Monument Type(s):

• CHAPEL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

Chapel in castle inner bailey dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, built in early 12th century. Described as the 'free chapel', it was used by chapel household.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA6116 - 2007 geophysical survey of Ludlow Castle by GSB
• ESA24 - Limited excavation from 1903 by W H St John Hope at Ludlow Castle
• ESA23 - 1903 to 1909 detailed survey of buildings at Ludlow Castle by W H St John Hope

Description

Chapel in castle inner bailey dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, built in early 12th century. Described as the 'free chapel', it was used by chapel household <1>

Description and photographs of standing building. Excavation uncovered foundations of chancel and apse which were dated to c1120. Excavation supported by documentary evidence showed chancel demolished in C16 and replaced by timber chancel; a floor for a gallery was inserted in the nave <2>

Chapel sketched in 1684, which shows the C16 chancel. Chapel then known as "Prince Arthur's Chapel" <3>

CMHTS Record Sheet <4>
CMHTS Report <5>

A 2007 geophysical survey within Ludlow Castle produced traces of the remains of the chancel of the Chapel. There were also several other anomalies around the Chapel, which may represent the remains of other structures connected with it <6>

Built in the mid C12 with a round nave and a chancel (demolished in the later C16) with a semi-octagonal apse. The nave is without the aisles found in many round churches and was originally lit only by 3 tall round-headed windows in the upper part of the wall. There is nothing to show that the building originally had an upper floor and, since it is likely that there was a private chapel elsewhere within the enceinte, it seems that this was not a Doppelkapelle in the manner (for example) of that at Aachen or, nearer in space and time, Bishop Losinga's chapel at Hereford. The chapel is richly decorated with billet and zigzag ornament above the openings, with scallop capitals to the nook shafts, and with blind arcading internally on the ground floor. It probably served as the castle's garrison church. On the other hand it has all the wealth of ornament of a great monastic church. In form it resembled neither type. Round churches of the 12C, modelled on the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, were a product of the Crusades. They were favoured by the Knights of the Temple, and it may have been felt that this was the proper form for a free-standing church within a military complex. Photograph of nave arcading. Chancel rebuilt in wood 1559 x 1586 by Sir Henry Sidney.<7>

<01> Faraday M A, 1991, Ludlow 1085-1660: a Social, Economic and Political History, p56 (Monograph). SSA11536.

<02> Hope W H St John, 1909, The Castle of Ludlow, p271-5,Fig9 (Article in serial). SSA4701.

<03> Lloyd D J & Klein P, 1984, Ludlow: an Historic Town in Words and Pictures, p53 (Monograph). SSA11577.

<04> Dalwood Hal, 1993/ 1996, CMHTS SMR Records Shropshire: Ludlow, Ludlow 6168 (Record form). SSA19968.

<05> Dalwood Hal et al, 1996, Archaeological Assessment of Ludlow, Shropshire (CMHTS) (Historic landscape survey report). SSA12072.

<06> Geophysical Surveys of Bradford, 2007, Ludlow Castle, Shropshire: Geophysical Survey Report (Geophysical survey report). SSA22934.

<07> Mercer Eric, 2003, English Architecture to 1900: The Shropshire Experience, pp.27, 28, 286, 289 (Monograph). SSA23161.

Sources

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