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In the Early Middle Ages Laugharne was the main settlement in the area and home to the Lords of Laugharne. It was a commote of Gwarthaf, the largest of the seven cantrefi of the Kingdom of Dyfed in southwest Wales, later to be ruled by the Princes of Deheuberth.

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A castle was established by the mid-12th century and town defences are also recorded together with a fortified manor house built at nearby Roche in the late 13th century. The castle changed hands several times during a turbulent period of Welsh history when the kingdoms were increasingly subject to Viking raids. The Normans also frequently took advantage of rivalries between Welsh rulers to consolidate their position. In 1088 Jestyn ap Gwrgan successfully sought aid from King William Rufus in an attack on Rhys ap Tewdwr and ownership of Abercorran Castle was one of the rewards of victory. According to the Brut y Tywysogyon Robert Courtemain , one of twelve knights who assisted Gwegan, was a beneficiary establishing Bleddyn ap Cedifor as his castellan there for the next 20 years.

In 1216 King John granted both the Lordship of Laugharne to Sir Guy de Brian (Gui de Brienne) Earls of Pembroke .....Possession subsequently passed to the Crown, and in 1575, In Elizabeth's reign, the lordship passed to Sir John Perrot. of Haroldston, granted it to In 1644 the castle was garrisoned for the king and taken for Parliament by Major-General Rowland Laugharne, who subsequently reverted to the king's side. The population in 1841 was 1,389.

Laugharne Corporation

Laugharne shares the distinction, along with the City of London, of being one of the last two surviving mediæval Corporations in the United Kingdom. and also its famous 'Charter of Incorporation' to Laugharne Township (later confirmed by Henry III and subsequently augmented by Edward I around 1270). The provisions of the document vest the town government in a Portreeve, Recorder, Aldermen and Burgesses assisted by two Common Attorneys and four constables. Laugharne Corporation holds extensive historical records and is presided over by the Portreeve, who is elected annually at the Big Court. He wears his traditional chain of gold cockle shells, one added by each bearer, with his name and date of tenure on the reverse. A court leet is held half-yearly (formerly dealing with criminal cases), and a court baron every fortnight, dealing with civil suits within the lordship, especially in matters related to land, where administration of the open-field system is dealt with (one of the very few still in use today in Britain.)

Plan of open-field system in common land on The Hugdon, a hill to the west of Laugharne

The most senior 76 burgesses get a 'strang' of land on Hugden Hill fields for life, to be used in a form of mediæval strip-farming. The chief toast at the Portreeve's feast is "to the immortal memory of Sir Guido de Brian"; then the Recorder must sing the following song:

When Sir Guy de Brien lived in Laugharne,
A jolly old man was he.
Some pasture land he owned, which he
Divided into three.
Says he "There's Hugdon and the Moor
They will the Commons please;
And all the gentlemen shall have
Their share down on the Lees."

https://archive.org/details/os-map-of-dark-age-britain-1968-showing-multiple-ad-6th-c-sites-ar-laugharne- https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/HLC/EstuaryArea/area151.htm summit of the hill https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-coygan-cave-near-laugharne

History

Laugharne was originally in Gwarthaf, the largest of the seven cantrefi of the Kingdom of Dyfed in southwest Wales, and subsequently became part of Deheubarth. In 1093, Deheubarth was seized by the Normans following Rhys ap Tewdwrs death. In the early 12th century, grants of lands were made to Flemings by King Henry I when their country was flooded.

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CADW Laugharne’s history stretches back over nine centuries. Founded in 1116, it was part of a chain of Norman coastal castles from Chepstow in the east to Pembroke in the west. But it was never safe from attack by Welsh chieftains. The original earthwork fortress was captured by the Lord Rhys, self-proclaimed ‘rightful prince of south Wales’, in 1189 and again by Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1215. Even after the de Brian family built the rugged stone castle we see today in the mid-13th century it was devastated by Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Its Tudor rescue was short-lived. After a week-long siege by Parliamentary forces in the Civil War Laugharne was captured for the final time and partly dismantled – never to be occupied again.

