Charlton House, Shrewsbury (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Charlton Hall; Chorlton's Hall

In the civil parish of Shrewsbury.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ488123
Latitude 52.70685° Longitude -2.75625°

Charlton House, Shrewsbury has been described as a probable Fortified Town House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Charlton Hall was the second stone mansion of Shrewsbury. Licence to embattle the hall was granted in 1325. A few fragments of masonry in the rear of the Theatre and the George Hotel are all that remain of the mansion which occupied almost the whole of the area bounded by St. John's Hill, Cross Hill, Swan Hill and Market Street. In a deed of 1470 it was described as "One Great Hall called Chorlton's Hall, one great chamber annexed to the Hall, and one great garden enclosed on either side with stone walls." In 1892 excavations for the Borough Police Offices, Swan Hill, revealed large blocks of red sand-stone, doubtless belonging to Charlton's Hall. (Forrest) At SJ 4902 1245 the footings of one of the walls of the George Hotel are of red sandstone. It is 11.0 m. long and varies in height from 0.8 m. to 1.5 m. At SJ 4900 1242 another portion of sandstone walling is incorporated in the wall of a garage. It is 9.0 m. long and varies in height from 2.0 to c.3.0 m. Both portions have been surveyed though neither could be assessed as part of an early dwelling (Field Investigators Comments–F1 JR 13-OCT-60). (PastScape)

Charlton Hall is cited as one of several high-status buildings in the southern central part of town that were more like large rural manor houses than town houses. Both Charlton Hall, and its neighbour, Vaughan's Mansion had substantial stone walls forming private enclosures around the residential buildings. (Baker et al 1990)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1325 Sept 14 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 68236.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01513.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Discovering Shropshire's History
Books
- Moran, Madge, 2003, Vernacular Buildings of Shropshire (Logaston Press) p. 3, 5, 217-8, 251
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 75
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 476
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 55
  Forrest, H.E.,1911, Old Houses of Shrewsbury p. 35 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 408 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1853, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 2 p. 306 online copy
  Nightingale, J., 1813, Beauties of England and Wales Vol. 13 p. 153
  Owen, H.,1808, Some Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury p. 480-84
Periodical Articles
- Davis, Philip, 2010-11, 'Crenellated town houses in Medieval England' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 24 p. 270-91
  1949-50, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 53 p. 259
  1905, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 5 p. 286
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1904, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1324-27) Vol. 5 p. 178 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Baker, N.J, Buteux, S. and Hughes, E.G.,1990, 17 Market St Shrewsbury - An Archaeological Evaluation, p. 2-4

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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