Croft Castle: Six Hundred Years of the Croft Family and the Glyndŵr Connection

Croft Castle, standing in the English county of Herefordshire, is a testament to a lineage dating back to 1085. Its history is intertwined with neighboring estates, including the Mortimers of Wigmore and Ludlow. The family’s connection with the Welsh Glyndŵr dynasty, through the marriage of their daughter Janet, brought them a wyvern, the dragon with the wounded tail – a creature that continues to guard their castle to this day. As a historical footnote, it's worth noting that the Croft family were closely linked to the Mortimers of Wigmore and Ludlow, a bond established through the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross fought on land treated as part of the Croft holdings. Sir John de Croft married one of Owain Glyndŵr’s daughters, thereby incorporating the wyvern into the Croft family's coat-of-arms.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons