Along the Wye between Hay and Builth, Matilda de Braose did not stay a Norman noblewoman for long after her death. She became Moll Walbee, a huge woman of terrible strength, and a whole string of castles on the hills of Breconshire and Radnorshire were said to be her work.
Hay Castle was the most famous. She built it in one night, carrying the stones up from the river in her apron. At some point in the work a stone fell into her shoe. She did not notice at first, but it began to annoy her, so she stopped, pulled it out and threw it away. It flew three miles over the Wye and came down in the churchyard at Llowes, where it still lies. Sikes describes it as a pebble about a foot thick and nine feet long.
At Llowes this is taken to be the great carved stone cross that stood in the churchyard for centuries and now stands inside St Meilig's church. It is an early medieval carved cross, much older than Matilda. The real Matilda's end was grim: after her husband fell out with King John, she and her eldest son were caught and starved to death in the king's prison in 1210 or 1211. The border people seem to have given her a larger life in exchange.
Comments