Devizes Castle Features

The photograph above shows a view of the rear side of the castle taken from the east.

The lower part of the North Tower to the left is constructed from red clay bricks, this would have been the original construction of the windmill.

The top of the Tower is built from local Bath Stone, a sandy yellow colour.

The Victorian Castle was built with a wood and glass orangery. Under-floor heating powered by the castle boilers provided adequate heating to allow exotic fruit to be grown including oranges.
Over recent years, the orangery had fallen into disuse after a failed attempt to renovate it during the 1960s and during the winter of 1994/5, so much rain fell that the foundations gave way and the orangery fell down.

The King's House of the 12th Century Castle remains in ruins in the garden of the modern day castle. A section of stone wall about 15 foot high and including a window is embedded in a bank of soil in the garden to the rear of the castle.

The Castle is inhabited by a number of ghosts of former inhabitants. These have been sighted on numerous occasions. The include the ghost of a young woman who it is said was bricked up behind one of the walls, to the ghost of a cavalier swordsman.

The family who has lived in the Castle for the last 36 years is able to recount a few experiences.

The first is a very sad story of Isabella of Valois who was 'married-off' to Richard II of England when she was only 9 years old. It is said that a Lady Isabella then continued a forbidden relationship with a young gallant of the town. This would not be tolerated and she was finally incarcerated and bricked up alive! We may only imagine the horror of this. The figure of a young woman is often seen as though pacing backwards and forwards.

Our 96 year-old grandmother frequently met and spoke to an old lady who would appear, cross the hall and walk through the opposite door. Our grandmother would always enquire after her and repeatedy ask me who was this lady in a long grey dress walking with a stoop and using a walking stick. She believed it really was another resident of the castle who was deaf.

During the Second World War, over 100 men were garrisoned at the Castle. We know as a fact that there were two sleep-talkers who, because of their disturbing habit were separated from the rest and made to sleep in a corridor. Our grandmother frequently heard men's voices in this area.

One winter's night when the moon was shining directly throught the windows onto the staircase and a lady was retiring to bed at 1am, She chose not to switch the lights on as she mounted the stairs and walked straight into a Cavalier descending. He was dressed in the style of the period and what stood out was his face with moustache and beard, a great ploomed hat and a sword at his side. Having seemingly rushed through him, She found myself bolting up the rest of the stairs quite breathless and not daring to turn around.

The Gallery
All the dogs that we have had for the past 30 years (all fearless, good guard dogs) are always very wary of one particular spot in the Castle - the gallery. They stand at one end completely still and quite tense and gaze along the gallery as if watching someone or something. Often in the evenings they position themselves and lie down looking up the gallery!