accommodation ludlow cottages, Ludlow Castle

Ludlow

accommodation ludlow cottages Ludlow Castle accommodation ludlow cottages accommodation Ludlow cottages, Ludlow castle, Ludlow town, the river teme and the river corve, whitcliffe, inner bailey, romantic, England, visitors, town, fortified castle, freestone, jousting, tournaments, the marches, holiday cottages, accommodation Ludlow cottages You may find this interesting to read if you are planning to stay in our holiday cottages. Grand Designs of the 11th century is how the building of Ludlow Castle could best be described. Walter de Lacy came into the possession of many lands along the English/Welsh border as part of a deal with William the Conqueror. In return for the use of these lands the de Lacy family, together with similar landed barons, had the duty of holding the frontier against the still unconquered Welsh, so the de Lacy family had to move into the area. Unfortunately there was no suitable property for sale or rent, so a fortified castle was planned. The spot was carefully chosen, it was to be on a hill, with the river Teme and the river Corve serving as a natural defensive system on three sides of the site with the added benefit of them providing a plentiful supply of water. The building then commenced using "freestone" beloved of stone masons, obtained from Whitcliffe which was just a stones throw from the site itself, and free. Cool. The original castle built is now called the Inner Bailey, it entailed the essential domestic and office buildings required to start a household. This Inner Bailey possessed all the romantic notions of what a castle should look like, it being surrounded by a curtain wall 5 to 6 feet thick, a 4 story gatehouse keep with drawbridge and moat. Later the Outer Bailey was added as a 4 acre extension to be used for stabling, storehouses, workshops, for troop exercises and the much more intriguing jousting and other tournaments. Over time ownership of Ludlow Castle went from family to family, with each new owner adding his own improvements, for either security or comfort reasons. The castle then passed through marriage to Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York, and when his son became King Edward 1V so into royal hands again. Ludlow Town so became the capital of the Marches because of it's castle being a royal palace on the border of England and Wales, and so also became the headquarters for the Council of the Marches, which then gradually assumed responsibility for the government of Wales. Surviving a civil war the castle was abandoned due to centralising the government of both England and Wales to London 1689. The castle was very quickly looted of building materials by the people of the town, which can be seen by studying many of the local buildings. In the 1760's the government considered demolishing the castle but, due to some false accounting facts (dodgy documents), abandoned the idea as not cost effective. The castle was in this manner saved to then be let in 1771 to the earl of Powis, who later bought it in 1811. Then a picturesque ruin needing much T. L. C. so that Lady Powis set to and had the walks laid out around the walls of the castle. The successive Earls of Powis and their agents supplemented with some grants from English Heritage have arrested further decline. Over 50,000 visitors come to the castle every year all of them now welcomed in through the gate, provided they pay of course. .