Archaeologica Cambrensus 1946 - Introduction to Laugharne

Few towns in Wales are more redolent of antiquity than Laugharne. This may partly be due to its geographical isolation, on a promontory formed by the River Taf, and by its position on the very frontier of "Little England beyond Wales." More particularly is it due to the preservation of the framework of its old borough constitution, and to the retention by the corporation of common land which is held by the seventy-six senior burgesses. Laugharne's charter dates from about 1300, and was granted by Guy de Brian. He gave the burgesses all the liberties enjoyed by the freemen of Carmarthen, including immunity from every species of servitude. They were authorised to elect two portreeves every year, each to serve for a period of six months. The reeves were to hold the borough court and receive the dues, customs, and tolls which were to be paid to the lord's bailiff. In addition, he gave the burgesses a wide tract of common land, amounting to some four hundred acres, together with a road to drive their cattle to the common pasture, and an acre of moorland for digging peat. In Elizabeth's reign the lordship passed to Sir John Perrot of Haroldston, a fact for which the inhabitants of Laugharne have had cause to regret. As at Carew Perrot modernised the castle, but he was the most unscrupulous "land-grabber" of his age, and in 1574 he induced the burgesses to part with three hundred acres of land in return for an annuity of £ 9 6s. 8d. The records say that "diverse burgesses of the said towne did not assent to same," and that it was "to the great decaying of many." It would be interesting to know by what methods of bribery or intimidation Sir John was able to accomplish his nefarious purposes. To-day, the common lands are held by the seventy-six senior burgesses for life sixteen shares being on the Moor, twenty at Hugdon and forty at the Lees. Residence at Laugharne is necessary to qualify as a senior burgess, and as the shares vary a great deal in value and quality a watchful eye is kept on the qualifications of the next on the list of burgesses when a particularly valuable share is about to fall vacant. Once every three years the boundaries of the town lands are perambulated. The officers of the Corporation at present are the Portreeve, who is elected for six months, but who invariably holds office for a year the recorder, who is clerk to the court which meets every fortnight the two Common Attorneys, who collect the rents of the corporation and see to the arrangements for the "common walk" (the triennial perambulation) four constables, who enforce the decisions of the portreeve two bailiffs, who are caretakers of the court, and the crier who opens and closes the court by ancient formula. Georgian Houses at Laugharne. Sir Cyril Fox said At a meeting of the General Committee, when the Carmarthen programme was discussed, I suggested that the Cambrians ought to take notice of the street architecture, particularly the Georgian, of the towns visited. The members agreed, but if I had known that Mr. Alwyn Lloyd would be present on this occasion I should certainly not have undertaken to speak. We are in this pleasant place, the grounds of the Castle House, by the kindness of Mrs. Gweneth Whitteridge, M.A., the tenant. I spoke yesterday to some members of the Association on street architecture as a two- dimensional matter. In the open country an architect could or should think of his building as being seen from all sides and angles in a town he can concentrate on the design of the front-or at least, we judge his quality by his treatment of it. The classical renaissance created a tradition of formal and exact symmetry in the principal elevations of dwelling houses, and this symmetry became universal in Britain in the Georgian style of "street architecture" of the eighteenth century the time-range of its popularity is indeed wider, from late Stuart to the early Victorian age. It dominates Laugharne as it does all the other little townships in South Wales the cottage of the labourer and the great house alike. A design frequent here in the more commodious houses, is the central doorway with a window on each side on the first floor there will be three windows, on the second floor three also, somewhat smaller. The central window above the door may have a little added detail to enforce the centrality of the design. A parapet, or a visible roof with dentilled cornice below, crowns the elevation. The front-door frame is a principal feature, very carefully designed, and usually with a decorative fanlight over the door but it should be stressed that in the Georgian tradition it is the relation of voids to solids, that is, the position and shape and size of the windows in relation to the plain wall, and the shape and thickness of their glazing bars, that is mainly relied upon to give character, dignity, and quality to the facade. This is particularly the case in Wales where the warm red brick of the low- lands is uncommon, and where elevations of plastered rubble tend to be so severe as to be gaunt. Where the house is large, the front extensive, the device of slightly recessed wings is often seen. Such beauty as these street fronts possess-the lovely doorways apart-is then cold and restrained, appealing to the reason rather than to the emotion to the educated taste rather than the uneducated. The interiors of the houses however, especially the larger ones, tend to be richly decorated. Mrs. Whitteridge kindly allows us to see the ornamental details in the hall and drawing room of Castle House. This house (see Plate), which well illustrates my theme, should date about 1730, and extensive redecoration and internal reconstruction is seen to have taken place about 1810. You will be able to contrast the arched approach to the inner hall which is original, with the folding doors ornamented with Greek fret pattern and the staircase which are later work and will be able to see in the dining room how the Regency mantel- piece of black-and-white marble and the stucco wall-ornament fit into the setting of nearly a hundred years earlier. There is no sense of violent contrast for a very good reason. Though the Georgian style was modified by various influences during its history, it was still governed by the same principles, and so throughout the period craftsmen were working essentially in the same tradition. The discussion was continued as the party walked along King Street to the Church, particular attention being paid to the group of houses, some with bay windows, opposite to,and flanking Brown's Hotel, and to a group centred on the Great House with its elaborately carved late seventeenth century door-frame.1 Sir Cyril Fox also spoke in Laugharne Church This spacious and lofty building is, apart from drastic modem restoration and minor alterations which accompanied this work, funda- mentally of the late thirteenth century. The regularity of the aisleless cruciform plan suggests that the site was virgin, or completely cleared of earlier constructions before the work was begun. The presence of the pre-Norman cross on which Dr. Nash-Williams will speak, is important in this connection. The position of the Church so far from the town must surprise all who visit it but the town was unwalled and its lands extensive, so a site anciently sacred though outside the settlement could be chosen by the Welsh community. The dominant feature of the Church is the massive central tower Welsh in character, its walls have a pronounced batter emphasised at the south-west angle where a vice gives access to the belfry, and it reminds us of many western towers in this and the neighbouring counties. Internally, the lofty, steeply-pointed, massive arches of the crossing, turned in rubble masonry with no mouldings or set-offs, in scale and shape dominate the church, and give it a peculiar dignity, reminding us of the same feature in the earlier churches of Llanbadarn Fawr and Talley Abbey. If we wish to reconstruct in our minds the original appearance of the interior we must look up at the deeply scored diagonals on the tower walling which show the pitch, steeper than at present, of the late thirteenth century roofs not only of the nave but of the chancel and transepts. That pitch reflects, as you see, the pointedness of the arches and we perceive that the church had an aesthetic and emotional unity as well as a unity of plan, and that that unity was in a measure lost when the walls were heightened. When was this done ? Definitely in the Perpendicular period note the beautiful design of the stepped buttresses, narrow but of considerable depth, which characterise the exterior of the building. And early in the period for one precious window, relic of this second phase in the building's history, the east window of the north transept with lovely tracery of pure English design, survived the restoration in 1874 whereby all other early windows were destroyed. Since it is copied in several of the "restored" windows, we are justified in regarding it as characteristic of the "Perpendicular" reconstruction. This then should be dated at the end of the fourteenth century, before the style had hardened. The memorials on the walls of sanctuary and nave are of interest in themselves, and they illustrate the high level of culture and the wealth of the little town from the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. 1 The following quotation is relevant: "As for Laugharne, nearly all the wealthy and ancient families are gone. About forty to fifty years ago every large house was occupied by parties with handsome incomes the smaller ones by persons of great respectability and of some property. Laugharne then presented a lively scene the carriages of the rich rolled by its houses in the morning and afternoon the different families walked up and down the street from the Mariners' Corner to the house with bay- windows, just past the vicarage on the opposite side. Parties often concluded the day. Malkin, who was here in 1803, said it was the best built town in Carmarthenshire." M. Curtis, The Antiquities of Laugharne and Pendine, 1871, p. 5.

