Wigmore Castle
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Wigmore Castle (O.S. Map 137, 407693) is a ruined castle which is barely visable from the village of Wigmore in the northwest region of Herefordshire, England.
[edit] History
The current Wigmore Castle was built on the remains of an earlier fortification. The age of this structure, built on a piece of land called Merestun, is not clear, but it is known that it is of a very early origin, having been repaired and held by Edward the Elder in 921. Vikings later attacked this fortification, but were defeated. The village close by was called Wigingamere at that time.
At the time of the reign of Edward the Confessor, the barony of Wigmore belonged to Edric Sylvaticus, the Saxon Earl of Shrewsbury. However, he refused to submit after the Norman conquest and was defeated in battle and taken prisoner. His possessions were subsequently granted to William FitzOsbern, the Earl of Hereford under William I from 1068 to 1072, as a reward for his services.
Among these possessions were the remains of the earlier fortification on Merestun. FitzOsbern subsequently rebuilt Wigmore Castle, as it became known. Although it was initially only a small castle built of earth and timber, it was to become one of the main English border castles along the Welsh Marches during the 13th and 14th centuries.
However, FitzOsbern's son Roger de Breteuil took part in the Revolt of the Earls; after the Earl's subsequent defeat William I seized the castle and gives it to another of his supporters, Ranulph de Mortimer. From this time on Wigmore became the head of the barony of the Mortimers, Earls of March.
Some time after 1135, the castle was rebuilt (still with timber) on a larger scale by Ranulph's son, Hugh de Mortimer. The new structure included a large motte with an enclosed bailey to the southeast. At this stage the buildings and defences are still made of timber. In 1155 the castle was besieged by Henry II because of Hugh's support for Stephen of Boulogne. Two small earthworks to the east and west of the castle have survived to the present day. These were probably siege-works built for the campaign.
In 1181 Hugh's son (also called Hugh) began to rebuild parts of the castle in stone. This process was completed by 1246 by Hugh's grandson, Ralph de Mortimer. This included the curtain wall that surrounds the bailey, which still stands to this day at its full height on the east side and the south side between the south tower and the gatehouse.
In 1304 Roger de Mortimer, succeeded his father Edmund. He strengthened the position of the Mortimer family considerably, eventually becoming Isabella of France's lover and having Edward II deposed and murdered. He also acted as Regent for Isabella's son (the later Edward III) while he was still a minor. To add to his stature, Roger de Mortimer also rebuilt Wigmore Castle in its present form. In 1330 Edward III succeeded to the throne and had Roger de Mortimer executed, although he allowed Mortimer's grandson (also named Roger) to keep Wigmore Castle.
Roger became a trusted royal servant who had his grandfather's sentence reversed and inherited all the Mortimer estates. His son Edmund married Edward III's granddaughter Phillipa. In 1381 their son, Roger, inherited at the age of six and was declared the heir presumptive should Richard II (Phillipa's cousin) die childless.
Roger de Mortimer was killed in battle in Ireland in 1398 and in 1399 Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) deposed Richard II and seized his throne. When the male line of the de Mortimers died out in 1424, the castle passed to the crown.
Edward, Duke of York, another member of the Mortimer dynasty, was almost certainly based at Wigmore Castle before his victory over the Tudors at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461. He eventually deposed Henry VI and was crowned King Edward IV the following year. During his reign the castle ceased to have any real significance and was barely maintained. Ludlow Castle (which the Mortimers had inherited through marriage in 1314 and was their administrative centre) supplanted it as a royal castle.
Throughout the 16th century the castle was managed by the Council of the March, partly as a prison, although the castle was already beginning to decay.
In 1601 Elizabeth I sold Wigmore Castle to Thomas Harley of Brampton Bryan. His son, Sir Roger Harley, a Puritan and Parliamentarian, later inherited the castle. During the English Civil War Harley left the castle in charge of his wife, Lady Brilliana, who had the castle's defences dismantled in order to prevent the Royalists using it against her. The castle played no part in the Civil War and was already in a state of ruin by 1644, the buildings being left roofless and crumbling through natural decay.
By the 20th century neglect and the growth of vegetation had left the remains of the castle as a scattering of ruins with features such as towers, curtain walls and the gatehouse almost indiscernible.
However, in 1995 the previous owner of the property, John Gaunt, handed over the acre of ground containing Wigmore Castle into the guardianship of English Heritage. This agency has since then performed conservation work and small-scale excavation, which has made the site more accessible to visitors.
[edit] Structure and topography
The castle is of great strategic importance as it lies almost halfway between the rivers Teme and Lugg (about 4 km from each) and commands the wide area between them.
Wigmore Castle itself straddles the south-eastern edge of a spur, with marshland (since drained) to its north. The defences of the castle were further strengthened by the construction of ditches across the spur, between which the castle was built. These ditches acted as moats with the north-western one running past a mound, which was also fortified. This fortification was originally probably a wooden palisade, but later a stone keep was constructed in its place.
