Local History Videos

Old Images of Newport Castle, Wales

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Debbie Death
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Old Book illustration of Newport and Newport Castle, Wales, published 1888

Enjoy a glimpse o history through old images of Newport Castle, in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Built in the 14th century (probably by Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester or his son-in-law, Ralph, Earl of Stafford) with the purpose of managing the crossing of the River Usk, Newport Castle was famously sacked by Owain Glyndŵr in 1402.

By the time the Civil War started, Newport Castle had been in a state of disrepair for about two decades. Oliver Cromwell’s forces took over the castle in 1648, seizing it from the Royalist forces based there since 1643, and the following year caused enough damage to stop it being used for warcraft ever again.

Old Pictures of Newport Castle

Old Picture of Newport Castle, published in 1732
Old Picture of Newport Castle, published in 1732. Image: Topographical Collection of George III – British Library/Flikr.
Old Picture of Newport Castle, Wales, published in 1740
Old Picture of Newport Castle, Wales, published in 1740. Image: The Topographical Collection of George III- British Library/Flikr.
Vintage postcard of a picture of Newport Castle, Wales, painted in 1787
Vintage postcard of a picture of Newport Castle, Wales, painted in 1787. Image: Mark Crombie/Flikr.
Old Picture of Newport Castle, published in 1893, from a view taken in 1775
Old Picture of Newport Castle, published in 1893, from a view taken in 1775. Image from: “History of St. Gwynllyw’s Church, Newport-on-Usk, together with some historical notes on the immediate neighbourhood. (Subscribers’ edition.)” – British Library/Flikr.
Old Book illustration of Newport and Newport Castle, Wales, published 1888
Old Book illustration of Newport and Newport Castle, Wales, published 1888. Image from: “Industrial rivers of the United Kingdom … By various well-known experts, etc [Edited by Evan Rowland Jones. Reprinted from the ‘Shipping World’.]” – British Library/Flikr.

Old Photos of Newport Castle

Old photo of Newcastle Castle in a book published in 1897
Old photo of Newcastle Castle in a book published in 1897. Image from: “The Castles of England: their story and structure … With … illustrations and … plans” – British Library/Flikr.
Old Photo Postcard of Newport Castle, Wales
Old Photo Postcard of Newport Castle, Wales. Image: Mark Crombie/Flikr.
Old Photo Postcard of Newport Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Old Photo Postcard of Newport Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Image: Mark Crombie/Flikr.

Newport Castle Through Time

James Fox creates brilliant videos taking us back in time using old photos and pictures. He adds location titles and dates, so you know when and when you are.

Newport Castle: A Journey Through Time (South Wales, UK): The Time Travel Artist (YouTube)

A Bit of Newport Castle History

Extract from:

“Rambles and Studies in Old South Wales”


By Wirt Sikes

Published in 1881

Pages 100 & 101

Of all the old castles in Wales, perhaps this is the most mournful to look upon, so fallen is it from its grand estate. A ruined castle is seldom debased to such plebeian uses as those which have befallen Newport.

It is now occupied by certain brewers and other unknightly varlets; but there was a day when this pile was the home of kings; and where now ferments the democratic ale and rings the rattle of barrels being hooped, once flowed the ruddy wine from silvern flagons and echoed the laugh and song of revelry.

The castle was built by the Welsh king Robert Fitzroy, in 1130, to protect his domains and to guard the passage of the river, which was and is here fordable at low tide, and after passing through the hands of several successors, it came at last to the Duke of Buckingham. When this duke was executed the estate was seized by Henry VIII.; and when Cromwell’s army came it met the fate of all the baronial halls to which the old castle-hater paid his respects.

Precisely at what time the poor ruin was seized upon by the base fortunes which now degrade it is not recorded. The humiliation of a modern red- tiled roof covers the central tower of the ruin where it looks upon the river, the only part of the walls now standing.

The tower next the bridge has its venerable head covered with a kindly peruke of ivy, as if Nature took pity on the poor old castle in its hour of degradation, and tried thus as it might to atone for man’s inhumanity to storied stone.

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