VIII.—The Castle of Ludlow

W. H. St. John Hope

doi:10.1017/S0261340900009504

VIII.—The Castle of Ludlow

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

W. H. St. John Hope

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Of all the numerous castles on the Marches of “Wales none can compare with the Castle of Ludlow in importance of position, the extent of its remains, or the part which it has played in history.

For a long series of years it was one of the chief strongholds of the Earl of the March, and at a later period became the place where the courts of the Lords Marchers were held, and the Lords President had their seat.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , 1908 , pp. 257 - 327

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900009504 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1908

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^{page 257 note a} Medieval Military Architecture, i. 273–290Google Scholar.

^{page 259 note a} Lansdowne MS. 111, No. 9, f. 20.

^{page 263 note a} This is parallel with and distant about 43 feet from the south side of the castle wall.

^{page 264 note a} Rot. Pat. 2 Edw. III. ii. m. 4.

^{page 264 note b} In the legendary History of Fulk FitzWarin (see post) the keep or great tower is called Mortimer's, because one of that family was imprisoned in it.

^{page 266 note a} This is apparently a “restoration” of an Elizabethan window.

^{page 269 note a} Part of the north front is shown in Fig. 6.

^{page 271 note a} It is so called in the legendary History of Fulk FitzWarin.

^{page 272 note a} The plaster ends abruptly on the north with a vertical line just beyond the entrance, but for what reason it is difficult to say.

^{page 272 note b} It is possible that there was a pause in the building of the chapel after it had been carried up a certain height, and that the enriched part of the doorway belongs to the later work.

^{page 274 note a} The apse did not extend as far as the curtain wall, but stopped 5½ feet short of it.

^{page 277 note a} The doorway still contains an old oak door with fretted braces behind, and pierced for a wicket, but its date is uncertain.

^{page 277 note b} See Plate XXXVII.

^{page 279 note a} The corbels that carried the narrow bay are shown in Fig. 11.

^{page 284 note a} It remains at the base, but, owing to the deep accumulation of earth and rubbish upon the floor, is not now visible.

^{page 284 note b} Between this window and the west wall there has been a square-headed opening to the outside, but this has been carefully walled up.

^{page 289 note a} Since this Paper was written the remains of the tracery have been replaced.

^{page 289 note b} In Lord Powis's set of drawings a straight stair up to it from the room below is shown against the east wall, just to the north of the fireplace.

^{page 291 note a} The lintel of the inserted window is formed of wooden planks, which are dangerously insufficient to sustain the walling above, and it has been found advisable to insert a pillar of masonry to help carry the weight.

^{page 291 note b} One is visible to the left of the fireplace in fig. 17. The open chase of another, but shorter one, which has lost the filling, remains over the doorway to the north. The other hole nearer the fireplace represents the place of a lost corbel like that to the south.

^{page 292 note a} This has on one side a head like the termination of a label, but no label seems ever to have existed.

^{page 292 note b} This has a horizontal wooden lintel, and is considerably later than the two-light window below it.

^{page 292 note c} When this doorway was inserted the west jamb of the turret doorway was cut away for it.

^{page 296 note a} Under this a large corbel seems to have been cut away.

^{page 296 note b} The blocking took place when a fireplace was inserted on the other side of the wall.

^{page 296 note c} Lord Powis's drawings show it as of three transomed lights.

^{page 297 note a} Only the middle mullion is left, and owing to its split and insecure condition the openings on each side have, at the writer's suggestion, been walled up recently to preserve what is left of the old work.

^{page 298 note a} These windows differ so much from the others in the block as to raise a question as to their date. Their side seats and the relieving arches over the lintels are quite early features, but their square-headed lights have never been cusped, and the transom of the lower window is not an insertion. They may be the only unaltered windows of the block.

^{page 298 note b} The plan of each shaft is an eight-pointed star.

^{page 298 note c} This tower is clearly identical with that called Pendover Tower in the legendary History of Fulk FitzWarin.

