Hopton Castle

 

his formidable ruined keep in the extreme south-west of Shropshire is old enough in foundation, strong enough, and certainly looks grim enough to have played a desperate and perilous part in the history of Norman relations with Wales at least from the time of Henry II and possibly earlier. Close neighbor to the Welsh of Powys, it must have seen sporadic raiding in its time, yet recorded history has passed it by until the Civil War, when it was garrisoned for Parliament, besieged by the Royalist forces for three weeks, and refused an offer of honorable quarter in return for surrender, preferring to fight to the last man. Every man of the garrison was killed and the castle slighted and abandoned. Several Shropshire castles suffered similar treatment, for the county was fairly evenly divided between Royalist and Cromwellians; but these wounds were no part of the inevitable racial collisions of the Marches, but Englishmen tearing Englishmen. Strongholds and Sanctuaries, Peters & Morgan, Alan Sutton Publishing, UK/US, 1993

 

Additional photographs of Hopton Castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

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