Low, half-lost earthworks near Crondall, all that survives of a siege castle raised in the wars of the 1140s
Access unclearno public right of way confirmed — check locally before setting out
Earthworks onlybanks, ditches and platforms — read the ground, not walls
Powderham Castle was never a great fortress. It was a siegework — an earth-and-timber camp thrown up in about 1147, during the Anarchy, the long civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, to press an attack on a neighbouring stronghold at Barley Pod. It was meant to last only as long as the siege, and no stone was ever raised.
What survives is a low, much-obscured earthwork in farmland near Crondall, in the far north-east corner of Hampshire — the grassed-over banks and ditch of the enclosure, faint on the ground and easy to walk past. It is a scheduled monument, protected for the record rather than as a place to visit; there is no masonry, no tower, only the shape of the ground where the besiegers once dug in.
It should not be confused with the other, far grander Powderham Castle in Devon, the occupied seat of the Earls of Devon.
More at the National Heritage List entry
