Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire

Description
Ludgershall, a village and a parish in Wiltshire. The village stands near an affluent of the river Avon, with a station on the Midland and South-Westem Joint railway, 74 miles from London, and 15 NE by N of Salisbury, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Andover. It was formerly called Lurgeshall and Ludgashall; is supposed to have been a residence of some of the Saxon kings; made a considerable figure in the Norman times; appears to have been for centuries a place of considerable size; was a borougli by prescription, sending two members to Parliament till disfranchised by the Act of 1832; was long also a market-town; retains vestiges of a great ancient castle and the stump of a rudely sculptured ancient cross; is now a scattered village chiefly of thatched cottages, built of red brick and flint; and has a fair on 25 July. The castle was the seat of noble families from the time of the Conquest till that of Edward I.; gave shelter to the Empress Maud in her flight from Winchester to Devizes; belonged in the time of King John to Geoffrey Fitzpiers, Earl of Essex and Chief Justice of England; is supposed to have been destroyed by Edward I.; is now represented by little more than a fragment of the keep, showing traces of Norman architecture,' and encompassed by an earthen rampart and two deep ditches; and commands a pleasant view to the N, over Collingbourne Wood. The church is Early English; has a pinnacled tower; was restored in 1873-74; and contains the Jacobean tomb of Sir Richard Brydges, and several other old monuments. An ancient cross is in the churchyard, and the Great Seal of England, used in the time of Stephen, was found about 1790 in the neighbourhood. The manor passed from Fitzpiers to the Cliffords, the Molins, and others. Biddesden House, erected by General Webb, and afterwards occupied by the Duke of Ohandos, is the chief residence. The parish contains some tumuli, and is a resort of sportsmen. Acreage, 1789; population, 476. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £287. There is a Baptist chapel.