A sword discovered in the basement of Castle Green House nearly 30 years ago has been returned to Cardigan Castle.

Land surveyor Dean McNeil Jones was working at the castle as a young man in 1990 undertaking the Ove Arup survey of the then derelict buildings.

While he was in East Wing (now part of the castle’s five star accommodation offer) he noticed a hole in one of the partition boards that had been constructed by the army in World War II.

“I looked in and saw this sword just placed against the wall. I was only 19 at the time and it seemed like a great find!”
Dean took the metal sword outside and showed it to castle owner Miss Wood who was living in a caravan in the grounds.
“She told me to keep it so I took it home,” he said.

The sword remained in Dean’s Cardiff home and it was only when he was looking in the attic earlier this year that he came across it.
“To be honest I’d forgotten all about it but when I found it I felt it should come back to the castle.”

• The sword is not the only weapon to be returned to the castle. A dozen 8ft long pikestaffs have been shipped in from France where they belonged to William Berrington-Davies, a descendant of the Davies family of Castle Green. Mr Berrington Davies, who has lived in France for several years, remembers them being on display at Plas Llangoedmor where the Davies family moved in the 1920s.
“They were originally on display at Castle Green – from what I’ve been told they were used at celebrations and civic events in the town,” he said.
The metal spears are dated 1826 and engraved with the initials TD.
Both the pikestaffs and the sword are now being looked after by the castle’s archive team.
Picture: Dean McNeil Jones with the sword that he has returned to Cardigan Castle.