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In 1116, when Gruffydd ap Rhys (the son and heir of Rhys ap Tewdwr) returned from self-imposed exile, the king arranged for the land to be fortified against him; according to the Brut y Tywysogyon, Robert Courtemain constructed a castle at Laugharne in that year (this is the earliest reference to any castle at or near Laugharne). Courtemain may be the Robertus cum tortis manibus (English: Robert with twisted hands) mentioned in the Book of Llandaff, as one of a number of specifically named Norman magnates within the vicinity of the Llandaff diocese, who received a letter from Pope Callixtus II complaining about deprivations they had inflicted on diocesan church property; in the letter, the Pope warns he would confirm Bishop Urban's proclamations against them, if they do not rectify matters. The Brut states that Courtemain appointed a man named Bleddyn ap Cedifor as castellan; Bleddyn was the son of Cedifor ap Gollwyn, descendant and heir of the earlier kings of Dyfed (as opposed to those of Deheubarth). The castle was originally known as Abercorran Castle.

When Henry I died, Anarchy occurred, and Gruffydd, and his sons, Lord Rhys in particular, gradually reconquered large parts of the former Deheubarth. In 1154, the Anarchy was resolved when Henry II became king; two years later, Lord Rhys agreed peace terms with Henry II and prudently accepted that he would only rule Cantref Mawr, constructing Dinefwr Castle there. Henry II de-mobilised Flemish soldiers who had aided him during the Anarchy, settling them with the other Flemings.

From time to time, however, King Henry had occasion to go to Ireland, or Normandy, which Lord Rhys took as an opportunity to try and expand his own holdings. Returning from Ireland after one such occasion, in 1172, King Henry made peace with Lord Rhys, making him the justiciar of South Wales (ie. Deheubarth). By 1247, Laugharne was held by Guy de Bryan; this is the earliest reference to his family possessing the castle, and his father (also named Guy de Bryan) had only moved the family to Wales in 1219 (from Devon). Guy de Bryan's descendants continued to hold the castle; his namesake great-grandson was Lord High Admiral of England. The latter's daughter Elizabeth inherited the castle and married an Owen of St Bride's who subsequently took his name – Owen Laugharne – from the castle despite Gerald of Wales calling the castle Talachar, and other variations on Laugharne/Talacharn appearing in ancient charters; one anonymous pre-20th century writer erroneously claimed that the Owen Laugharne gave his name to the castle rather than the other way around. Possession subsequently defaulted to the Crown, and in 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted it to Sir John Perrot. In 1644 the castle was garrisoned for the king and taken for Parliament by Major-General Rowland Laugharne, who subsequently reverted to the king's side. The population in 1841 was 1,389.