LUDLOW CASTLE.
GROUND PLAN.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
- Outer Ward.
- Middle Ward.
- Inner Ward.
- Keep.
- Gatehouse.
- Chapel.
- Kitchen.
- Hall.
- Oven Tower.
- Postern Tower and Well.
- Junction of Town Wall.
The outer ward contains at present but few buildings. Near the centre of its curtain is the outer gatehouse, and on its south side a range of Tudor buildings, probably stabling. One square tower, of early date, stands on the east wall, and indicates the boundary of the Norman castle; and another, later and semicircular, on the west wall above the river, bears the name of Mortimer. There were some later buildings, including probably a chapel, at the south-west corner of this ward; but these are in part pulled down, and this quarter of the ward has been walled off, and a public footway made across it. This footway passes through two modern doorways in the outer curtain, the thickness of which is thus seen. The ditch covering the middle is, of course, actually within the outer ward. It is cut in the rock, 13 yards broad, 4 yards deep. 150 yards long, and in part revetted; the revetment being, no doubt, a long subsequent addition. It is crossed and closed at each end by the curtain, and must always have been dry, or nearly so. The general position, and to some extant the plan, of Ludlow, suggests a comparison with Barnard Castle, the outline of which is also Norman.
Before considering the interior of the castle, it will be convenient to bestow a few words upon the walls as seen from the exterior, especially along the road and north fronts. Commencing with the south-west angle, where the front wall branches off towards the river bridge, first comes Mortimer’s Tower, half-round in plan, and in the early English style, in which Hugh Mortimer is said to have been imprisoned in about 1150, but which seems of later date. It has a close gorge-wall, a basement at the ground level, and three upper floors. The basement is vaulted, groined, and ribbed, but the ribs and a large window are insertions. There is a well-stair in the north-east angle, and the upper floor communicates laterally with the curtain, which is lofty. Just below the line of the parapet is a row of corbels intended to support a wooden gallery or brétasche. This tower is of early English or early Decorated date, with additions of the Perpendicular and Tudor periods. Next to this, upon the wall, is the bakehouse tower, placed at the junction of the exterior curtain and that of the middle ward, and to be described with the keep. Beyond this tower the original Norman wall has been raised to 40 feet. In it is what seems to have been a sewer-mouth. Next follows the postern tower, a small Norman tower, square, of bold external and no internal projection, having a Norman door in its gorge; and another, the postern, of 4 feet opening, in its northern face. This tower is closed up and inaccessible. The upper part seems an addition. It marks the junction of the inner and middle wards. From it the curtain is continued northward at the same height; the lower part, at the least, being original. Inside, various buildings, now removed, were placed against this wall, and the wall itself is pierced by chambers and galleries not now accessible. Upon it is corbelled out the vent of a mural garderobe, which has been supplemented by the addition of a hollow shaft placed as a buttress below the corbels.
At the north-west angle is a group of towers, forming the angle, and which contain the buttery. The first has a rectangular projection, in the base of which is a round-headed sewer of 2 feet opening. Connected with this is a second tower, a half-octagon in plan, much patched and added to, but the lower part of which is Norman, and the upper early Decorated. This group is very lofty, and has a battering base, so that the weight is thrown backwards well within the edge of the cliff. Across the hollow angle, between this last tower and the north curtain, is turned a Norman squinch arch, in the soffit of which is the vent, and above, the loop window of a garderobe. This curtain forms the wall of the great hall and adjacent building. A large stone spout marks the buttery, and beyond are the three exterior windows of the hall. This wall crowns a cliff of about 40 feet, below which a broad platform has been cut in modern times, and from which a second steep slope of 50 feet or 60 feet descends to the meadows. The hall wall ends in a half-octagon, within which is the staircase to the private apartments; and beyond this again is the garderobe tower—a large rectangular mass of great height and breadth, and very bold projection, and entirely of Decorated date. In each of the three faces, at the base, are two large shoulder-headed recesses, each containing a vent, the sloping shoot from which is 6 feet long. In the floors above are various windows, of one light with trefoiled heads, and above rises the lower part of a handsome octagonal chimney shaft.
Beyond the garderobe tower is the wall of a part of the private apartments, mainly of Decorated date, but much altered. In its base are three large early Perpendicular windows of two lights, trefoiled, with tracery in the heads; and above are various Tudor insertions of inferior taste and workmanship, and the timbers of two balconies. This face of the middle ward ends in a square tower of Norman date, which stands at the junction of the walls of the outer and middle ward. From hence the wall is of the outer ward, and seems to have been rebuilt partly in the reign of Elizabeth, to which belongs a small square-headed door, outside which are some ruins upon a platform of rock about 30 feet broad. From hence the wall is modern, nearly to the Norman tower, from which to the gatehouse it is probably Norman. Beyond the gatehouse, to the river cliff, the wall is 5 feet to 6 feet thick and 40 feet to 50 feet high. It is old, but probably not original. The ditch is filled up, and trees have grown along its line, two or three of which must be above a century old.
The Inner Ward.—The keep stands on the higher part of the enclosure, but at some distance from the river cliff, nor has it any natural advantages for defence. It was not intended to stand alone, but, as is often the case with keeps of that age, is placed upon the enceinte, and so forms part of the general line of defence. It is peculiar in that its original plan, though rectangular, had two slight ears or projections, and it was, in fact, slightly