Much Wenlock Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castel Wenlock

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ62380004
Latitude 52.59689° Longitude -2.55676°

Much Wenlock Castle has been described as a Fortified Ecclesiastical site although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Uncertain.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Comments

The reference in William of Worcetre's Itinerary is in a list of distances ("From Bridgnorth to Wenlock Castle 5 miles") and, in this context, may well be a transcribing error.
The surviving , "C13. Stone rubble. One of the entrance-gate towers of the priory, a tall rectangular plain structure." (Listed Building Report) has a martial quality and the gatehouse complex of which it is the surviving part may well have been the court house and estate offices for the temporal holdings of the priory. This building had a similar form and identical function to most castles. There were certainly no other landowners who could have had a castle here and the town, whilst effectively an independent borough by the C13, was in church hands until the reformation.
The gatehouse of the priory was described as 'fortified' in 1845 but the priory is not generally described as fortified.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1367552
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1391562; 72146 (Priory Tower).
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00322 (Priory Tower).

Books
- Currie, C.R.J. (ed), 1998, VCH Shropshire Vol. 10 p. 399- (tenurial history) online transcription
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 42
Periodical Articles
- Hartshorne, C.H., 1845, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 2 p. 87 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Harvey, J.H. (ed), 1969, Itineraries (of) William Worcestre (Clarendon Press) p. 331

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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.
Help is acknowledged.

*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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