Lord of the Manor, temp. Edward IV., who, as tradition says, was owner of Newcourt in the Valley of Doure.  He was the ancestor of a branch of the Vaughan Family, through whom the property, united with Dorstone, Moccas, and Bredwardine, descended to an heiress who married a Cornwall. Sir George Cornewall, Bart., at the beginning of the present century, parted with it in exchange to Mr. Walter Watkins, of Llydyadyway.

The site of the Castle is now the property of Mrs. Bowen. Cusop Castle was one of a chain of fortresses built to protect the English border at a time when the English and Welsh were sworn foes.

It is supposed to have been more of a fortified house than a castle, and was probably very much the same sort of building as Stokesay Castle, on the borders of Shropshire, not strong enough to stand a siege, but quite sufficient to repel any ordinary attack. The spot upon which we are standing was occupied by the Castle itself, and traces of the moat remain. The stables and outbuildings occupied a portion of the meadow adjoining.  While draining in this meadow a few years ago, a stone ball was found, which will be shown to day.

Dimcumb, the historian of Herefordshire, in his account of Cusop, says : — " Cusop had formerly two castles." He describes the site of the Norman Castle, and then continues :—

" The second Castle or rather entrenchment, for there are no signs of mason work except round a spring, was anciently styled  ‘ Llygad,' signifying in the British language ‘ an eye,' and referring to the great height of its situation and its commanding prospect"  In course of time, there is no doubt the name " Llygad " became corrupted into " Llygod," meaning ** a mouse " and hence the name of Mouse Castle. It is pretty certain that the Normans never fortified Llygad, and we must go back to the Roman occupation of this country as the time when those deep entrenchments were thrown up which still can be traced in the wood round Mouse Castle, and especially on the north, where the ditch is very deep. On the summit of the hill, and in the middle of the camp is a square platform measuring twenty yards across and raised about twenty- two feet higher than the rest.

Llygad was no doubt used by the Romans as a signalling station.  It was in full view of the great military camp at Boatside, on the Radnorshire side of the River Wye, and any movement on the part of an enemy could be immediately signalled to the main body.  The masonry work round the spring mentioned by Duncumb has long since disappeared, the spring, however, still remains within the lines of fortification.

There is yet another Roman Camp to speak about. A few hundred yards away on the other side of the valley, there are distinct traces of a camp to be seen in the meadow adjoining the Lower House farm. This was no doubt an outpost of the main body quartered at Boatside, and would protect the trackway which led from Abergavenny to Brecon, and which we know as the Forest road.

In Norman times a small fortification, probably nothing more than a watch tower, stood in what is now an orchard behind the Nant-y-glasdwr farm house, where watch and ward was kept.

Some of the members of our Club will no doubt pay a visit this afternoon to the Tumuli on the plateau of the Black Mountains, and known as Twyn-y-beddau, or the place of the graves. Sad and silent witnesses of a battle having been fought there in far off times : and there is a tradition, handed down from father to son, among the people of this neighbourhood, that the water of the Dulas was dyed red for three days with the blood of those who are supposed to have vainly endeavoured to stem the current of invasion, and who on that lonely and now forgotten battle-field fell in defence of their homes and their country.

 

*See Transactions, page 360 ; also 1866, page 246.

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From Woolhope Club Transactions 24th July 1899

141

THE MARTYR'S GRAVE. By Miss Isabella Thomas, Redwing, Cusop.

Hay is a pretty town on the banks of the Wye, fifteen miles from Brecon. This picturesque town lay on the direct route from England to Trevecca in Wales, where so many pioneers for God's truth in those days lived and died.

As Stephen's martyrdom gave Christianity its greatest apostle, so Seward's blood became the seed of the Church at Hay, or perhaps the result of Wesley's sermon at Pentwyn, Clyro, in 1747. Just about this time a great religious revival was taking place, when men like John Wesley, Whitfield, and many others came to the fore, as itinerant preachers William Seward was Whitfield's travelling companion in his second voyage to Georgia (U.S.A.). He was a gentleman of large property, but of meagre education and inferior talents.

He travelled through Glamorganshire with Howell Harris. Two years later William Seward was passing through the town of Hay from Badsey in Worcestershire, probably making his way to Trevecca. At one end of the town is an open plain or green, which now bears the name of " Black Lion Green." Above is the portion of the old town wall, and below runs the little brook (Dulas), which divides England from Wales. There stood the man of God pointing these people to the " True Light of the World."  For a while this "eager anxious throng" listened to him in silence. Presently one in the crowd cast stones at him, and several of the bystanders were injured. One cowardly ruffian standing behind the preacher, hit him with a huge stone, and Seward fell senseless to the ground. With his dying breath he prayed for his murderer, entreating that the man should not be punished. " And when he had said this he fell asleep." The man who hurled the stone lived to be an old man, but, alas! unchanged, and his death-bed was attended with peculiar horrors.

Beneath a giant yew tree in Cusop churchyard, about a mile from the spot, the remains of the good man were interred, and the spot is known as the " MARTYR'S GRAVE."

A well-worn stone tells the story of his life and death.

Here lyeth the body of William Seward, of Badsey, in the county of Worcester, Gentleman, who departed ys life Octr. ye 22nd, 1742 Aged 38. "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians.

chap, ye 1st, verse ye 21st. If earth be all. Why o'er and o'er a beaten path You walk and draw up nothing new, Not so our martyred Seraph did When from the verge of Wales he fled.

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Visit of the Woolhope Club 19th July 1899 to Clifford Castle, Cusop and Hay.

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