Longford Castle stands on the banks of the River Avon south of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. It is the seat of the

Earl of Radnor Earl of Radnor, in the County of Wiltshire, is a title which has been created twice. It was first created in the Peerage of England in 1679 for John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes, a notable political figure of the reign of Charles II. The ear ...

, and an example of the Elizabethan

prodigy house Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the period ...

History

In 1573

Thomas Gorges Sir Thomas Gorges (1536 – 30 March 1610) of Longford Castle in Wiltshire, was a courtier and Groom of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I. Via his great-grandmother Lady Anne Howard, a daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, he was a s ...

acquired the manor (at the time written "Langford"), which was originally owned by the Servington (or Cervington) family.Jacob Radnor, ''A Huguenot Family 1536–1889'' Prior to this the existing mansion house had been damaged by fire. In c.1576 Thomas Gorges married

Helena Snakenborg Elin Ulfsdotter Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, also known as Helena, and Helena the Red for her red hair, (1548/1549 – 10 April 1635) was a Swedish-born noblewoman, Maid of Honour of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and Marchiones ...

, the Swedish born dowager Marchioness of Northampton and

Lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

to Queen Elizabeth. They rebuilt the Longford property as a triangular Swedish pattern castle on the banks of the River Avon. The building work became very expensive due to problems with the subsoil. Sir Thomas Gorges, who was now governor of

Hurst Castle Hurst Castle is an artillery fort established by Henry VIII on the Hurst Spit in Hampshire, England, between 1541 and 1544. It formed part of the king's Device Forts coastal protection programme against invasion from France and the Holy Roman ...

, persuaded his wife to beg of the Queen a shipwreck he knew from the defeated

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...

. The gift was granted and the gold and silver retrieved from the shipwreck funded the completion of the castle under the final supervision of

John Thorpe John Thorpe or Thorp (c.1565–1655?; fl.1570–1618) was an English architect. Life Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to whic ...

in 1591. The family lived in the castle for several years before its final completion. In September 1603 the royal family came on progress nearby and

Roger Wilbraham Sir Roger Wilbraham (4 November 1553 – 31 July 1616) was a prominent English lawyer who served as Solicitor-General for Ireland under Elizabeth I and held a number of positions at court under James I, including Master of Requests and survey ...

described Longford as, "a faire new house of stone, a triangle with three great towers at each end, wherein are his favourite chambers, & he hath the fairest garden and green walks". The main building had several floors and was triangular with a round tower in each corner; the three towers representing the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. There was a chapel, kitchen department, several boudoirs and sitting rooms, as well as bedrooms. Fresh cold water was pumped to various floors and there were water closets operating with rainwater. A park, fruit garden and kitchen garden were attached. In 1717 Longford Castle became the Bouverie home, purchased by Sir

Edward des Bouverie Sir Edward des Bouverie, 2nd Baronet (1688 – 21 November 1736) was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1719 to 1734. In 1717 he inherited his title three years after its grant to his father, and his combin ...

from the Coleraines. It is said that Sir Edward saw and fell in love with the castle in the valley as he rode past, having enough money in his

saddle bag Saddlebags are bags that are attached to saddles. Horse riding In horse riding, saddlebags sit in various positions, on the back, side, or front of the saddle. Most attach to the saddle by straps and ties. They can be made from various material ...

s to effect the purchase there and then. Subsequent generations of the family beautified the interior of the castle and surrounding park; by 1773 the castle was surrounded by a formal park, laid out with avenues and rides. Landscaping advice was sought from

Lancelot Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

around 1777. However, Jacob, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1749–1828), employed

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

to change Longford from a reasonably modest chateau into a hexagonal palace ''"to the despair of future generations"''. He destroyed one of the Elizabethan towers and replaced it with a larger one of his own design, added two more towers and linked each to each other. In 1832 the 3rd Earl created a new formal garden to the south of the castle, in 17th-century style. The palace concept was not finished: it was Jacob, 4th Earl of Radnor (1815–1889), who oversaw the last significant changes to the castle architecture, undertaken by

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country ho ...

. These included the formation of a second courtyard, the doming over of the central courtyard, the addition of a square tower, and alterations to the formal garden.

Present day

The castle is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and is within

Odstock Odstock is a village and civil parish south of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the village of Nunton with its nearby hamlet of Bodenham. The parish is in the valley of the River Ebble, which joins the Hampshire Avon near Bod ...

parish. The formal garden, pleasure grounds and park extend into neighbouring parishes and are listed Grade II on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

. The castle is the seat of William Pleydell-Bouverie, 9th Earl of Radnor, and is open to the public for pre-booked tours on 28 days of each year.

Other notable uses

* Longford was the model for the "Castle of Amphialeus" in Sir

Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...

's ''The

Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia ''The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia'', also known simply as the ''Arcadia'', is a long prose pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney written towards the end of the 16th century. Having finished one version of his text, Sidney later significantly ...

'' (1580, pub. 1590). * In the 1914–18 war the castle was a hospital. * In the 1939–45 war the castle was occupied by British and American troops and entertained Field Marshal

Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and t ...

, Gen. Mark Clark and Maj. Gen. Sir

Michael O'Moore Creagh Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Sir Michael O'Moore Creagh, (16 May 1892 – 14 December 1970) was a British Army officer who served in both the world wars. He commanded the 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom), 7th Armoured Div ...

. * Longford Castle is shown from the air at the end of the 2001 film ''

The Princess Diaries ''The Princess Diaries'' is a series of epistolary young adult novels written by Meg Cabot, and is also the title of the first volume, published in 2000. The series revolves around Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis, a teenager in New York who discovers ...

'' as the castle in Genovia.

References

External links

{{Authority control Castles in Wiltshire Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire Mock castles in England Gardens by Capability Brown Robert Taylor buildings Grade I listed houses Grade II listed parks and gardens in Wiltshire

History

Present day

Other notable uses

See also

References

Further reading

External links