Hopton Castle
Hopton Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Hopton Castle , which about half ways between the towns of Knighton in Wales and Craven Arms in the English county of Shropshire is. In 2010 the ruin was featured in the British television series Time Team . The castle has been in ruins since the early 18th century, but was partially restored in 2006-2011 and reopened as a landmark in December 2011 by the Duke of Gloucester .
Norman castle
Presumably one of the Hoptons, one of the landlords of the Says of Clun Castle , had the castle built in the shape of a wooden moth . It is also likely that Walter de Hopton had a stone castle built there during the Barons' Second War in the 1260s. The courtyard was fortified with a stone curtain wall and an impressive, rectangular, two-story donjon was built in the middle . The last Walter de Hopton died during the Wars of the Roses and the castle fell by marriage to the Corbet family of Moreton Corbet Castle . From this family she fell to Sir Henry Wallop through marriage to Elizabeth Corbet , the daughter of Robert Corbet . He had Hopton Castle fortified as a parliamentary stronghold at the outbreak of the English Civil War , but died before he could take part in the conflict. He left the castle to his son Robert Wallop , the regicide .
Civil war, attack and massacre
During the English Civil War, Hopton Castle was one of the few castles in the west to be held by the Roundheads . In 1644 Sir Michael Woodhouse besieged the castle with a force of about 500 men, which was defended by about 30 roundheads under the command of '' Samuel More ''. More later came to an agreement with the besiegers and surrendered.
According to More's records, all who surrendered except himself were killed and buried. Other sources provide different information about the end of the siege. It says that More delayed the task after a three-week siege until the attackers took the courtyard and the entrance to the donjon was on fire. At this point in time, the garrison is said to have surrendered to Michael Woodhouse , who after the unconditional surrender decided not to pardon the majority of his prisoners , so that they were killed by their overwhelmers.
The castle was still habitable in 1700, but fell into disrepair a little later. Extensive remains of the heavily modified donjon have been preserved.
restoration
Hopton Castle Preservation Trust
In November 2008 the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust, founded in 2006, took over the castle. The Trust raised £ 1 million, half of which from the Heritage Lottery Fund , to help maintain the castle.
Time team
The castle was the subject of an excavation in episode 5 of series 17 of the archeology program Time Team on the British television channel Channel 4 . It was called The Massacre in the Cellar and aired on May 16, 2010.
The remains of the donjon were excavated for three days by the Time Team , clarifying the shape of the castle and the history of its construction. The keep was captured by the royalists during the English Civil War. No evidence was found for the massacre described above.
Time Team had previously conducted and filmed excavations in High Ercall , another Shropshire Civil War site.
Maintenance and repairs
The preservation and repair of the ruin, funded primarily by the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage , was the culmination of years of campaign and fundraising by the new owner of the ruined castle, the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust . The work was limited to important structural stabilization and the construction of new masonry as well as the conservation of the medieval plaster that has been preserved to this day. During this time, a nifty and possibly unique Aborterker was discovered . Based on evidence discovered in this room, it is believed that a siege breach may have occurred here.
The conservation project team
- Project manager: Rayska Heritage
- Architects: Wheatley Lloyd Architects & John C. Goom
- Civil engineers: Shire Consulting
- Archaeologist: Richard K. Morriss
- Construction work: Conservation Building Services Ltd
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hopton Castle in Shropshire reopened after restoration . BBC Shropshire. December 1, 2011. Accessed June 9, 2016.
- ^ The Family of Corbet, Its Life and Times . Chapter: Augusta Brickdale Corbet . P. 239. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
- ^ Mark Bowden: Hopton Castle, Shropshire in Research News . Issue 3 (2006). English Heritage. ISSN 1750-2446. P. 19.
- ^ A b Time Team: Hopton Castle . Channel 4. May 16, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
- ^ Paul Martin Remfry, Hopton Castle on Anglo-Norman Castles . 1994-2007. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
- ↑ Jeffrey L. Thomas: Hopton Castle Photographs , Welcome to the Castles of Wales . Retrieved June 9, 2016. Quoted from Strongholds and Sanctuaries . Peters & Morgan. Alan Sutton Publishing, UK / US 1993.
- ↑ a b Nick Britten: Hopton Castle, scene of English Civil War battle, saved by campaigners . The Daily Telegraph. November 19, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
- ↑ Times's staff: Villagers raise £ 1m to save castle . The Times. November 19, 2008.
literature
- PM Remfry: Hopton Castle, 1066 to 1282 . ISBN 1-899376-01-1
- Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles . David & Charles, Newton Abbott 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '44.9 " N , 2 ° 55' 54.5" W.