The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'nook with a trapping spear'. It occurs in more than one place in England (see the Ludgershall disambiguation page). In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Lotegarser.
There was anciently a priory hospital in this village belonging to the priory of Santingfield in Picardy, France, though in the reign of King Henry VI, when all foreign church possessions were seized by the Crown, the hospital was given to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Ludgershall was at one time home to the theologian John Wyclif.