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Path: Photos > Photos > English Heritage Snapshots > English Heritage: South West England > Old Wardour Castle
Tags: UK EnglishHeritage 2022

Old Wardour Castle

(vero;2022-June-22)

Getting to Old Wardour Castle is half the fun of the visit: this site is located off the A30 and can be reached via quite small country lanes, it is simply in the middle of nowhere.

Old Wardour Castle was built in the 1390s for John, 5th Baron Lovell (c.1342—1408), an experienced soldier and wealthy courtier of king Richard II. Lovell was governor of the royal castle in Devizes but craved for his own castle. After the king granted him some land in Wiltshire he bought the manor of Wardour in 1386 and set to build his new castle on its grounds. Designed by William Wynford, it was quite unique for the time: the building had five storeys, arranged around a small hexagonal courtyard and contained several self-contained guest suites with individual fireplaces and latrines. The outside view was designed for symmetry by the addition of a rectangular entrance on the front flanked by two towers.

After the fall of the Lovell family following their support of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses, the castle was confiscated in 1461 and eventually bought by Sir Thomas Arundell of Lanherne in 1544 (the Arundell family still own the castle up to these days). The castle saw fierce fighting during the English Civil War and Henry, Lord Arundell, had to blow up one of its sides in 1647 to regain it from the Parliamentary army. In the 1760s and 1770s the 8th Lord Arundell decided to build a country house nearby (New Wardour Castle) and turned Old Wardour into a picturesque park of ruins, lake and woodland.

This picture seems to show a huge pile of stones, but there is more than meets the eye and plenty to explore in this castle: stairs lead to the upper floors, you can enter several rooms, the central courtyard is well preserved and there are many architectural features to discover (not to mention the latrines, always a hit with the kids!).

It is worth checking this webpage from English Heritage: scroll to the paragraph "The Medieval Castle" and hover over the picture on the left, it will give you a cutaway reconstruction of the inside of the castle as it might have looked in the 1400s.

The conduit on the right is where a spiral staircase used to be.

The hexagonal courtyard with a well in the middle. Note the classical archway at the entrance to the stairs to the great hall.

View from the top floor into the central courtyard.

Column at the top of the steps of the east tower. From there one has a good view of the surrounding countryside and the new castle in the distance.

Remains of a chimney flue.

A slender Renaissance window.

Photo taken from the remains of the great hall. Note the ornate archway over the door.

Elegant and photogenic windows opening into the blue sky.

Central courtyard: detail of a stone ornament on the base of the Renaissance entrance to the flight of stairs.

Seen from this side, one can get a good idea of how the castle looked like.

Go back to Netley and Titchfield Abbeys or go on to Berry Pomeroy Castle

$updated from: English Heritage Snapshots.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:47 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$