Details

The monument includes Ludgershall Castle, an earthwork castle
comprising a ringwork and bailey with masonry internal buildings, and
an adjoining length of the Medieval town defences. Partial excavation
of the castle in the 1960s revealed mid 12th century timber buildings
and defences. These were superseded by flint and mortar buildings in the
13th-14th centuries, the remains of some of which still survive as
standing structures. The castle has close royal associations.

The modern farmhouse and its associated farm buildings, together with
the police cottages and station, are excluded from the scheduling
although the ground below them is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 10 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The most complete and extensive survival of chalk downland
archaeological remains in central southern England occurs on Salisbury
Plain, particularly in those areas lying within the Salisbury Plain
Training Area. These remains represent one of the few extant
archaeological "landscapes" in Britain and are considered to be of
special significance because they differ in character from those in
other areas with comparable levels of preservation. Individual sites on
Salisbury Plain are seen as being additionally important because the
evidence of their direct association with each other survives so well.

Ringworks are medieval fortifications built and occupied from the late
Anglo-Saxon period to the later 12th century. They comprised a small
defended area containing buildings which was surrounded or partly
surrounded by a substantial ditch and a bank surmounted by a timber
palisade or, rarely, a stone wall. Occasionally a more lightly defended
embanked enclosure, the bailey, adjoined the ringwork. Ringworks acted
as strongholds for military operations and in some cases as defended
aristocratic or manorial settlements. They are rare nationally with
only 200 recorded examples and less than 60 with baileys. As such, and
as one of a limited number and very restricted range of Anglo-Saxon and
Norman fortifications, ringworks are of particular significance to our
understanding of the period.

The significance of Ludgershall Castle is enhanced by its royal
associations which are well attested by documentary evidence, and by
its association with surviving Medieval town defences.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Trust for Wessex Archaeology, (1987)
Wiltshire Library & Museum Service, (1987)

Source: Historic England