Legends of Clarendon Palace
Set on an isolated hillside, far from any village or public road, the ruins of medieval Clarendon Palace are a romantic and atmospheric sight. Once a palace for medieval kings, who came here to enjoy hunting deer in Clarendon Park, the buildings fell into disuse under the Tudors. By the time Elizabeth I came here on a visit from Wilton in 1574 the buildings had so far deteriorated that her host, the Earl of Pembroke, built a temporary ‘banquett house’ in which to entertain his queen. In 1723 the antiquarian William Stukeley drew what were now only picturesque ruins in this ‘sweet and beautiful place’. Stukeley drew the ruins in an open landscape, but by 1805 John Buckler’s brooding watercolour showed trees and bushes encroaching on the ruins, the wall of the Great Hall partly obscured by ivy. The 1975 edition of Pevsner’s Wiltshire described the ruins as ‘smothered in trees and undergrowth … elder and wild clematis’.
Clarendon Palace today
Such a site must surely have attracted many legends. Yet, if there were, almost none have made it into print. Edith Olivier, sometime mayor of Wilton, recorded in Country Moods and Tenses (1941) that village people said a great chair of solid gold was buried somewhere in the ruins of the palace, but wrote no more about this tale.
In the same volume Olivier retold John Aubrey’s tale of Thomas Becket’s path. Aubrey wrote the story down sometime in the late 17th century; years after his death his notes were published as the Natural History of Wiltshire. According to Aubrey, in the common fields of the parish of Winterbourne, to the north of Salisbury, was a path leading up to Clarendon Park. It was said that, years before he became archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket served as a priest in Winterbourne, and walked this path on his way to say mass in a chapel at Clarendon Park. The path was reputed to be visible even in heavy snow; Aubrey’s servant had seen this phenomenon with his own eyes. Aubrey ascribed no supernatural meaning to this, but speculated that a warm stream ran under the path, causing the snow to melt.
By the time Aubrey was writing, Winterbourne was in fact three parishes – Winterbourne Dauntsey, Winterbourne Earls and Winterbourne Gunner. There is no evidence that Thomas Becket served in the Winterbournes as a parish priest, or anywhere else in the locality. Becket did come to Clarendon Palace in 1164, by which time he was already archbishop of Canterbury, for what became a showdown with Henry II over the respective rights of clergy and monarchy.
Clarendon Palace remains a romantic ruin today, though, as noted by 2021 edition of Pevsner, the trees and undergrowth have been cleared. Some would say it has lost some of its gothic charm as a result, but the clearance and associated maintenance work have assured the stability and survival of the ruins, and the tree felling has opened up the view from the site to Salisbury Cathedral. Although it is not possible to access the site by car, it can be reached by following the Clarendon Way footpath from Salisbury to Winchester.
~Rosalind Johnson - 28 Apr 23