Devizes Castle
Devizes Castle is a striking Victorian Gothic mansion built on the site of a medieval royal fortress in the market town of Devizes, Wiltshire. Though the structure visitors see today dates primarily from the nineteenth century, the land beneath it carries more than nine hundred years of history, making it one of the most historically layered privately held sites in southern England. The castle sits on a commanding ridge above the town centre, its battlemented towers and crenellated walls giving it a theatrical, fairy-tale silhouette that draws the eye from many streets below. It is currently a private residence and is not generally open to the public for tours, but it remains a prominent and beloved landmark that defines the character of the town.
The original castle at Devizes was founded around 1080 by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, shortly after the Norman Conquest, though it was Roger of Salisbury who greatly expanded and strengthened it in the early twelfth century, transforming it into one of the most formidable fortresses in England. King Henry I is said to have favoured Devizes as a residence and held court here on several occasions. The castle became embroiled in the catastrophic civil war known as The Anarchy, when King Stephen seized it from Roger of Salisbury in 1139. Later, during the English Civil War of the seventeenth century, Devizes and its castle played a significant role, with the town changing hands between Royalists and Parliamentarians. The medieval structure was slighted after the Civil War and fell gradually into ruin over the following centuries. By the early nineteenth century, almost nothing of the original stone fabric survived above ground.
The present castle was built between 1842 and 1857 for Valentine Leach, a wealthy local entrepreneur, on the footprint and earthworks of the medieval fortification. The architect was Benjamin Ferrey, a pupil of Augustus Pugin and a respected figure in the Gothic Revival movement. Ferrey designed a convincing and romantic recreation of a medieval castle, complete with drum towers, a gatehouse, arrow loops, and battlements. The result is a handsome Victorian fantasy that captures the spirit of medieval military architecture without pretending to be original. The earthworks around the castle — the massive motte upon which it sits and the remains of the bailey — are genuinely medieval, and these earthworks are among the most intact Norman castle earthworks remaining in Wiltshire.
Standing outside the castle gates, the visitor is struck immediately by the sheer scale and drama of the building. The walls are built from a warm, honey-coloured stone that glows pleasantly in afternoon sunlight, and the towers rise to an impressive height above the surrounding rooftops. The main gate is flanked by round towers with conical roofs and presents a genuinely imposing entrance. The surrounding grounds slope steeply away from the motte on all sides, giving a vivid physical sense of the defensive logic that made this location attractive to Norman lords a millennium ago. The quiet residential streets that run around the base of the castle hill mean that it can be viewed and photographed from several pleasant vantage points without entering private land.
Devizes itself is a rewarding market town with an exceptionally well-preserved medieval street plan and a fine collection of Georgian architecture. The town's market place is one of the finest in Wiltshire, lined with historic buildings and home to regular markets. The Wiltshire Museum on Long Street houses an outstanding collection of Bronze Age and prehistoric artefacts from the surrounding region, including finds from Avebury, Stonehenge and the Marlborough Downs — making Devizes an excellent base for exploring the extraordinary prehistoric landscape of north Wiltshire. The Kennet and Avon Canal runs through the town and is famous for the Caen Hill flight of twenty-nine consecutive locks, one of the most remarkable feats of canal engineering in Britain. The Bear Hotel, a coaching inn in the market place, has welcomed travellers for several centuries and is well worth a visit for refreshments.
Because Devizes Castle is a private residence, access to the interior and grounds is not available to the general public. However, the exterior can be admired freely from Castle Road and the surrounding streets, which offer clear views of the towers and walls. The earthworks that support the castle are of considerable archaeological interest and the general shape of the Norman motte-and-bailey plan is readable even from street level. Visitors with a serious interest in the castle's history may find useful context at the Wiltshire Museum, which sometimes holds relevant local history materials. Devizes is accessible by bus from Swindon, Chippenham, and Salisbury, and there is car parking available in the town centre. The town is not directly served by a railway station, so driving or taking a bus connection is recommended.
One of the more curious stories associated with the site concerns a legendary oath sworn in the medieval period at the church of St John, adjacent to the castle precinct, wherein a woman named Ruth Pierce allegedly died on the spot after calling down God's judgement upon herself if she were lying about a disputed payment — a tale commemorated by an inscription in the market place that has made Devizes mildly famous as a place of cautionary legend. The castle earthworks themselves have never been fully excavated, and archaeologists believe significant medieval remains may survive beneath the Victorian structure and its grounds. The combination of genuinely ancient earthworks, a high-quality Gothic Revival mansion, and a richly historic town makes Devizes Castle a fascinating destination even for those who can only admire it from the outside.