Caldicot Castle

Caldicot appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, not as a castle but as an agricultural holding of Durand of Gloucester, Sheriff of Gloucestershire. His nephew Walter FitzRoger inherited both the lands and the office of Constable of England, which thereafter stayed with the lords of Caldicot, and Walter's son Milo was granted the Earldom of Hereford. In the time of Henry I the castle was probably a simple motte-and-bailey. When Milo's five sons all died childless, his eldest daughter Margaret carried the earldom, the constableship and Caldicot into her marriage with Humphrey II de Bohun. Their son Humphrey III was the probable builder, in about 1170, of the stone keep and curtain walls that survive today. The Bohuns held Caldicot for more than two centuries, over eight generations.

In 1376 the manor passed, with seventy others, to Thomas of Woodstock, fifth son of Edward III, on his marriage to Alianore de Bohun. As uncle to the boy-king Richard II he was appointed Constable of England and rarely came to Caldicot, his main estates lying at Pleshey in Essex. The Peasants' Revolt convulsed Essex in 1381, and that may be why Thomas spent part of that year here. During his stay he ordered major new work: a new gatehouse and drawbridge, and, at the rear of the castle, a new tower of private chambers raised where a dovecote had stood — the Woodstock tower. At its foot two carved stones were to be set, one marked 'Thomas', the other 'Alianore'. Relations with the king grew increasingly strained, and in 1397, on Richard's orders, Thomas was kidnapped and murdered. His property was confiscated and passed to the Crown.

Caldicot later became part of the Duchy of Lancaster under Henry V, was held by his widow Katherine of Valois, and passed into the stewardship of the Herberts and then the Somersets of Raglan. Neglect followed: the castle fell into ruin and became little more than a farmyard, before being sold to Charles Lewis of St Pierre in 1857 and, in 1885, to Joseph Richard Cobb, who began restoring it as a family home. The Cobbs held it until 1964, Geoffry Wheatly Cobb and especially his daughter-in-law Anna continuing the work, and rooms were decorated with memorabilia from HMS Foudroyant, Nelson's first flagship, which G. W. Cobb owned at the end of its life. Three towers and part of the gatehouse were eventually converted into rented apartments. In 1964 Chepstow Rural District Council bought the castle for £12,000, as council housing supplanted the local need for those flats, and it opened to the public, with a small museum, in 1965. It had been made a Grade I listed building on 10 June 1953.

Caldicot Castle has been open to the public since 1965, when the building and its small museum were first shown to visitors after Chepstow Rural District Council bought it from the Cobb family for £12,000. It is a Grade I listed building, and the pleasure of a visit lies in its scale and its layers: the twelfth-century keep and curtain walls, Thomas of Woodstock's gatehouse and tower at the rear, and the restored interiors that served as family rooms and, later, as rented apartments well into the twentieth century. Medieval-style banquets have been held here since 1967.

Organised public ghost hunts are also run at the castle by event companies, giving an after-dark look at the place; these are booked directly with the organisers, and a stone building is cold at night, so dress for it. Go with an open mind and a healthy scepticism, and treat the stories of the people who lived and died here with the respect they are due.