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Chepstow Castle
William fitz Osbern, the trusted lieutenant of William the Conqueror, planted Chepstow Castle on the cliffs above the river Wye in 1067. The first castle was probably an earth-and-timber stronghold, but the earliest stone building — the massive great tower — soon followed, possibly constructed on the orders of one of the early Norman kings. In 1189, William Marshal, who had risen from a landless knight in the service of the Plantagenets, obtained the castle. While strengthening the castle’s defences, he built the twin-towered main gatehouse — a revolutionary design for its time. Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk, succeeded to the castle in 1270, and he added the sumptuous domestic block in the castle’s lower ward and the imposing Marten’s Tower (named after Henry Marten, the regicide, who was held prisoner there from 1668 to 1680). Amongst the rooms in the domestic block was the gloriette, the earl’s comfortable private chamber. The gloriette has recently been carefully decorated and furnished as it might have been during Roger’s lifetime in the late thirteenth century. The castle was twice besieged during the Civil War.Monmouthshire
Chepstow’s film history stretches back to 1913. Most recently it has appeared in episodes of Merlin and Doctor Who.
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