A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE The Camp, Downton-on-the-Rock afford much protection. The position has practically no command, even of the immediate neighbourhood, except for a few hundred feet north- eastward. The opening upon the north has the appearance of age, but adds weakness to the stronghold. A quarter soft.c--- of a mile north-west, near the church, is a castle mount which we include under Class D. EccLEswALi- Castle. See Linton. Goodrich Castle. — Few castle ruins in Herefordshire are so well known as those of this feudal stronghold, situated 3 miles south-south-west of Ross, on an eminence commanding an important ford across the Wye. Of earthworks there is nothing be- yond a wide dry moat which surrounded and added materially to the strength of the de- fensive work.'^^ The castle will be described in another chapter of this History. Linton : Eccleswall Castle. — In the reign of Henry II Richard de Talbot ob- tained a grant of the lordship of Eccleswall and Linton, and he may have erected the castle but no record exists, and now nothing remains to remind us of the stronghold excepting a grass-grown moat and a low mount of earth. Some fragments of masonry built into the farm premises which occupy the site may have belonged to the castle. MoccAs Castle. — This fragment of an ancient stronghold, situated loj miles west-by-north of Hereford, stands a mile south-west of the Wye and about 100 ft. above the river level. But that we know the place to have been of importance in feudal times, and that there is evidence of the former existence of other defences, we should have judged it the site of a simple homestead. The Rev. C. J. Robinson says : — The site of the ancient castle may be readily traced in a meadow lying on the south side of the high road east of the park. The foundations have long formed a quarry for road metal, the moat, partially drained, is now only a swampy circle, and a few grassy hillocks alone mark the spot on which the old buildings stood.'^ j^^j;,^^ Castle Pembridge Castle. See Welsh Newton. Peterchurch : Urishay Castle. — Although called a castle this was probably one of those ' defensible houses,' strong enough to stand attacks from bands of lawless men and raiding parties, but by no means capable of sustaining a military siege. It is in the wildest part of the parish of Peter- church, about 1 1 miles west of Hereford, and its courtyard may have often served to shelter the live-stock of the demesne. The Rev. C. J. Robinson N '"'Jiuiim 9<AUC Of rtCT loo 700 300 '%. " It is said that there was here a stronghold in the reign of Edward the Confessor, ' entrenched in a itockade of wood,' but of this there is no evidence. " Hist, of the Castles ofHerefs. and their Lords (1869), 108. 254
