England–Wales border after Harold's death at the Battle of Hastings, Wales was again divided without a leader to resist the Normans. Immediately after the Norman conquest of England, King William installed one of his most trusted confidants, William FitzOsbern, as Earl of Hereford. By 1071 he had started the building of Chepstow Castle, the first castle in Britain built of stone, near the mouth of the Wye. It served as a base from which the Normans continued to expand westward into south Wales, establishing a castle at Caerleon and extinguishing the Welsh kingdom of Gwent. William also installed Roger de Montgomerie at
St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye St Mary's (also St Mary the Virgin) is an Anglican parish church in Hay-on-Wye, Brecknockshire, Powys, Wales. Separated by a deep dingle, which probably was formerly a moat, it is situated westward of the town upon an almost precipitous eminence, near to the River Wye. An earlier church, dedicated to St. John, called Eglwys Ifan, appears from the "Notitia Cambro-Britannica", to have been in good repair in 1684, and then used as a school-house. This building partly fell down about the year 1700, and was never repaired, though part of it was later used as a