^{page 299 note a} Printed in the Hon. Clive, R. H.'s Documents connected with the History of Ludlow, and the Lords Marchers (London, 1841), 41–58, from Harl. MS. 4898.Google Scholar

^{page 307 note a} Similar arcades, characterized by the same rude cushion capitals without upper members, exist in a tower chapel in Richmond Castle, Yorks, of a date not later, probably, than 1086.

^{page 308 note a} The same principle exists in the magnificent late fourteenth-century gatehouse of Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire.

^{page 308 note b} There is still embedded in this against the outer wall a massive beam, one foot in depth, with the broken ends of the timbers that carried the floor.

^{page 309 note a} It is possible that there was a similar staircase on the eastern face of the great tower leading up to the rampart walk of the bailey wall.

^{page 311 note a} It is sliown as built up in Lord Powis's plan.

^{page 311 note b} The east jamb has been cut down in late times.

^{page 311 note c} The south jamb has been cut down into a chamfer.

^{page 312 note a} In the earlier state of the tower this passage must have extended further north, and was perhaps joined to another in the thickness of the north wall.

^{page 314 note a} In the legendary History of Fulk FitzWarin, in the account of an early siege of the Castle it is stated: “E le halt tour q'est en le tierce bayl de chastel, qe fort e bien ovrée fust qe home ne saveit à cele oure nul plus fort ne meylour, fust de grant partie abatu, e cele bayle à poy tote destruyt.” Wright, Thomas, The History of Fulk Fitz Warine (London, Warton Club, 1855), 51. This event is believed to have occurred in the latter part of the reign of King Henry II. but if the tower were really partly destroyed then, it is difficult to suppose that it was not rebuilt until late in the fifteenth century. Possibly the added late twelfth-century work on the north side belongs to the repair.Google Scholar

^{page 315 note a} This doorway was shouldered, with a horizontal lintel and a semicircular tympanum above, but these have been broken out.

^{page 316 note a} In the legendary History of Fulk FitzWarin the keep is clearly identical with “le plus halt tour q'est en la terce bayle del chastel, qe or est apelé de plusours Mortemer. E pur cele resoun ad le noun de Mortemer, qe uns des Mortemers fust leynz bone piece en garde.” Thomas Wright, The History of Fulk Fitz Warine 34.

^{page 317 note a} The north front is well shown on Plate XLI.

^{page 319 note a} Close to the turret is the two-light Elizabethan window that lights the passage into it.

^{page 321 note a} Just to the west of this garderobe is the slit of the window that airs it.

^{page 323 note a} Antiquities of Shropshire (London, 1857), V. 234.Google Scholar

^{page 323 note b} Wright, T., The History of Fulk FitzWarine, 3Google Scholar; and Rolls Series 66, p. 279.

^{page 323 note c} Op. cit. v. 235.

^{page 324 note a} Op. cit. v. 280.

^{page 324 note b} Keeper of the Department of Coins and Medals in the British Museum.

^{page 325 note a} Vitalis, Ordericus, Historia Ecclesiastica (Paris, 1845), III. 411.Google Scholar

^{page 325 note b} Eyton, v. 278, 279.

^{page 325 note c} Close Roll, 38 Edward III. in. 18d. Mr. G. T. Clark has wrongly assigned this exchange to Roger the fourth Earl (Medieval Military Architecture, i. 289Google Scholar).

^{page 326 note a} Wright, Thomas, History of Ludlow (Ludlow, 1852), 436–439.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note b} Blakeway MS. 11 ft. 221, 222.

^{page 327 note a} The writer is indebted to Mr. H. T. Weyman, F.S.A., for bringing this description to his notice.

^{page 327 note b} Probably William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, Lord President 1550–53 and 1555–8.

^{page 327 note c} This “other room” was clearly the upper story of the round part, which served merely as an ante-chapel, and from it there projected into the chancel, through the arch, a gallery or pew for the Prince and nobility.

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