Hopton Castle is situated in the village of the same name which lies approximately halfway between Knighton and

Craven Arms Craven Arms is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is sited on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches Line, Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbur ...

, in the English county of

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. Hopton Castle featured in the TV series ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...

'' in 2010. A ruin since the early 18th century, it was partially restored between 2006 and 2011, and was officially re-opened to the public as a visitor attraction in December 2011 by the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester ( ) is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...

Norman castle

The castle may have been founded in the 12th century as a

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

by one of the Hoptons as a

mesne lord A mesne lord () was a lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Owing to ''Quia Emptores'', the concept of a mesne lordship technically still exists today: the partitionin ...

of the Says of

Clun Castle Clun Castle is a medieval ruined castle in Clun, Shropshire, England. Clun Castle was established by the Norman lord Robert de Say after the Norman invasion of England and went on to become an important Marcher lord castle in the 12th century, ...

. Walter de Hopton possibly built the stone

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

during the Barons' War of the 1260s. The bailey was fortified in stone and a rectangular two-storey

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

was built. The last Walter Hopton died during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

and the castle passed by marriage to the Corbet family of Moreton Corbet castle. From them it passed to

Henry Wallop (died 1642) Sir Henry Wallop (18 October 1568 – 14 November 1642) of Farleigh House, Hampshire was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1597 and 1642. Wallop was the eldest son of Sir Henry Wallop of Farleigh Wall ...

when he married Elizabeth Corbet, daughter of Robert Corbet. He fortified it as a parliamentary stronghold at the outbreak of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

but died before he could take part in the conflict, leaving it to his son, Robert Wallop, the regicide.

Civil War siege, assault and massacre

During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

Hopton Castle was one of the few castles to be held for the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in the west. In 1644 Sir Michael Woodhouse, with a force of about 500, laid

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

to the castle which was defended by about thirty Roundheads under the command of Samuel More. More eventually agreed terms and surrendered. There are varying versions of what happened next. According to More's account all those who surrendered, apart from himself, were killed and buried. Other accounts vary on how the siege ended. They state that after a three-week siege, More delayed surrendering until the bailey had been taken and the entrance to the keep was on fire, at which point the garrison surrendered to Sir Michael Woodhouse, who at his discretion (his prerogative under the laws of war as they were practised at that time), decided not to grant the majority of his prisoners quarter and they were killed by their captors. The castle was still habitable in 1700, but fell into disrepair soon afterwards. Substantial remnants of the much altered keep remain.

Restoration

Hopton Castle Preservation Trust

In November 2008 the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust (founded in 2006) took ownership of the castle. The trust recently raised one million pounds, half of which was a grant from the National Lottery to fund conservation work and secure a future for the site. (See conservation and repair).

''Time Team''

The castle was the subject of a ''

'' excavation and episode, appearing in series 17 of the long-running

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

television programme, as episode 6 ("The Massacre in the Cellar") of that series, and broadcast on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

on 16 May 2010. The remaining castle keep was excavated over three days by ''Time Team'', clarifying the shape of the castle and the history of its construction. The keep had been captured by the Royalists during the

. No evidence of a massacre was found. ''Time Team'' had previously excavated and filmed at High Ercall, another Civil War site in Shropshire.

Conservation and repair

The conservation and repair of the ruin, funded principally by The

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

was the culmination of many years of campaigning and fund raising on the part of the new owners, The Hopton Castle Preservation Trust. The works entailed significant structural stabilisation and rebuilding of the masonry and conservation of surviving medieval plaster. During this time a sophisticated and possibly unique garderobe chamber was revealed. As a result of evidence discovered within this chamber it is now believed that a siege breach may have taken place here.

The Conservation Project Team

* Project Manager: Rayska Heritage * Architects: Wheatley lloyd Architects & John C Goom * Engineers: Shire Consulting * Archeologist: Richard K Morriss * Contractor: Conservation Building Services Ltd

Notes and references

External links

Hopton Castle Preservation Trust
* http://www.cbsconservation.co.uk/ {{coord, 52.3958, -2.9318, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Castles in Shropshire Ruins in Shropshire Grade I listed buildings in Shropshire Tourist attractions in Shropshire Massacres during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1644 murders Massacres in the 1640s