Broncroft Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Braincroft; Bramcroft; Bromcroft; Brancroft

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO54478676
Latitude 52.47688° Longitude -2.67153°

Broncroft Castle has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Castle, now house. Mid C19, to C14 core. Sandstone rubble; plain tile roofs; various ornamental brick and stone stacks. Irregular plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, with various attics, towers and wings; irregular fenestration of cross-windows and lancets with leaded lights; traceried windows to east front. Main entrance to south-west: C19 plank door under pointed arch; tower to right, partly C14. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: rubble wall, approx 2m high, extends for some 30m. (Listed Building Report)

Broncroft Castle; a small castle of pink sandstone, originally Medieval with extensive 19th century renovations. There is evidence of the 14th century work in the tower to the right of the entrance (Listed Building Report; Pevsner 1958).
Rowley lists Broncroft as a site of a Medieval settlement, but its exact location is unknown. (Although said to be possibly obliterated by modern development, Broncroft Castle would appear to be the only building in the locality of Rowley's siting) (Rowley 1966) (PastScape)

The date and character of the fortified house at Broncrort is unclear. The present house, sited in Corvedale beside a stream which runs through the immaculately maintained gardens, is a two-storeyed Victorian residence centred round two square towers. That forward of the entrance is the only medieval element to have survived royalist and parliamentarian occupation in 1642-5, subsequent reparation, and rebuilding during the second quarter of the nineteenth century when Broncroft look on 'the appearance of a farmhouse'. The house was remodelled in 1889-98 when the present free-form Z shape was developed The medieval tower, three-storeyed with 4-foot thick walls, angle buttresses, and projecting stair turret, retains some simple square-headed windows. No early internal features survive in the single rooms, 20 feet by 15.5 feet, on each floor. It is possible that the development of the slightly grander Victorian tower was conditioned by the footings of a similar structure on the same site, but whether they spanned a residential block between them, as at Acton Burnell or the tower-house at Stafford Castle, or whether the tower was a single structure attached to a destroyed hall is conjectural. Leland's note that Brancroft was 'a very goodly place like a castel' suggests the the structure was substantial, even though the site is low lying and with no trace of a moat. (Emery 2000)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1269895
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111231.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 10880.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
Books
- Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 40-1
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 28-9
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 522-3
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 210
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 9
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 434 (possible)
  Pevsner, N., 1958, Buildings of England: Shropshire (London, Penguin) p. 86
  Oman, Charles W.C., 1926, Castles (1978 edn Beetham House: New York) p. 146-7
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 129-30 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1967, 'Masonry castles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 116 p. 71-132
  Rowley, R.T., 1966, Shropshire Archaeological Society newsletter Vol. 30 p. 2-3
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 397
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 15 online copy

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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.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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