River Usk

Roman Wales

Mar 1, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, culture, religion

Anne Neville, British tribes, caerlent, Caerleon, Cardiff Castle, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Christianity, Colchester Castle, conversion, Demetae, Despensers, Gower Peninsula, Kent, Llanelli, Magnus Maximus, Monmouthshire, Normans, Ordovices, Richard III, River Usk, Robert Curthose, Roman Britain, rugby, Silures, Swansea, Time team, Tower of London, tribes, Wales

The first thing to note about Roman rule in Wales is that it started in 48 AD, a few years later than in England, which is a consequence of the Claudian invasion having started in Kent. It is likely to have finished a little earlier too, in about 383, as the general Maximus Magnus sought…
Has one of the Kingmaker’s pirate ships been found in Newport….?

Jul 26, 2019

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, Science, television reviews, travel

BBC2, dendrochronology, Edgecote, Mary Rose, mediaeval vessels, Newport Ship, oak, piracy, Richard of Warwick, River Usk, Thomas Throckmorton, Timewatch, William Herbert Earl of Pembroke

Last night I watched (on PBS America) a BBC2 Timewatch episode entitled The Mysteries of the Medieval Ship. It concerned the discovery, in June 2002, of a foundered/scuttled medieval vessel of some size, buried in the oozing mud of the Severn Sea – well, the oozing mud of the River Usk, at Newport, to be…
Just WHY did Buckingham think he could cross the flooded Severn….?

Oct 18, 2017

anniversaries, travel

Brecon, Bristol Channel, Buckingham rebellion, executions, flooding, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Henry of Buckingham, John Morton, Richard III, River Severn, River Usk, Salisbury, Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, Upton-on-Severn, Vaughans

On this date, St Luke’s Day, 18th October, in 1483, apparently egged on by that notorious Lancastrian plotter, John Morton, Bishop of Ely, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham unfurled his banners in rebellion against his cousin, King Richard III. Morton was supposedly Buckingham’s prisoner, handed over to him by Richard for safe keeping. Safe…

River Usk

Roman Wales

Has one of the Kingmaker’s pirate ships been found in Newport….?

Just WHY did Buckingham think he could cross the flooded Severn….?