Ludgershall Castle

Ludgershall is a small village about sixteen miles N.N.E. of Salisbury, lying on the confines of Hants, between Winchester and Marlborough. The remains of the castle are on an eminence at the N. of the town, but there is little more than a fragment of the Norman keep, now attached to a farmyard wall, surrounded by an earthen rampart and two deep ditches.

The fortress is said to have been built soon after the Conquest, but by whom is not known; it was certainly in existence in 1141, since in that year, as we are told by William of Malmesbury, the Empress Maud took shelter here in her flight from Winchester to Devizes—when her brother the Earl was captured—staying some days.

From that time till the reign of Richard I. nothing is recorded of the place, which appears in the list of donations given by the King (1 Richard 1.) to his brother John. In this latter Kings reign it belonged to Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Chief Justice of England, and in the right of his wife, Beatrix de Mandeville, Earl of Essex (see PLESHY, ESSEX). He was a man of vast wealth and authority, and had the management of most affairs of State, being more feared than loved by King John, who exclaimed when Essex’s death was announced to him: “Now I shall be King and Lord of England”. (Mat. Paris and Holinshed.)

The lordship and the castle remained in his family till 10 Henry III. when in some way this King acquired them, for he then nominated one Jollan de Neville, his royal warder of forests, as governor, and himself came here later. Then we find Henry using the place as a country palace for himself and his family, and the Liberate Rolls of 28 to 35 Henry III. contain directions to the constables of Ludgershall and Marlborough for the erection of many additions, and for alterations and decorations to the buildings at this “Manor house”. A new hall was built, 60 feet by 40, with four “upright windows”, and a pantry and buttery at the end of it, and a kitchen for the King, as well as one for his household. In 1251 the walls of the castle were to be renovated on all sides, and crenellated. The next year there is ordered a large chamber to be built for Prince Edward, with two private rooms attached and two chimneys, and paintings and wainscotting were often prescribed. In 1260 the governor was Sir Robert de Waleran, a knight of importance, who had been a faithful supporter of the King, for whom he fought at Lewes and Evesham; he soon after gave way to Roger, Lord Clifford, who, after taking a leading part on the Barons’ side, joined the Royal cause, and afterwards received large grants of lands. After this we find no further mention of the castle, which it is possible was dismantled by Edward I., or retained only as the seat of the manor, of which subsequent notices are given. The power of the Barons in his father’s time had been fostered, if not originated by their castles, and it is likely that in this reign many were reduced and rendered less defensible.

Grose gives a bad woodcut of a part of a square tower, showing two portions of the opposite walls of a square building, two storeys high, connected by a cross wall which contains a fine window. This sketch was made in 1765. The circular-headed windows of the ruin denote its Norman origin.

Regarding the visit of the Empress Maud in 1141: in Strickland’s “Queens of England” it is said that Maud, having decided to quit Winchester Castle, her brother, the Earl of Gloucester, cut a passage for her through the besiegers (that is, the army of Stephen’s Queen Matilda) at the sword’s point. She and her uncle David, King of Scotland, by dint of hard riding, escaped to Ludgershall, while the earl in rear defended them from pursuit, till all his men almost being slain, he was himself taken prisoner after desperate fighting. Some years ago there was turned up by the plough in the neighbourhood a silver seal (given in “Archaeologia”, vol. xiv.), having on it ” Sigillum Milonis de Glocestria”, with a knight in chain armour, on horseback, holding a lance and shield. This Milo FitzWalter was with Maud at Ludgershall.

The castle stands in a Roman encampment, half a mile in circumference, being on high ground, and now hidden by trees. The old castle well still yields good water at all times. In Leland’s time the building is said to be “clene down”, and there was “a pratie lodge made of the ruins of it”. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)