What is recorded here

Goodrich Castle is a Norman concentric castle ruin on a rocky sandstone outcrop above the River Wye in Herefordshire, built to control the Walesford crossing and the old Roman road into Wales. Godric of Mappestone probably raised the first earth and wood fortification after the Conquest, then stone replaced it, and the late 13th-century expansion turned a small defensive keep into a grand residence with deep military purpose. The Talbot family later made it their seat, but in 1646 Colonel John Birch battered it with Roaring Meg, broke its pride, and helped send it into ruin. Even so, its towers still stand like a proud argument against forgetting, watching the river and reminding us that grandeur often begins as a boundary between worlds.

The National Heritage List for England records Goodrich Castle as a scheduled monument. The saved point comes from the centre supplied by the official record. Listing does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Goodrich Castle was built by the de Say family in the 12th century and later held by the powerful Berkeley family from the 14th century. It is important as one of the best-preserved medieval castles in England and for its role in the Wars of the Roses and the execution of King Charles I's son, the Duke of Gloucester, during the Hundred Years' War.

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