Pembridge Castle

Pembridge Castle stands in the Herefordshire countryside, about 1.6 kilometres northwest of Welsh Newton. Built between the late 12th and early 13th centuries, it was originally called Newland Castle. Matilda de St Valery most likely ordered its construction before 1208. The castle later became the home of the Pembridge, Wake and Mortimer families over the 14th and 15th centuries. A 16th-century chapel once stood there, but it was ruined in 1644 during the English Civil War. Early in the 20th century, Dr Hedley Bartlett carried out much of the reconstruction work. The castle passed to David Baker, a lawyer from Abergavenny, in 1602. Baker left England three years later to become a Catholic priest. Saint John Kemble, an English Catholic priest and martyr, lived at the castle for many years before his arrest and execution in 1679. The castle occupies a plot measuring 36 metres by 27 metres and is surrounded by a moat. Its walls are built of ashlar, sandstone and rubble, with the curtain wall reaching 1.4 metres thick. A four-storey round tower on the western corner forms the earliest part of the castle, likely the keep. The tower’s internal diameter is 7.5 metres, and its rooms measure 5 metres wide. The chapel’s ruined remains can still be seen, while the rest of the castle shows signs of careful reconstruction. Visitors find a quiet, moated stronghold set in open countryside, its stone walls rising above the water. The tower and curtain wall give a sense of the castle’s original strength and purpose.