Ruins

Caerphilly (Gwent/Glamorgan)

 Geoff writes: 

Our turbulent national history (notably the the long-disputed borders between England and Wales and England and Scotland) have left us with a remarkable legacy of ruined castles. These were the ones that did not find a new use in the post-mediaeval economy and were fortuitously too remote to be plundered for building materials.

 

The existence of our stone castles is really a testament to the violence, insecurity and injustice that dominates so much of our history. They tell of strength, but also of disunity and fear; of a squabbling military aristocracy that relied on stone walls and weaponry to keep their rivals, and their peasant populations, often newly conquered, under control.

 

At the end of the Civil War, when the old castles played a role in armed conflict for the last time, Cromwell’s Parliamentarians blew holes in their walls and put them permanently out of service. The ordinary population didn’t miss them at all.

 

Anyone who knows the story of the Fall of Jericho (Joshua 6) will know that the God of Israel also had little respect for stone fortifications.

 

But he has to remind the Kings and rulers of Judah and Israel again and again, through the words of Amos, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, that they too should not put their trust in stone battlements. Instead they should gain the favour of God by obedience to his commandments of justice.

 

They didn’t listen. The walls of Jerusalem could not save the city when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon broke them down in 586 BC. The walls lay in ruins for 140 years.