Wardour Castle

Wardour Castle in Wiltshire was besieged twice during the First English Civil War; once in May 1643, and then again between November 1643 and March 1644. During the first siege, a Parliamentarian force of around 1,300 men led by Sir Edward Hungerford attacked the castle, which was the home of Thomas Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Wardour, a prominent Catholic and Royalist. Arundell was absent, fighting for King Charles at the time of the attack, and the defence was led by his wife, Lady Blanche Arundell, in command of 25 soldiers. The siege was started on 2 May, and lasted for a week before the Parliamentarians forced Lady Arundell to surrender on 8 May. The Parliamentarians garrisoned the castle with 75 men, led by Colonel Edmund Ludlow. Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, the son of Thomas and Blanche, brought a Royalist force to reclaim the castle, and by November 1643 a tight blockade had been established. The castle was well-provisioned, and it was only when the Royalists exploded mines under the walls, creating large holes in the defences, that they forced the castle's surrender. The damage to the castle left it uninhabitable, and over 100 years later, the Arundell family commissioned New Wardour Castle to be built nearby.

New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, who was a principal architect of the Imperial Russian capital city, Saint Petersburg. The building of the house was begun in 1769 and completed in 1776, with additional buildings being added in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1961 to 1990, it was the home of Cranborne Chase School, an independent boarding school for girls. New Wardour Castle is approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) from Old Wardour Castle, which was left as a landscape feature of the parkland of the new house. This was formerly the home of the Arundell family before it was besieged, damaged and slighted in the Civil War.

Cranborne Chase School was an independent boarding school for girls, originally opened in 1946 at Crichel House in the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset. In 1961, the school moved to New Wardour Castle near Tisbury in Wiltshire, and extensively renovated the building, which had fallen into a severe state of disrepair.In 1985 there were 130 girls, aged between 11 and 18 years, and 26 teachers at the school. The school eventually closed in July 1990.

Ansty Coombe is a hamlet in Ansty parish, southwest Wiltshire, England. It lies about six miles (10 km) east of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Wardour is a settlement in Wiltshire, England, about 13 miles (21 km) west of Salisbury and 4 miles (6 km) south of Hindon. Formerly a parish in its own right, it is now part of the civil parish of Tisbury.

The Vale of Wardour encompasses the valley of the River Nadder in the county of Wiltshire, England.

Gallows Hill SSSI is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the north side of the Ebble Valley in south Wiltshire, England. Its chalk grassland and scrub contain a number of animal and plant species that are nationally rare. The 27.8 hectares (69 acres) site was notified in 1965.

Ansty is a small village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) east of Shaftesbury. The village is just north of the A30, between Shaftesbury and Salisbury. The parish includes the hamlet of Ansty Coombe.

Tisbury railway station serves the village of Tisbury in Wiltshire, England. It is currently managed by South Western Railway and is on the West of England Main Line, 96 miles 14 chains (154.8 km) down the line from London Waterloo.

Tisbury is a large village and civil parish approximately 13 miles (21 km) west of Salisbury in the English county of Wiltshire. With a population at the 2011 census of 2,253 it is a centre for communities around the upper River Nadder and Vale of Wardour. The parish includes the hamlets of Upper Chicksgrove and Wardour. Tisbury is the largest settlement within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (larger nearby settlements such as Salisbury and Shaftesbury are just outside it).

Donhead St Andrew is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the River Nadder. It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the Dorset market town of Shaftesbury. The parish includes the hamlets of West End, Milkwell and (on the A30) Brook Waters. Ferne House, on the site of a former manor house, is within the parish.

Place Farm is a complex of medieval buildings in the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. They originally formed a grange of Shaftesbury Abbey. The farmhouse, the inner and outer gatehouses and the barn, reputedly the largest in England, are all Grade I listed buildings.