Within the locality of Venables, castles were built at Rouen, Louviers, Evreux, Gaillon and Vernon. In the early 12th century, in one of the periods of peace, Richard I, the Lionheart, King of England, Duke of Normandy defied a peace treaty and built the stronghold of Chateau Gaillard, on the French side of the Seine at Les Andelys, to control the river and therefore access to Paris.

Above: A modern map of the locality around Venables, showing clearly the baronial lands on the plateau above the river, within the meander loop of the River Seine

Ormerod describes the location as:

'Which is situated about thirty miles beyond Rouen, on the road to Paris, between St Pierre and Vernon (within a few miles of those places), and stands in the centre of the neck of a peninsular tract of land formed by a bend in the Seine in the neighbourhood of Beaumont, Gournay, and Bernierres. The high road runs straight through this tract to the centre of the arc of the Seine, which intersects at a point where that river bends past the Petit Andeli, near to the famous Chateau Gaillard erected by Richard Coer de Lion for the defence of that part of Normandy. A map of this district showing the position of Venables very clearly (near the Forest of Andeli, and as one of the chief places, was published in Histoire du Ch?eau Gaillard, par Achille Deville, at Rouen, in 1829.' (Ormerod) 'History of the County Palatine Vol. II', 1882, p187)

1066info2, sheet 2

Above: A more detailed map of the land held by the Baron of Venable Double click on the image to open an A4 landscape map of 90Kb

Above: The modern village of Venables

This page was created by Richard Crompton and maintained by Chris Glass			Version A5 Updated 13 March 2020