Marford Rofft Mount

Mountain / peak

What is recorded here

The Rofft at Marford was an Iron Age fort of about thirty acres, later reused for a Norman earth-and-timber castle. It guarded approaches to the River Alyn and served local government and justice before Wrexham drew those roles away. A railway cut through the earthworks in the 1840s and gravel quarrying erased the…

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Who made it and when

Iron Age communities first enclosed the flat-topped promontory, and Norman lords probably added a motte-and-bailey castle after taking control of the area in the late eleventh century.

How it was made and used

The thirty-acre fort watched the Alyn valley, while the later raised bailey and dry moat supported defence, toll collection, justice and administration for the commote of Marford.

What was found

Surveys and written records traced an eighteen-foot raised bailey, dry moat, a manor house recorded in 1315 and the later Rofft Hall built across the earlier fort.

What remains

No earthworks are visible because the railway and twentieth-century gravel quarry removed them, but Castle Croft, Rofft school and other names preserve the location's memory.

Why it mattered

The Rofft mattered because the same border viewpoint served prehistoric defence, Norman control and Welsh local government before changing trade and politics shifted power to Wrexham.