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The President having given the thanks of the meeting to Mr. Wilson, the 

 following paper was read by Mr. Charles Fortey : — 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF CAYNHAM AND 



ITS CAMP. 



(From the Works op Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., &c.) 



The earliest record of Caynham is to be found in Domesday Book. The 

 manor of Caynham, it is there stated, had belonged to the celebrated Saxon, 

 Earl Morcar, and passed after the conquest into the possession of Earl Ralph de 

 Mortimer. This part of the country was densely wooded at that time, and the 

 extent of the woodland was estimated by the number of animals it would 

 maintain. The Domesday record states, that in the days of the Conqueror there 

 was at Caynham ' a wood of two hundred swine ; ' there was also ' one mill ; ' and 

 as part of the produce of the manor is reckoned ' four loads of salt ' (iiij suminiB 

 Salis de Wich), which very possibly came from the salt spring of Saltmoor, at the 

 foot of Tinker's Hill. This spring is close by the Ludlow and Hereford Railway, 

 about two miles from Caynham and from Ludlow. When Domesday Book was 

 written (c 10S5) there was neither town nor castle at Ludlow. Dinham is not 

 named, and the only church in the neighbourhood mentioned is that of Bromfield. 



A very curious Anglo Norman history of the Fitz Warines has come down to 

 us. It is written in verse, and is called the "Romance of the Fitz Warines." 

 It must have been composed at an early period in the thirteenth century, and 

 gives a very early notice of Caynham. It states that when Joce de Dynan laid 

 siege to Ludlow castle he made his headquarters here, and it gives also the only 

 details known of the early history of the castle. 



This Joce, or Gotso, was a very valorous knight, and a great favourite of 

 King Henry. He is spoken of as " a knight of good experience," handsome, strong, 

 and of goodly stature. The King gave him " the castle of Dynan (or Dinham) 

 and all the country round it towards the river Corve, with all the honour," and 

 from this time he took the name of Joce de Dynan. Roger de Montgomery had 

 commenced this castle, since known as the castle of Ludlow, at the close of the 

 eleventh century, and Joce finished it. " He made his castle of Dynan of three 

 wards (baylles), and surrounded it with a double foss, one within and one without." 

 Joce seems to have occupied his castle for some time, but during the conspiracy 

 in favour of Matilda it had become possessed in some unrecorded manner, by 

 Gervase Pagenel, who defended it bravely against the king. The castle was 

 restored however to Joce in the last year of Stephen's reign (1154), and he main- 

 tained his rule there for many years, acting with great vigour and bravery 

 whenever the occasion called for it. Hugh de Mortimer had quarelled with him 

 and harrassed him greatly. But Joce managed to take him prisoner, and kept 

 him in a tower in the third " bay lie," or ward until he paid the heavy ransome of 

 3,000 marks of silver besides all his plate and his horses, and birds (hawks) for his 

 liberty. This tower still retains the name of the Mortimer tower. The border 

 chieftains, Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter de Lacy, had claimed Joce de 



