Shifnal Castle Farm (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castell Blythbury; Eveleyghe Castell; Castell Evelith

In the civil parish of St Georges and Priorslee.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ72440951
Latitude 52.68256° Longitude -2.40919°

Shifnal Castle Farm has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Farmhouse occupying a moated site. Castell Blythbury is/was a place-name in the vicinity and Castlefield (SJ711060) and Castlemeadow were fieldnames in C19 possibly representing the Eveleyghe Castell/Castell Evelith place-names mentioned in 1584-5. (Jackson 1988)

A cropmark of probable Iron Age/Romano British double-ditched curvilinear enclosure revealed by air photos. The monument was partially excavated in 1980 revealing that one ditch was later in date - probably Roman or possibly? Medieval drainage. The enclosure was unfinished and largely unoccupied. (PastScape)

Excavation in advance of the construction of a reservoir suggested a C17 date for the construction of this pond feature. However, the lack of medieval residual material during excavation is to be expected if the moat had been frequently cleared out and the C17 material would merely reflect the date of its abandonment. In addition the pond appears to have formerly been rectangular as there is a suggestion of four corners of such a feature on the Tithe Award Map-again suggesting a moated site. Furthermore, C13 references to The Castle, Shifnal ie Castle Farm seems to contradict the conclusion from excavation that the site was abandoned at this time. The site is now destroyed. (Shrop SMR report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006274, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wk207
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 73734.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 02915.

Books
- Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 69 (reject)
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 404
  Eyton, R.W.,1855, Antiquities of Shropshire (London) Vol. 2 p. 318-319 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Watson, M.D., 1987, 'Gazetteer of Moated Sites in Shropshire' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 65 p. 6
  1980, West Midlands Archaeology Vol. 23 p. 40-51
  1903, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 3 p. 304-5, 309

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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